I prefer A every time, but that may be because I have been accustomed to sending out additional looseleaf chapters as software modules have been developed. I have also worked where looseleaf pages are printed from the change onwards for chapters, thus potentially changing the page numbers for sections and subsections within a chapter. Using method A allows for a TOC to be generated and replaced according to the modules purchased. Suzanne > This may not help your argument and you're probably > already aware of it, but the AGPS Style manual opts for A: > "It is conventional to number the preliminary pages of a > book with lower-case roman numerals. This practice allows > extra material to be added before printing without having > to change the page numbering of the main text. For > aesthetic reasons, the roman page numbers are not printed > on some of the preliminary pages." > > My gut reaction is to be scared of moving away from > convention, but now that you've made me question it I > can't see why we shouldn't do B instead. Especially if > you have control over what you are printing and are > unlikely to insert extra front matter. > > It could be a bold new move in publishing Bob - go where > no man has gone before! > > The only argument I could think of for A was that people > expect to see it and your materials might be seen as less > professional if they don't conform to convention? As > always, it depends on your audience. If they don't read a > lot of books they may not care one way or another. > > _____ > > From: austechwriter-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx > [mailto:austechwriter-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx] On Behalf Of > Bob Trussler Sent: Thursday, 23 November 2006 9:48 AM > To: austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx > Subject: atw: page numbering - which style to use > > > There is a debate raging in my tech writer team about what > numbering style we should use in our documents. We are > developing new standards. > > We currently have two choices, shown below. Does anyone > have support for the modern way of using Arabic numbering > throughout? I reckon that Roman for front matter followed > by Arabic for the content comes from the olden days of > hand publishing when the content was assembled THEN the > Table of Contents was assembled later, so why do we need > to maintain this style? > > (A) Keep the front matter separate from main content: > > - Front matter uses lower-case Roman with the Title page > and Copyright unnumbered > > - Rest of the doc in sequential Arabic, starting at 1. > > (B) Number the whole doc in sequential Arabic: > > - Whole doc including the front matter in sequential > Arabic. Numbering begins at 1 on the title page > > - Title page and Copyright with no number displayed. > > > > Thanks in advance. > > Bob Trussler > > ************************************************** To post a message to austechwriter, send the message to austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx To subscribe to austechwriter, send a message to austechwriter-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with "subscribe" in the Subject field. To unsubscribe, send a message to austechwriter-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with "unsubscribe" in the Subject field. To search the austechwriter archives, go to www.freelists.org/archives/austechwriter To contact the list administrator, send a message to austechwriter-admins@xxxxxxxxxxxxx **************************************************