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Subject:Re: Style Guides: Where to begin? From:Janice Gelb <janiceg -at- marvin -dot- eng -dot- sun -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Thu, 19 Jul 2001 15:52:27 -0700 (PDT)
In article AE06DF0EBC1AD511B9260008C7E61BAB450986 -at- otdx03 -dot- orgtek -dot- com, JBalchunas -at- orgtek -dot- com ("Balchunas, John") writes:
>
>Does anybody have any good resources (web sites, books, sample
> style guides, etc...) regarding style guides? Some of the
> questions I'm hoping to answer include:
>
> * Generally speaking, how large of a document are style guides?
>
> * What is the scope? What topics need to be addressed in order=20
> for a style guide to properly function?
>
> * What Frame specific information needs to be included? I would=20
> assume I'd want to address the paragraph/character tags, master
> pages, etc.., but should I address any plug-ins we use, any=20
> tricks we've found, resources we use such as listservs, etc..?
>
At our company, we chose to separate out tools information
(how to use the FrameMaker templates, what all the paragraph/
character styles were and how they should be used, dealing with
tables and indexes, and so on) from the writing style guide,
which addressed use of language, how to write heads and lists,
legal guidelines, writing procedures, and the like.
The FrameMaker guide (called *ahem* "Frame of Reference")
ran about 200 pages. Our writing style guide is about 250.
I just got back from a conference at which I gave a talk on
developing company style guides, but it dealt mainly with
the "writing style" type of style guide. I have those handouts
available if you'd like a PDF copy.
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