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Another burning issue at my company is which kind of headings are in vogue
right now? (My take on it, more navigable?) Numbered 2.3.5 with indented
text that makes page narrow, or non-numbered which guides through font size
and placement of headings. Add more than four levels, and you don't know
which is which unless you resort to run-in-heads. Would you contact me
either on-list or off-list with your feedback?
I always felt the gerunds (mnemonic: g at the end) such as opening,
connecting gave an illusion of action. "How to open"... construct is wordy
and takes more real estate. However, these can be easily ported into FAQs.
You can go one step further and present them in Google-like "I am feeling
lucky":
Heading: I want default setup
Steps.
Heading: I want custom setup
Steps.
Heading 2: I am an administrator
Separate instructions
Too wild? This will be like the knowledge base customers encounter on the
Web site where they type in questions in human language and get intelligent
(better than live support sometimes) answers. Different questions with the
same answers can be combined under one question (heading) and a complex
heading with multiple answers/options can be broken up into answers such as:
Option A, Option B,... I did this in the Primus KB for a major company. The
result was: support cost was cut in half.
But tell me please, numbered or unnumbered? What is preferred?
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