TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
I picked up the same habit at a company I worked when I first started
this career. Now that I'm a department of one, style guides be damned!
I'm a visual person and it seems to draw attention to the
cross-reference. If you only use init caps, (or in my case, where
procedures are first word cap only ["To view a report"]) it just seems
like you lost your train of thought in a sentence.)
Sincerely,
In the same boat
Robert J. Landry
Senior Documentation Specialist
Rapt Inc.
phone: 415-932-2687
email: robert -dot- landry -at- rapt -dot- com
-----Original Message-----
From: techwr-l-bounces+robert -dot- landry=rapt -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
[mailto:techwr-l-bounces+robert -dot- landry=rapt -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com] On
Behalf Of Joe Malin
Sent: Friday, July 21, 2006 10:53 AM
To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Subject: Quote marks, cross-references, multiple presentation forms
Hi!
As I finally get all my books finished off, I have run into style
questions for which I'd like to get advice:
1. Somewhere I picked up the habit of putting section names in
double quotes when I make a cross-reference to them. For example, if I
refer to another section in the same chapter, I say
... please see the section "More Stuff" on page 12.
I can't find a citation in Chicago that supports this. Does
anyone have a citation? Am I just making this up?
2. I publish my books to PDF, which means that you can read them
online or print them. For online use, all my cross-references are
hypertext links, but I also put the page number next to them for print
readers. Does this make sense? If I *do* use double quotes around a
section cross-reference, should they be marked distinctively with the
hypertext formatting (blue color, underlining)? Should the page number
be part of the link?
3. If I use distinctive treatment for cross-reference hypertext
links, should I use the same treatment for page numbers in the TOC and
Index? Those are also hypertext links.
4. How should I handle cross-references between chapters and books?
For example, I sometimes have to write
"To learn more about this feature, you can read <blah>" where
<blah> is a section in another chapter or book. I have been writing
<blah> as
in chapter <x> "<title of x>" the section "<section name>" on
page <pagenumber>.
Does that make sense? How much of the cross-reference text
should I include in the hyperlink text?
If you need this re-formatted for clarity, please ask!
Joe
TuVox, Inc.
19050 Pruneridge Avenue Suite 150, Cupertino, CA 95014-0715
Joe Malin
Technical Writer
(408)625.1623
jmalin -at- tuvox -dot- com
www.tuvox.com <http://www.tuvox.com/>
The views expressed in this document are those of the sender, and do not
necessarily reflect those of TuVox, Inc.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
WebWorks ePublisher Pro for Word features support for every major Help
format plus PDF, HTML and more. Flexible, precise, and efficient content
WebWorks ePublisher Pro for Word features support for every major Help
format plus PDF, HTML and more. Flexible, precise, and efficient content
delivery. Try it today!. http://www.webworks.com/techwr-l
