RE: Chapter-page numbering, reasons for

["Pinkham, Jim" <Jim -dot- Pinkham -at- voith -dot- com>]

Umm, I can attest to hot lead in the early '80s. The newspaper where I
cut my rookie teeth was recently converted to cold, but 25 miles down
the road the Bethel Citizen was one of the last in our parts to make the
move. Of course, the Bryant Pond Telephone Co. finally dropped the
magnetos during my tenure with the paper, too :) 

-----Original Message-----
From: Al Geist [mailto:al -dot- geist -at- geistassociates -dot- com] 
Sent: Thursday, December 03, 2009 11:31 AM
To: Pinkham, Jim; 'Leonard C. Porrello'; 'Robert Lauriston';
techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Subject: RE: Chapter-page numbering, reasons for

I'm on the fence for including or not including chapter numbers with
page numbers. Many of my "customers" insist on them as they feel it
makes it easier to locate specific information or procedures in the
printed documents. My manuals are combined hardware/software user guides
and service manuals. Although they are placed on the system hard drives
(as PDFs with hyperlinks), many customers also insist on shipping
printed copies (on clean room paper) with the system...not sure why,
unless they have a lot of desks with one short leg.

I've also had a software customer (mid-20s) insist on including page
numbers so she could quickly find information in the PDF file. (That one
threw me because the PDF had internal links between subject headings and
content and hyperlinks in the content to supporting material or
figures.)

So, whether you like chapter numbers included with page numbers or not,
it's what your customer wants. Many of them don't have a clue except
what they're familiar with. If any spent time in the military, they
became familiar with chapter number-page number.

As a side note, the machine that created lead plates for printing was a
Linotype and it did not make the lead plates as your grandfather typed.
It created lines (Lin-o-type)of steel letter castings. Each line (or
slug) was stabilized and followed by another line, or an etched plate
for pictures.
Full pages were galleys, which were then used to make the lead plates.
The galleys were broken down after the lead castings were made and the
letter castings placed back in hoppers for the next print job. The lead
plates were melted down for reuse after the print run was complete.
(Four-color printing was a tedious task back then trying to keep
everything in registration.) The practice was common for many smaller
newspapers until the late 1970s. The old cut-and-wax layout days
followed until PageMaker hit the scene. In 1983, when I co-founded
Mushing magazine in Fairbanks, we had to start the wood stove and heat
the offices in Ester (AK) before working on the magazine because the wax
was so brittle (30+ below nothing inside). If you didn't, the layout
would simple slide off the page. You youngsters have it easy today..... 

I SAID YOU YOUNGSTERS HAVE IT EASY TODAY....  

Al Geist
Technical Communicator, Help, Web Design, Video, Photography
Office/Msg: 802-872-9190
Cell: 802-578-3964
E-mail: al -dot- geist -at- geistassociates -dot- com
Website: www.geistassociates.com
See Also:
Fine Art Photography
Website: www.geistarts.com
 
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