Re: Footnotes - acceptable in technical documentation?

Subject: Re: Footnotes - acceptable in technical documentation?
From: Alec Chakenov <alec -dot- chakenov -at- gmail -dot- com>
To: TECHWR-L Writing <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Date: Sat, 9 Nov 2013 00:09:58 +0600

My opinion is that footnotes should not be used, they do distract users.


2013/11/8 Scott Bulloch <scott -dot- bulloch -at- gmail -dot- com>

> At my company, we don't use footnotes in regular instructional text. Our
> practice for stuff like that is to indent a note icon (like a light bulb
> for tips or a yield sign for cautions) and a paragraph or so of text.
>
> As far as tables go, I have seen table footnotes, but lately, the practice
> has been more toward putting such information in a Comments cell in the
> row.
>
>
> On Fri, Nov 8, 2013 at 9:10 AM, Robert Lauriston <robert -at- lauriston -dot- com
> >wrote:
>
> > Looking at the MS Manual of Style 4, there are a few references to
> > table footnotes, no mention of regular footnotes.
> >
> > There's also one reference that seems to presume the writer is using
> > Word to edit WinHelp source: "Also, cross-references (See and See
> > also) are limited to normal keywords that jump directly to the topic
> > that contains the K (keyword) footnote with that keyword."
> >
> >
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References:
Footnotes - acceptable in technical documentation?: From: Bruce Megan (ST-CO/MKP3)
Re: Footnotes - acceptable in technical documentation?: From: Robert Lauriston
RE: Footnotes - acceptable in technical documentation?: From: Brian.Henderson
Re: Footnotes - acceptable in technical documentation?: From: Robert Lauriston
Re: Footnotes - acceptable in technical documentation?: From: Scott Bulloch

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