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Subject:Re: Measurements: Fraction, Decimals, or Both From:"Sweet, Gregory P (HEALTH)" <gregory -dot- sweet -at- health -dot- ny -dot- gov> To:tech2wr-l <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com> Date:Fri, 7 Oct 2016 15:35:04 +0000
How do you intend the nontechnical customer to use the information? Iâll assume it so that the nontechnical consumer might check to see if the home-product might fit into the space they are thinking about putting it in, or to get a rough idea of how much space the home-product will take up when put in the place the nontechnical consumer is considering, e.g., how far will this thing stick out into the hallway?
As such you will need to provide fractions, as the typical tape measure, yard stick, and other available rulers in the non-technical tool set will be mark in U.S. Standard. At least for US customers anyway.
Cheers!
Greg
On 10/7/16, 4:01 AM, "techwr-l-bounces+gregory -dot- sweet=health -dot- ny -dot- gov -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com on behalf of wondersofone -at- gmail -dot- com" <techwr-l-bounces+gregory -dot- sweet=health -dot- ny -dot- gov -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com on behalf of wondersofone -at- gmail -dot- com> wrote:
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I can't make a decision. This is the first time I'm working heavily with
measurements. I'm writing home-product descriptions for nontechnical
customers. The descriptions will include measurements that I get from
multiple manufacturers. Each manufacturer writes it either in fractions or
decimals. My options are to just reflect how they write it or to pick one
method and do conversions to adhere to that one method I choose (convert
the fraction to decimal or vice versa). Pricision is not an issue.
Though, I am leaning towards using only decimals since I can't use
superscripting and subscripting to format fractions. So I could get
measurements like 5 1/4' x 11 3/4' x 1 1/8' that might annoy customers
because the numbers could seem to run into each other making it more
difficult to read.
I've also considered using hyphens between the mixed numbers, but am not
sure if that might cause other confusion when reading. E.g., 5-1/4' x
11-3/4' x 1-1/8'.
These types of measurements could appear in bulleted lists or in
narratives.
Anyone have an opinion one way or another? Or know of any "industry"
standards, unspoken rules, or no-nos about converting someone's
measurements?
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