Re: What's a widow?

["Susan W. Gallagher" <sgallagher -at- EXPERSOFT -dot- COM>]

Eileen Foran wrote:
>I am editing a techincal document (a user's guide) and have found a
>noble but unsuccessful attempt by the writer to avoid all widows
>(short lines, often just one word, at the end of a paragraph).

>I mentioned to this writer that although widows consisting of one word
>are generally forbidden, if a word has four syllables or more
>(installation, application, etc.), it can "legally" stay on a line by
>itself.
[snip]

Never heard this rule. Always thought a widow was a single line of
a paragraph stranded at the top (or is it bottom) of a page. It'll
be interesting to see if anyone finds a reference to it.

>P.S. Is it correct, in any situation, to say "associated to" (as
>opposed to "associated with")? The above-mentioned user's guide is
>riddled with "associated to," and I just can't see the reasoning
>behind it. (Example: "Click on the blah blah blah to see the document
>associated to the file.")

Umm... I don't think so.

In a round about way, I could see where it'd be logical in certain
circumstances. For example, in Windows File Manager, it's an
Association that determines which application opens when you double-
click a file. So you could logically assert that a file with a .doc
extension is associated *to* MS Word. But if I were editing it, I'd
call it an awkward construction and suggest a write-around.

(with the number of posts I've made today, has anyone guessed that
I'm supposed to be indexing???  ;-)  )

Sue Gallagher
sgallagher -at- expersoft -dot- com
     -- The _Guide_ is definitive.
        Reality is frequently inaccurate.

     Searchable archives located at http://www.documentation.com/
           ALL questions or problems concerning the list
      should go to the listowner, Eric Ray at ejray -at- ionet -dot- net -dot-