Training Manual Layout Question Take 2

[Brenda Ruetschi <Bruetschi -at- ALPHA88 -dot- COM>]

Hi again-
        Judging by the responses I've gotten so far, I wasn't very clear in
my post asking for opinions on page layout in application manuals. So, to
clear things up:
*               The manuals will be used by students and instructors.
Instructors will probably write their notes et cetera in their manuals, but
the material provided by technical communication (that's me) will be the
same.
*               The manuals be used by students as either: reinforcement
material for lecture/demonstration sessions, or courseware for
instructor-led classes (different content, same layout?)
*               The Notes section to which I refer is a blank space, or gray
box, or something along those lines, in which students will be taking notes
(or playing hangman depending on the instructor).
*               I am asking the list and not co-workers or client because my
co-workers' opinions are divided, and our concern is with ease of use for
students in general, not client-specific.
*               Any information/opinion is welcome, this includes: "a
specific notes section is unnecessary, just have sufficient white space in
your layout" and "a notes section is a given, and it should be formatted
thusly to keep the page from looking to busy", etc.

The original question:

        How do you all feel about a static notes section at the bottom of
the page in 8.5 x 11 documents? For a more visual explanation see example
below.

Ex:
        ------------------------------------------------
        |       content content                 |
        |  content content content      |
        |  content content content      |
        |  content content content      |
        |  content content content      |
        |  content content content      |
        |  content content content      |
        |  content content content      |
        |  content content content      |
        |  ________________________     |
        |  NOTES                        |
        |                               |
        |                               |
        ------------------------------------------------


Brenda Ruetschi
Alpha Technologies, Inc.
(732) 980-1288 ext. 746