Newsletter

Issue 36, 13 May 2000

ISSN 1442-8652

Editor: Jean Hollis Weber
jean@jeanweber.com
http://www.jeanweber.com

In this issue...

Feature article: Editing a table of contents (Part 1)
What do technical editors do?
A collection of resources
   The Editorium
   Grammar websites
   Medical dictionary for Microsoft Word, WordPerfect, others
   The Editors Forum
Contributors wanted
Advertisement: Electronic editing book
Advertising policy
Subscription information

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Feature article: Editing a table of contents (Part 1)

By examining a document's table of contents, you can learn a lot about its structure and possible problems.

Some questions relevant to reports, proposals, user guides, and many non-fiction books are:

• Is the flow of information logical from the reader's point of view?
• Is information duplicated or missing?
• Is the table of contents too detailed (contains too many heading levels) or not detailed enough (contains too few heading levels)?
• Will the table of contents help readers find the information they want in the document?

Chapter titles and headings

Chapter titles and headings are road signs for readers, because they:

• Show divisions of the document at a glance
• Emphasise important ideas

Some questions to ask yourself about the headings (while still looking at the table of contents):

Are the headings:

• Informative?
• The right level for the importance of the topic?
• Parallel?
• Too long or too short?
• Do any headings skip a level?
• Are the levels of subheadings complicated? (Perhaps the document structure could be simplified.)

After examining the table of contents, do you think the author needs to:

• Rearrange the structure of the document?
• Reword any headings?

Heading levels

Chapter titles are often called "level 1" headings. If the document has no chapters, the main subdivisions are the level 1 headings. (Sometimes level 1 headings are called Parts; if each Part has chapters, they become level 2 headings.)

Subdivisions of a section between one level 1 heading and the next are "level 2" headings. Subdivisions of a level 2 section are "level 3" headings, and so on.

The document designer or author decides how many heading levels should go into the table of contents. As an editor, you should consider whether the number of heading levels is appropriate. Two levels are commonly included; some documents go to three or even more levels.

Look particularly for silly repetitions, as in the sample below. In this case, the repeated headings are fine within the body of the chapter, but serve little or no purpose in the table of contents, particularly since the level-3 headings are all on the same page as the related level-2 heading.

Chapter 4. Customer Support.........................14
   Overview.........................................14
   How to Perform a Customer Search.................15
      How to........................................15
      What happens now?.............................15
      Related topics................................15
   How to View a Customer's Registration History....16
      How to........................................16
      What happens now?.............................16
      Related topics................................16
   How to View Enrolment Details....................17
      How to........................................17
      What happens now?.............................17
      Related topics................................17
   How to Change a User's Enrolment Details.........18
      How to........................................18
      What happens now?.............................18
      Related topics................................18
   How to View Customer Details.....................19
      How to........................................19
      What happens now?.............................19
      Related topics................................19

Continued next week....

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What do technical editors do?

Moved to http://www.jeanweber.com/about/responsi.htm.

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A collection of resources

1. The Editorium

   The Editorium provides Microsoft Word add-in programs for editors, writers, typesetters, and other publishing professionals. You can download their programs and find other resources at their Web site:

   http://www.editorium.com

   They publish a weekly newsletter, Editorium Update, with useful and interesting tips and discussions about editorial issues and Microsoft Word. To subscribe, send a blank email message to: editorium-subscribe@topica.com
    

2. Grammar sites

   This section has been moved to http://www.jeanweber.com/links/grammar.htm.
    

3. Medical dictionary for Microsoft Word

   Various people on discussion lists have recommended this CD.

   Stedman's Electronic Medical Dictionary Version 5.0, Single User CD-ROM for Windows and Macintosh from Lippincott Williams & Wilkins (http://www.lww.com). ISBN 0781726328.

   "Contains 102,000+ medical words and over 1,000 images directly from Stedman's Medical Dictionary, Twenty-Seventh Edition, complete with definitions, audio pronunciations, etymologies, and hyphenations. It is the only electronic medical dictionary to date with easy access from the Tools Menu of major Windows word processing programs (yet it's word processor independent). 3-way Search Capabilities: by wildcard, definition or headword."

   Note: You'll need to search for this item. If the ISBN search doesn't work (it should), try "Stedman" in the keyword search field and scroll through the list of results.
    

4. The Editors Forum

   This group's Freelance Editing FAQ says, "The Editors Forum is an on-line group dedicated to discussion of publishing, editors, editorial issues, and writer-editor relations and communications.

   "Our membership includes writers, editors, indexers, translators, illustrators, text processors, and researchers. All publishing industry professionals (and anyone else who is interested) are encouraged to join. There's a monthly electronic newsletter, and we meet online for chats, often with guest speakers. You don't have to be a member of the EF to attend chats, and you don't have to be an editor to join the EF.

   "The member-written Editors Forum Newsletter is filled with entertaining and informative goodies, like articles, announcements, contests, and surveys. Subject matter sprawls all over the place, from humorous letters to the editor to articles on how to make your manuscript submission stand out; from announcements of editing- and publishing-related job opportunities to serious discussion of the future of the publishing industry.

   "Membership in the EF is free. If you'd like to be added to the mailing list, please send e-mail to KAT91@aol.com."

   The Editors Forum Freelance Editing FAQ is at http://members.aol.com/Kat91/fefaq.html

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Contributors wanted

I'm looking for people to contribute some articles, or tips, or short notes about almost anything related to editing, to this newsletter. If you have something relevant to share, please send it to me! I'm sure the readers would appreciate some contributions about different working styles, materials and clients.

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Advertisement: Electronic editing book

Electronic editing: Editing in the computer age
by Jean Hollis Weber
Published by WeberWoman's Wrevenge
248 pages
ISBN 0646380370

A quick start guide for editing students, experienced editors making the switch from paper to online, and anyone who needs to write or edit electronically.

Available in both downloadable electronic (PDF) and printed forms. For details on ordering a copy, see
http://www.jeanweber.com/books/e-edit.htm#order

or send e-mail to e-edit@jeanweber.com

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Advertising policy

If you have a product or service of interest to editors, I'll be happy to consider including a short advertisement, for a modest fee. Contact me for details.

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© Copyright 2000, Jean Hollis Weber. All rights reserved.

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