Re: page numbering in software docs

[Deborah Snavely <dsnavely@xxxxxxxxxxx>]

Ana asked about consecutive numbering vs. compound numbering.

In the dim and misty past, and probably still today, any reference documents
in the worlds of government, military, law, and science use the compound
number approach to provide updated technical information (military
regulations, laws, SEC rulings, etc, etc, ad nauseum) without having to
re-print and ship 600 or 1500 or 2300 pages (times 89 or 2,000, or 70,000
customers or sites). Much cheaper for California to print and mail "change
pages" updating the California Corporations Code to all the law offices and
law libraries in the state! 

Compound pagination solved deadline editorial headaches in technical
communication circles during the early years of desktop publishing. The
limitations of early WP equipment and software (whether mag card, dedicated
system, CP/M, or Mac or IBM-clone) intersected with the same last-minute
deadline crunching and week-before-release product name or feature changes
that we deal with daily to DEMAND a publishing method in which you could
update one chapter without altering the whole book. Similar reasons drove
choices of ring-binder assembly (which can be altered even after deadline).
Tabs (printed or standard insert into plastic tab-holder) solved the chapter
break issues, and there you were. 

Now that technology (and FrameMaker!) have made it possible for such changes
to be executed in minutes instead of weeks...technology points us back
towards consecutive page numbers.  In my experience, Acrobat PDF documents
drive this effect...Acrobat gives you sequential page numbers starting from
your title page whether or not you want it. (I hear that Acro 4 has other
options, but I haven't been able to use it much yet because it overwrites
Acro 3 which must remain on my machine until after my next release
deadline...never change production methods in mid-release.)  So folks
delivering PDF are starting to make their Frame page numbers MATCH the
Acrobat page numbers. 

At least that's one factor...doubtless there are a zillion others.

Deborah Snavely, Senior Technical Writer, Aurigin Systems, Inc.

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