landscape pages in a portrait book (DOH!)

[Rene Stephenson]

Hi All,
   
  Not too long ago, there was some discussion about having a landscape page in a book of otherwise portrait pages. The concensus seemed to be that although it can be done by inserting a separate file for the landscape pages and adjusting the page numbering settings accordingly, it doesn't fit good usability models. My gut tells me it's a proverbial Pandora's box.
   
  Well, now we've got the same issue: someone says a secondary audience (internal) for the doc in question want to see all the alarm info in one big landscape table, rather than chunked in ways that facilitate presenting on a portrait page. Our primary audience is external customers. And the "someone" is a Word user who likes to "cowboy" the formatting, regardless of what's in the templates. So, before I spend the time to develop a landscape template and train the writers on when it's OK to use it and how to make it function, could someone please tell me where I could find some sound usability studies that weigh in on either side of this issue?

   
  Thanks,
  Rene Stephenson


Rene L. Stephenson
eNovative Solutions, Inc.
Business Phone: 678-513-0051
Email: rinnie1 at yahoo.com