general publication quiestion

[Combs, Richard]

Daniel Emory wrote: 
 
> --- Charles Beck <Charles.Beck at infor.com> wrote:
> > Maybe I'm missing something, and then again, maybe I'm not. 
> I too have 
> > always considered it a strange paradox when I see the words 
> "This page 
> > intentionally left blank." But there is no need to use it.
> ==========================================
> Mis-printed technical documentation has real-world 
> consequences. A printer device can misfeed two or more sheets 
> at once, inserting completely blank double-sided sheets, or, 
> even worse, it may print one side properly, but mis-feed two 
> or more sheets at once on the second pass to produce the 
> backside pages, which results in an incorrect blank backside 
> for one or more pages.
<snip> 
> How, then, do you prevent such consequences. There's only one 
> way, and that is for users to be trained that any completely 
> blank page or page side constitutes an error that must be 
> corrected. Consequently, every single page must have text. 
> The logical solution for an intentionally blank page is to 
> place the statement "THIS PAGE INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK" in 
> the center (not the edges, which may be incorrectly trimmed or
> mis-printed) of the page.

All this concern over "completely blank" pages strikes me as odd. But
then, I read Charles Beck's explanation of *why* there's no need -- the
part about *headers* and *footers* that's conveniently snipped above. 

And "only one way"? This is beginning to sound more like a religion than
techwriting advice. 

In the past, I've used a level-1 heading that reads "Notes" at the top
of the extra page (below the header's ruling line) -- does that lack the
rigorous user training component that the statement "THIS PAGE
INTENTIONALLY LEFT BLANK" seems to possess? 

What about this "in the center" bit? Does it have to be horizontally
centered too, or can it align left in the text column? For that matter,
if you have wider inside than outside margins, should it be centered on
the page or in the column? 

For those of us who like the golden ratio, would it be beyond the pale
to place the statement 1.62 times as far from the bottom of the page as
from the top? I think that would be more aesthetically pleasing, FWIW,
but I admit I've done no research of the effect on user training. 

And since I brought it up, there's this from will white: 

> Isn't there also a matter of aethetics? An empty chapter end 
> page consisting only on a header and a footer is, in my 
> estimation, an eyesore and an embarrassment.

Glory be. I never thought I'd see the day when "THIS PAGE INTENTIONALLY
LEFT BLANK" was defended for aesthetic reasons. And by someone who
eschews the elegance of the capital W, no less. 

Just warming up for Friday. ;-) 

Richard


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Richard G. Combs
Senior Technical Writer
Polycom, Inc.
richardDOTcombs AT polycomDOTcom
303-223-5111
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rgcombs AT gmailDOTcom
303-777-0436
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