4   Standard Contents

Appendix

Use the appendix to include material that would disrupt the flow of the text if included in the body of the manual. The appendix can be used to keep information such as forms, lists, tables, maps, diagrams, technical specifications, and so forth that the reader might want to refer to but that are not part of the text. Small items, such as a single form, that are related to a specific module should be attached to the module they relate to (these are often called attachments). If a form is referred to in several modules, place it in the appendix.

Don’t use the appendix for information that should be integrated into the manual. For example, if you have a report that describes certain policies, don’t put it in the appendix of your policy manual and then refer readers to it—integrate the policy information into the text where it belongs and delete the report.

The appendix is placed after the last chapter and is treated as a chapter of the manual (use a divider tab “Appendix”). If you need more than one, label them Appendix A, Appendix B, and so forth and treat each as a separate section. Number the pages in the same way you would other modules.

In online manuals, the appendix plays the same role, and is used to list reference information that is not part of the text. As well as being accessible from the table of contents, appendixes should be accessible directly from each place in the manual they relate to. Therefore, a form that is referred to in many sections will have many links to it. See Figure 4-5.

Figure 4-5: Sample online appendix lists reference information