5   Page and Screen Design

Page Breaks

Page break refers to where you end a page of text. The standard rule is never to leave a single line of text at either the bottom (an orphan) or the top (a widow) of a page. Most word processors have a widow and orphan feature, which automatically guards against single lines. However, with manuals that typically use lots of headings, bullet lists, and other methods of presentation, this feature doesn’ t work well.

Once the text is finalized, carefully go through the entire manual, starting at the beginning, and decide where the pages should break. Use your word processor’s automatic features, such as block protect and conditional end-of-page settings, to control page breaks. If you must introduce a page break manually, use a hard page break.

Follow these guidelines for page breaks:

• Don’t separate headings from the text that follows.

• Avoid leaving major headings close to the bottom of the page.

• Don’t separate introductory lines from the lists they introduce.

• Don’t separate figures from their titles.

• Leave at least two lines of a paragraph at the top and bottom of a page.

Don’t insert page breaks into online manuals. The amount of text that will display on the user’s monitor is controlled by the user. Simply allow each module to scroll continuously to the bottom.