U guys want me to write a very short doc, for the LyX Project to include in the HELP menu, about character styles?
SteveT On Sunday 24 February 2008 13:57, Steve Litt wrote: > Hi all, > > The documents under the help menu for 1.5.3 use the phrase "character > style" in two very different contexts, creating confusion. One or the other > should be called something else. > > Some parts discuss what I mean by a character style -- a custom style that > can be applied, over and over again, to pieces of text. Other parts of the > docs discuss something more like fine tuning, where you apply typefaces, > shapes and weights to pieces of text on an individual basis. IMHO the > latter is a very poor way to organize a document. > > For instance, in the userguide, this section from 3.6.1 appears to discuss > the custom style applied many places: > > "Many modern typesetting and markup languages have begun to move towards > specifying character styles rather than specifying a particular font. For > example, instead of changing to an italicized version of the current font > to emphasize text, you use an ``emphasized style'' instead. This concept > fits in perfectly with LyX. In LyX, you do things based on contexts, rather > than focusing on typesetting details." > > Section 3.6.3 discusses the Emph and Noun buttons as character styles. They > may be, but they're not user created character styles. Then 3.6.4 discusses > the text style dialog as a "character style" (first sentence of the > section), and goes on to discuss fine tuning, and finally admonishes not to > overuse fonts, which although true sounds like it might be an admonishment > not to overuse user defined character styles, which is IMHO very false. > > Section 5.3.6 of the Customization document discusses character styles as I > generally define them -- user defined and applicable to any text. > > Perhaps in future documentation versions we should call what I call > character styles as "user defined character styles", stuff from the buttons > (emph and noun) as LyX-provided character styles, and stuff from the text > style dialog as "text fine tuning". That way the documentation will be much > clearer to newbie and expert alike. > > Thanks > > SteveT > > Steve Litt > Books written in LyX: > Troubleshooting Techniques of the Successful Technologist > Twenty Eight Tales of Troubleshooting > Troubleshooting: Just the Facts
