Thanks for your reply Robert.

Regarding having to reformat docs that have text boxes, let's assume that,
like you say, the author chose to use Normal for such text boxes.

Now, if my template body text is "Body Text" and I don't want Normal in my
documents, I'm going to have to reformat these text boxes anyway, right?
Either changing them to "Body Text" and troubleshooting any resulting text
box spacing/cutoff problems OR changing them to another style e.g. a
user-defined "Body TextBox" style so I can control their formatting
independently. I don't see this as being any different than having my body
text as "Normal" and doing the same thing ie. troubleshooting text box
problems or changing to another style all together.

Maybe I am missing the point of what you are saying?

Thanks,

Adrian

"Robert M. Franz (RMF)" wrote in message
...
Hi Adrian

Adrian wrote:
The templates I have been using till now use "Normal" as body text rather
than a specific style called "Body Text" or similar. (One of our offices
uses "Body Text".) Most tech authors seem to advocate staying away from
Normal, but I don't see any problem with it as long as you follow these
simple rules:
[..]
IMO, the arguments against using Normal are pretty weak. That said, I
don't think the arguments against Body Text are strong either; six of one
and half a dozen of the other.

In any case, is there any good reason to use "Body Text", but still base
it on "Normal"? I have seen this in some templates, but it just doesn't
make any sense to me.

I personally prefer to use "Body Text", but I agree: you can certainly
work both ways.

[I used to define Normal as something like 16 pt purple, so that whenever
I setup a template or work in a corresponding document, I quickly see
whethere there's still some paragraph that hasn't been designated its
proper style already. But this gets complicated when working with tables,
esp. when you _try_ to work with table styles.]

The biggest drawback about using normal productively is when you have to
deal with documents containing a lot of textboxes and such. Almost 100%,
Normal is assigned to their contents. Now, say, this document is pretty
unstyled so far and you need to bring it in-line with your company's CI
(as good as and ASAP). When you import another normal style from your
template, or change it manually, all those textboxes might run havoc.

Again, I agree, not a strong case ... :-)

Greetinx
Robert
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