9.4.5 FORMATTING REMINDERS FOR HEADINGS
As noted earlier, scientists have learned that we read digital documents differently than we read hard-copy documents. When we read hard-copy documents, we encounter the documents physically, and our hands and bodies help us to understand the document’s large-scale organization.
We are able to see how long the document is, and we encounter headings and other organizational signals as we flip through the document.Because most if not all of your readers will be reading your documents in digital format, you must take whatever steps you can to improve reader comprehension. Chapter Ten discusses writing techniques you can use to send organizational signals to your readers and to make it easier for them to find and understand the information that they need.
One technique, however, is purely mechanical. Readers of digital documents benefit if the document includes a “guide on the side”: a table of contents that is always visible and that allows the reader to navigate between and among the various elements of the document. Word processing systems are evolving all the time, and as you read this document, your word processing system may create this kind of guide automatically. As I write these words, however, the best way to create a guide on the side for your reader is to convert your document to.pdf format and to “bookmark” each element heading (e.g., Summary of the Argument) and each point heading. Before you submit the document, display your bookmarks. By submitting the document in this way, you ensure that the guide will be visible — and useful — when the reader opens the document.