Subheadings (labels) communicate what a particular section within a chapter or within a help topic is about.
Subheadings are landmarks that help readers to skim a text for specific information and to decide beforehand whether or not to invest any time in reading.
In online help, subheadings often appear as expandable sections (toggles).
Subheadings should be:
▪easily recognizable
▪easily readable
Needed styles:
▪ss_subhead_static
subheading of static section
▪se_subhead_expandable
subheading of expandable section (only needed for online help)
 (DE)
Namensvorschläge im Deutschen:
▪zs_zue_statisch
▪ze_zue_expandierbar |
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Alle Abschnitte ein- / ausblenden
The font size of subheadings doesn’t have to be larger than the font size of body text. It’s sufficient to make the text bold and to add some extra space before the paragraph.
If you decide to use a larger font size, don’t make it more than 2 points larger than body text.
Always add more space before the subheading than after the subheading so that it’s clearly visible that the following text belongs to the subheading. A good value for the distance between the preceding text and the subheading is about one blank line. The space after the subheading should be about one-third of this.
Clearly distinguish subheadings from major topic headings. One good way of doing so is to color subheadings gray. This makes them unobtrusive even if they’re bold.
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If you need to save space, you can put the subheadings at the beginning of the next paragraph. In this case, make sure that the subheading is clearly set off visually from the body text. Make the subheading bold, use some color, and add a few space characters after the subheading.
Tipp:
Use your corporate color or the predominant color of your product logo.
In layouts that have a margin column, subheadings are typically printed within the margin column.
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Similar to static subheadings, labels of expandable sections should be easily recognizable and easily readable.
Add a symbol in front of the text. Plus/minus symbols or triangles are commonly used for this purpose. Don’t invent any other symbols.
Don’t underline expandable sections. Underlined text is commonly reserved for links that take readers to another topic. This is not the case here.
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ss_subhead_static
▪Set to keep with the next paragraph on the same page.
▪Set to keep all paragraph lines together on the same page.
se_subhead_expandable
▪Set to keep with the next paragraph on the same page. (This has no effect in online help. It’s only relevant if you generate a printed manual and online help from the same text base.)
▪Set to keep all paragraph lines together on the same page. (This has no effect in online help. It’s only relevant if you generate a printed manual and online help from the same text base.) |
