When I read Janne's reply, I had to slap my forehead like Gene Wilder in *Young
Frankenstein*: "Why yes...yes, that's* it!*"

This is the direction towards which I think all big ol' clunky online style
guides should evolve. It's like the separation between church & state. Why
should a new hire from Marketing tasked with posting a story on the company
website about the latest charity event have to slog through pages of grid
layouts? For her, a concise online style guide would explain why it's not
good to post a mile-high block of text. And why should a developer who wants
to know if the page height for *Transactions* should be based upon the
number of records or a fixed pixel height have to wade through logo do's and
don't's? For him, a pattern library is the most practical resource.

I have to thank Janne for his gentle reminder that there are appropriate
places for certain things. It certainly explains why I've been moving away
from documenting technical minutiae on paper. Going forward, I'm going to
shoot for having a dramatically shorter style guide that covers editorial
and branding as it relates to the web, and a pattern library that defines
best practices for interfaces...instead of cramming everything together into
a single document, half of which needs constant updating.

Incidentally, my boss has been on me for months about updating our style
guide. I've been holding off because something told me there had to be a
better way. Thank you Marco, Janne, and this forum for helping me figure it
out.
________________________________________________________________
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February 8-10, 2008 in Savannah, GA, USA
Register today: http://interaction08.ixda.org/

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