mythteller | Documentation Formatting Hell

Dear Previous Writer,

Company acquisitions can be a bitch. I have now inherited all the documentation from the two companies that got absorbed by my current client and I need to reformat, restructure, and in some parts, rewrite it so that it meets my current client's branding and style standards (ie: my standards).

So as I navigate through all these documents, I'm noticing that you've at least been very consistent in your misunderstanding of technical documentation design and layout styles. Since I am now having to wade knee-deep in this morass with the goal of cleaning this pool out, I would like to point out a few things:

Paragraphs that are flagged with NOTE and CAUTION are supposed to be used sparingly, which increases the probability that the reader will read them. If you use NOTE and CAUTION every 5th or 7th paragraph, the reader will stop caring.
Bolding 80% of the text will not make that text stand out. In fact, it will have the opposite effect, making the non-bolded text seem more prominent.
What is your obession with tables?!? Pages and pages of tables doesn't help anyone find what they are looking for!
The number of pages in a proper Index should be 10% of the total number of pages in the book. A five page index for a 500 page User Guide is not thorough enough.
Use your paragraph styles consistently! No manual formatting! If you need to change something that affects the whole book, updating your styles takes way less time than manual reformatting.
If you include a screen grab, don't make it so small that I would need a microscope to read it. Crop the screen sample so that I can make out what you're trying to show me (callouts are helpful).
Articles, pronouns, and properly applied punctuation are our friends.

That's enough for now. I'll add to this list as transgressions arise. In the meantime, I'm trying out this wee Frame application is supposed to help me strip out unused styles from the docs.

Gah. The things I do for money.