Bad breaks

Bad breaks are line breaks in an index that cause some users to become confused about the index's structure. Their confusion occurs because information that needs to be together in the same column to be easily understood is presented in different columns or on different pages. Situations where this may happen include:

• Main headings that have locators listed in the next column or page. In this case, potential confusion can be avoided by moving the affected heading to the top of the next column or page. For example:
  
  

  Bottom of column or page	Top of next column or page
  --- main heading separated from locators ---
  ... economic methodology, 37-41 economic theory of politics, 3,	161-167, 184 ... ...
  --- main heading at top of next column ---
  ... ... economic methodology, 37-41	economic theory of politics, 3,    161-167, 184 ...
  bottom row

  
  
• Subheadings that begin on a new column or page. In this case, potential confusion in can be avoided by adding a continuation line at the top of the new column or page - i.e., by adding a line that consists of the heading (and appropriate subheadings) being continued from the previous column, followed by a notice that the first subheading in this column is subordinate to a main heading defined in a previous column. Typically, in the notice, continued or cont. or cont'd is italicized and enclosed in parentheses, as in the following example:
  
  

  Bottom of column or page	Top of next column or page
  --- subheading at top of column ---
  ... scientific management    engineers and, 163	motivation of workers, 164    scientific pretensions, 171-180 ...
  --- continuation line at top of column ---
  ... ... scientific management    engineers and, 163	scientific management (continued)    motivation of workers, 164    scientific pretensions, 171-180 ...
  bottom row

  
  When using continuation lines, indentation levels are maintained by placing the notice after the level of heading being continued in the new column or page. For example:
  
  

  Bottom of column or page	Top of next column or page
  --- sub-subheading at top of column ---
  ... scientific management    banking industry       A Bank, ...	B Bank, ...       C Bank, ... ... ...
  --- continuation preceding sub-subheading ---
  ... ... scientific management    banking industry       A Bank, ...	scientific management    banking industry  (cont.)       B Bank, ...       C Bank, ... ...
  bottom row

  
  This practice clearly indicates the level of headings appearing at the top of the column. In the example above, the first headings with locators are sub-subheadings. Even if all the following headings in the column were also sub-subheadings, the continuation lines at the top of the column would prevent users from confusing them with main headings.
• Widows and orphans. Widows are single lines from a letter group that end up alone at the bottom of a column or page; orphans are single lines that end up alone at the top of a column or page. They occur when the first or last heading in a group gets separated from other headings in the group. They are considered to be bad breaks because they are easy to overlook. The confusion that may result from them can be avoided by moving the affected entry from one column to another; by reducing the leading in the column to allow one or more additional lines to fit within it, or; by changing the language of entries in a way that shortens them but preserves their meaning.

Bad breaks may become more common as more indexes are published on the Web. As Web sites migrate toward HTML 4.01 and XHTML, validating Web pages for compliance with the language standard becomes increasingly important because Web pages that are not compliant will not be displayed. The possibility for trouble in the future arises from the fact that en dash character traditionally used in back-of-the book indexes to separate pages in a page range is not a standard display character for Web pages. Because it is not a standard display character, HTML validators will not validate pages containing it. To comply with the standards, Web pages must use a hyphen instead of an en dash. Bad breaks may become more common because browsers insert a line break after a hyphen if doing so is necessary to display the text within the space allowed. Therefore, Web pages may include bad breads where there are none in the corresponding back-of-the-book index.

Guidelines for dealing with bad breaks:

• House style trumps all other guidelines, including those that follow. If you have doubts about what to do, ask your editor.
• Defer concerns about bad breaks until typesetting, which is when bad breaks arise. If you are not the typesetter, adding continuation lines or adjusting the spacing of individual lines wastes both your time and the typesetter's.
• Because bad breaks arise during typesetting, you are probably not the person responsible for finding or fixing them. Typically, the actual work is done by a typesetter and the ultimate responsibility for it is the production editor's.
• If finding and fixing them is your responsibility, ask your editor about standards for continuation lines. What term should be used? Should it be capitalized? Should it be enclosed in parentheses or some other punctuation mark?
• Murphy's Law applies when adjusting bad breaks. Fixing one bad break may eliminate another one, but it more likely to result in new ones being created later in the index. Or, that is the way the world seems to work, especially when the deadline is nigh or past.
• Adjust bad breaks one at a time and in order. Lines are adjusted downwards. Therefore, start with the first bad break, fix it, then proceed to the next one, until all have been fixed. Anything less than such a systematic approach to eliminating bad breaks will result in wasted effort or in superfluous or misplaced continuation lines.
• Check for superfluous and misplaced continuation lines. Changes made to entries coming before one or more continuation lines may result in unneeded continuation lines or continuation lines that are no longer at the top of a column. Continuation lines like that that are left in an index are obvious signs of a lack of professionalism and attention to detail. They reflect badly on everyone concerned with preparing the book for printing.
• Attend to widows and orphans as soon as they are created. If you decide to do something about a widow or orphan, do it immediately so that its effect will be propagated before making other changes. Saving them up before fixing them is a major root cause of superfluous or misplaced continuation lines.

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