Mark,
1) How about Title Case for section titles? I think that would
help them stand out in the document body.
2) How about section numbers? In both the TOC and the body. Though
they might be subject to change with each major revision I think
they will help in citations to the manual. In the HTML version
maybe supplement that with hover permalinks similar to those in
the Help page - but keep them the same as the TOC links (if
practical) and as short as practical, even when on a Header 2
or Header 3.
3) Will this be all one big HTML page? I'm a little ambivalent.
That does enable browser-based search, but it seems like it could
be a bit much. I think I'd prefer it broken into chapters (or
smaller) with a dedicated search. Perhaps like a Wiki of its own,
but with only Groups.io having edit permission.
4) PDF Bookmarks, please! I don't know what tool Nina is using,
but hopefully its export to PDF function can be coerced to emit
bookmarks. In MS Word that's in an option pop-up you open from the
File dialog when you Export. In Acrobat Reader these Bookmars show
up as a sidebar on the left with clickable links to go directly to
headings.
5) For the PDF pay attention to page breaks. This goes beyond
simple orphan/widow control in paragraphs (which seems to be
mostly under control); there needs to be more use of Keep With
Next (or whatever it is called in Nina's authoring tool) to
avoid having headings orphaned at the bottom of a page; examples
on pages: 12, 13, 15, 24, 26, 45, 52, and 73. Or widows at the top
of a page; examples: 4, 7, 11, 12, 20, 54, 66, 69, and 71.
6) For the PDF consider using a new page for selected headings.
All Heading 1 likely, and maybe all of Heading 2
as well.
Shal