Survey - Contents versus Table of Contents

[maniac9999]

Good morning,

We're building a new help system and need your assistance. Our team is trying to decide between using a navigation button labeled "Contents" or another one called "Table of Contents". Before we make a decision, I decided it would be a good idea to find out what the majority of other help authors use.

How many people out there in the help authoring community use Contents and how many use Table of Contents? I'm especially interested in the opinions of people who build help systems for applications used by small business owners.

Thanks,
Jim

[Guest]

Hi,
For help systems I tend to keep things as short as possible so it's "Contents" for me. Even for a book I'd probably use contents as it does what it says on the tin!

[Guest]

It seems to me that things at least in the user assistance field have gone toward just "Contents." That's the default label for the TOC tab/button in RoboHelp. I use "Contents" for both print material and online help. "Table of Contents" is wordy and would make for a large button.

--Ben

[JJG10101]

I'll pile on. "Contents" seems like the way to go. It seems more direct to me.

[TMin]

"Contents" works for me in print and online!

[Chet Zeshonski]

The document portion is called a "table of contents," but the simple word "contents" makes for a smaller button. And the reader will not mistake the contents for something else. So "button" works for me, too.