Tech writer's rant

1. Spellcheck. It's not an option.
2. No, you cannot use the return key (creating new paragraphs) to create double-spaced documents. There are several much easier ways to do this in Word or any other reputable word processing software (Google Docs, Lotus Notes, anything). This not only make the document necessarily longer, using more paper when printed and irritating any discerning reader, it also creates headaches when converting to Adobe pdf and trying to make it 508-compliant, accessible to screen-readers everywhere.
3. Not everything is "Body Text." Styles were created for a reason. Use them.
4. If you are going to deviate from the set MS standard styles, please use your own new style consistently. If you start one section on a new page, start the next section on a new page too. If you number using a "A-1" style in the footer, don't use a "A.1" in the document.
5. When creating numbered lists, do not include use punctuation at the end item UNLESS every item in the list is a complete, COMPLETE sentence. For those unfamiliar with complete sentences, let me refresh your memory: a complete sentence includes a noun, a subject and a verb.
6. Please, please use underlining and bold and italics judiciously. These are for infrequent use. If more than 1/8 (13%) of your document (excluding headings) is underlined, italicized or in bold it's time to rewrite. All 66 pages cannot be the most important thing in the document. I agree, there are excellent reasons for using emphasis. But a reader starts feeling irritated when everything in the document is emphasized.
7. Please do not use tabs or spaces to center text on the page.
8. If you have to hand create a table of contents in MS Word 2003 or later, then you are not creating documents correctly. There is an automated function to make the whole thing easier for everyone, especially me.
9. Just because something looks nifty doesn't make it easy to read.
10. Just because something needs to hold water legally doesn't mean it needs to be incomprehensible to anyone except a lawyer.
11. If it doesn't sound like it makes sense, it probably doesn't make sense.