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DIN Standards Committee Information Technology and IT Applications

Overview

This standard has been prepared by the Information Technology and selected IT Applications Standards Committee (NIA), Working Committee NA 043-03-01 AA "Textverarbeitung" ("Text presentation"). The "rules for the writing and layout of word processing documents" have resulted from operating experience and the cognition from rationalization. The rules presume the character inventory of the standards on alphanumerical key boards for data and word processing as well as for typewriters. "Die amtliche Regelung der deutschen Rechtschreibung" ("The official Regulation of German Orthography") in the version valid from 2006-07-01 is applicable for spelling and punctuation. In individual cases, the "rules for the writing and layout of word processing documents" differ from the specifications for the typeset. This is due to the characters fixed on office machines with alphanumeric keyboards and their applications. This standard does not specify "what" is to be written, but "how" a given content should be represented. The wording of the examples has been freely selected. No additional rules are permitted to be derived from the sample addresses in Annex D and the examples for use in Annex E. In April 1949, the first edition of DIN 5008 with the title "Regeln für Maschineschreiben" ("Rules for typewriting") was published. New editions followed in the years 1951, 1963, 1975, 1986, 1996 and finally 2001. In May 2005, a new edition was published, in which only amendments to the address field were considered. These went back to an amendment by the Deutsche Post AG (German Postal Services) to eliminate the blank line in the address. The request was essentially based on the fact that - a unification of national and international marking should be reached (in Europe and internationally, no blank line is used in the address), - in the field of electronic franking (for instance, 2D Matrix Code), forgoing the blank line has already been realized, - if eliminating the blank line because of improved address recognition, a higher rate of machine-processed letters can be reached. This regulation has been proven in practice and should be maintained. The current standard for a new edition of the standard intended for 2010 pursues, above all, the goal to incorporate the specifications from DIN 676 and to include further aspects of text layout which frequently occur in current everyday office life. Thus, new clauses applying to diagrams and longer texts have been prepared and incorporated. Over many years, DIN 676 was available as a separate standard "Geschäftsbriefe - Einzelvordrucke und Endlosvordrucke" ("Business letter - Forms and continuous forms"). The origins of this standard were characterized by the fact that the layout of letter forms was completely separated from the use of these forms by writing on them - in accordance with the rules of DIN 5008. The last version of DIN 5008 already refers intensively to DIN 676 as, with technological progress, the strict separation of letter forms and letter marking has become more and more nullified. This merging has been taken into account in the current DIN 5008 with the complete integration of DIN 676. References and repetitions are avoided therewith, and are established in a coherent complete set of rules. DIN 5008 is a standard which is directed at a wide circle of users and is also applied in many enterprises. Therefore, an efficient working shall be possible, above all, for the wide circle of users. The rules are not permitted to be too specific and, thus, too elaborate for their application, and shall be able to be conveyed simply, even during occupational training. The circle of users has rather become wider than it was during the time of the typewriter (and with specialized typists). Reference is made to the technical literature for special application. NIA 03-01 has been strengthened by the oppositions to the standard draft in its perception to already give up on downward compatibility with typewriters in this new edition. The advantages of increased layout simplicity in accordance with round mm information (25/50/75, etcetera) outweigh the disadvantages of the missing downwards compatibility with typewriters and the effort of adjustment. The effort of adjustment for the user remains acceptable, as it does not yield any marked optical changes. A transitional regulation for the possible use of old forms with typewriters is mentioned, see Annex B. The address field and the position of the upper edge of the sheet are not dealt with in this amendment. The designation logic around the middle line follows DIN 2137-2:2003-09. Here, the designation middle line (hyphen, dash, minus sign) is specified for the "B10" key. The rules in DIN 5008 are, as in every standard, product neutral and thus contain no information on technical implementation. However, the technical possibilities of available text processing programs were considered during the layout of the rules.

Document: references other documents

Document: referenced in other documents

Responsible national committee

NA 043-03-01 AA - Word and information processing for office applications