How do you address side notes or asides?

[ccardimon]

I am encountering this a lot now, where I am dealing with a main issue, but then we have one or more sidebars, if you will, that are directly related to that main issue.

I figured I'd ask you Flare and tech comm gurus if you use tables, footnotes, appendices, or what-have-you.

[Nita Beck]

I've taken different approaches with different projects, but the common thread is that the "aside/sidebar" was integral to a topic's content, not relegated to a footnote or appendix.

In one project whose target was Help, I had frequent "best practice" asides, which I set up as a 2-column shaded table. The left column had the words "Best Practice" and a graphic that emulated a graphic straight from the product's UI. The right column began with a sentence fragment announcing the subject matter of the particular best practice. Then I developed as much content as was needed to describe the best practice: narrative, lists, images, tables... whatever. For ease of authoring, I set up styles to support the best practices, and I created a "starter" snippet that I could drop in, convert to text, and go.

In another project whose targets were Help and a printed user guide, I created a "margin note" div. In Help, the margin note rendered the same as a note (with the auto-text "NOTE:" to announce it), while in the printed user guide, it appeared as a block of floating text in a wide left margin, aligned with body text to its right. The problem with this type of "aside" is that it only works well for short pieces of information. Otherwise, having some very long, very narrow material in the left margin just looks silly and can be hard to consume, plus it wreaks havoc with page breaks.

In yet another project whose target was Help, I needed to set apart some "sidebar" content that consisted of analysis offered by an expert (specifically, an attorney in the area of law that the product I was documenting was about). She wanted to present the information as a question and answer. I used the first row of the table to announce the question and the second row to provide the expert analysis and recommendation. I gave the entire table a nice border, set the first row in a bright background color (one of the colors in the product's UI) and the second row a light gray background. I also created styles for the "question" and the "analysis", and for both used a font that was different than the font of body text. In other words, I purposely made the "sidebar" look very distinct. As with the "best practice" asides, I created a "starter" snippet that I could drop as needed.

[i-tietz]

Sounds like really good examples.
For help I would add popups and dropdowns/togglers to the list. Drawback with popups: Unprintable in context with the "actual" topic.

AND: Please stick to one form in each output.
Don't 1. use sidebars in this topic because what you have to say is not long and it fits nicely and at the same time 2. in other topics use tables for the same sort of info.
Create one notation and stick to it, even if it looks silly in places. Your reader will be thankful.