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§6.1

Dot Leader Lines

The dots between a label and its number—keep them?

✅ NormativeSettled. The requirement holds as written.📄 Page ruleCan be applied from the page alone.Read §6.1 in the RFC ↗

The requirement

Dot leaders MUST NOT appear in the output. The label and the value on either side of a leader MUST be kept exactly as printed; the dots themselves produce nothing.

When it applies

A deliberate exception to verbatim transcription

Everywhere else printed ink survives — see Values Are Verbatim (§10.3.3) and Cell Text Fidelity (§9.6.3). Dot leaders are the one carve-out: they exist only to guide the eye across a gutter and carry no information.

A dot leader is a run of dots filling horizontal space between a label and a value, most often in a table of contents, a directory or a price list.

Sketch of the printed page — layout, not output
Chapter 3 — Reserving  . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  47

Reading the examples. Each one pairs a source page with the output the rule expects. ✅ Sample: the rule applies. ❌ Counter-sample: it looks like it applies and does not, or a rendering got it wrong. A non-conforming output, in red, is shown only for contrast. … marks content left out of an excerpt.

Requirements

  • A run of leader dots MUST be removed wherever it is printed: in running text, in a directory line and in a table's stub cell.
  • The label and every value the leader connects MUST be kept, verbatim. The dots go; everything they connect stays.
  • Removing a leader MUST NOT split a label or a value, and a leader MUST NOT be absorbed into either side (no trailing dots on a label, no leading dots on a number).
  • Where a leader separates two values on one line, the values remain on that line, separated by a space.

A dot leader is typesetting, not content: it exists because a label and a number are far apart on the line, and it disappears the moment the text is reflowed. Transcribing it damages what is around it — a run of dots inside a label breaks any string match on that label.

01

✅ SampleThe rule applies

leader lines with two values at the end

A court directory: each person's line runs a dot leader to an e-mail address in grey and a phone number at the margin. Some lines have no e-mail, so the leader runs straight to the number. This is text, not a table: one line per person, leaders removed, the values separated by spaces. The grey of the e-mail addresses is decoration and is not carried. Heading depths are relative: the page does not show where CALDRIVANE COUNTY sits in the whole directory.

Source page
Dot Leader Lines — leader lines with two values at the end. Source page.
Expected output · excerpt

CALDRIVANE COUNTY

SUPERIOR COURT

Location: 410 Willowmere Dr, Cassilport, HV 98511 Mailing: PO Box 82, Cassilport, HV 98511-0082 Phone: 360-822-4410 Fax: 360-822-4419 Website: www.caldrivanecounty.example/courts/superior/

Rowan T. Ferland, Judge 360-822-4410

Odalys M. Granger, Court Administrator ogranger@caldrivanecounty.example 360-822-4410

…

SOUTH CALDRIVANE DISTRICT COURT

6042 Ridgeglen Road, Farrowmede, HV 98651 Phone: 360-641-9017 Fax: 360-641-9016 Website: www.caldrivanecounty.example/courts/sdc/

Callan R. Whitmore, Judge 360-641-9017

Noor E. Basile, Judge 360-641-9017 ext 2214

Ilona P. Marchetti, Administrator sdclerks@caldrivanecounty.example 360-641-9017

…

Dot Leader Lines · Source page

leader lines with two values at the end

Dot Leader Lines — leader lines with two values at the end. Source page.
02

✅ SampleThe rule applies

leaders inside a financial table

Two goodwill tables whose stub labels run dot leaders to the first value column — Balances as of January 1, 2002 . . . . . . . — inside an otherwise ordinary $-gutter table. The leaders go; the columns stay. The (In millions) line is rendered as a second header row.

Source page
Dot Leader Lines — leaders inside a financial table. Source page.
Expected output · tables 1 and 2
Pipelines Production Field Services Terminal Services Corporate & Other Total
(In millions)
Balances as of January 1, 2002 $390 $58 $371 $84 $235 $1,138
Impairments — — — (37) — (37)
Other changes — 1 8 — (4) 5
Balances as of December 31, 2002 $390 $59 $379 $47 $231 $1,106

…

2002 2001
(In millions)
Intangible assets subject to amortization $44 $51
Accumulated amortization (21) (15)
23 36
Intangible assets not subject to amortization 142 142
$165 $178
Dot Leader Lines · Source page

leaders inside a financial table

Dot Leader Lines — leaders inside a financial table. Source page.

More

Rule id text-dot-leader-lines · text rule layout