Q. In CMOS 16.10 it says that “an entry that requires more than five or six locators (page or paragraph numbers) is usually broken up into subentries to spare readers unnecessary excursions.” (1) Does that mean five or does it mean six? I use your style manual in order not to make such decisions myself. (2) Do you have a similar criterion for the number of subentries that should be broken down into subsubs?
A. (1) For the general reader, “five or six” means “anytime you feel that the number of undifferentiated locators is becoming unhelpful.” For you, it means “five.”
(2) Yes; see answer (1).