RE: When to bold

[Chuck Martin <CMartin -at- serena -dot- com>]

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Susan Arbing [mailto:Sarbing -at- ITCCanada -dot- com]
> Sent: Tuesday, February 22, 2000 11:47 AM
> Subject: When to bold
<snip>
> 
> I'm wonderng what do you all do when it comes to bolding.
> 
I follow the Microsoft Manual of Style (which I did before this book was
published), where menu commands are put in bold, but not the surrounding
words (including the words "menu" or "command").

An in-house style guide would take precedence, however. If an in-house style
guide use different typographical conventions, and the documentation was for
a Windows program, I would argue strongly to change the in-house style guide
to follow the Microsoft guidelines. Why? For the same reason that
programmers and designers follow interface guidelines: familiarity and
consistency for end users.

(Oh wait, programmers and designers often don't follow interface guidelines,
thereby confusing users and making them do more work. But then, that's
another topic.....)

-- 
Chuck Martin
Sr. Technical Writer, SERENA Software

"People who use business software might despise it, but they are getting
paid to tolerate it....Most people who are paid to use a tool feel
constrained not to complain about that tool, but it doesn't stop them from
feeling frustrated and unhappy about it."
          - "The Inmates are Running the Asylum" 
            Alan Cooper


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