RE: Typographical treatment of GUI components

[Michael West <mbwest -at- bigpond -dot- net -dot- au>]

Dick Margulis wrote:

>  what I write 
> in the procedure is this (using title case):
> 
>    From the Select an Output Format list, choose ...
> 
> Now I well know that THEY say the words in the procedure should 
> reflect EXACTLY what is on the GUI. But y'know what? I like my 
> way better. No bold, no italic, no font change, no graphic 
> buttons.

I had to read the instruction twice to make
sure I hadn't missed a word between "the" and 
"Select" because the first time through, it seemed 
like "Select" was an instruction rather than the name 
of something. 

I don't think  I would have tripped over it if a
distinctive style of some kind had been used for
the name of the list. You're giving me something
that I recognize as a verb (Select), but you're expecting
me to intuit that *this* time, anyway, the verb is
supposed to be understood as a noun-modifier.

Maybe I'd get used to it if I spent enough time
in it -- but I really shouldn't have to, should I?

== 
Mike West
Melbourne, Australia



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