RE: Colon following a number

["Susan W. Gallagher" <sgallagher5 -at- cox -dot- net>]

LOL! The first question is, who put the colon in? You? The writer before
you? Your boss? The marketing department? Figuring out who put it in is the
first step in answering whether you have the authority to take it out. <g>

Basically, the colon serves as a typographical device to separate the number
from the words. As a separator, it works just as well as a space or a bullet
or an en dash, but it may not be as esthetically pleasing as one of the
other characters. But these days in the design world, ...  You could change
it to <space>::<space> and look really trendy.

PART 3.2 :: Lakefront Property

See? It's just visual separation. Any device will do.

Then again, if you consider the heading to be an abreviated sentence, the
colon is pretty much spot on grammatically.

I'm not sure I've helped you any <g>, but that's my two cents.
-Sue Gallagher


> -----Original Message-----
> From: Kirk Turner
>
> Is it OK to follow a number with a colon in a title? Example:
>
> PART 3.2: Lakefront Property
>
> I can't find anything that says this is incorrect, but it looks odd to
> me. I'm probably just too picky. Shouldn't I just exchange the colon for
> a space between the "2" and the "L"?
>
> Kirk
>
>
> By the way, I think the fact that I am asking this question right after
> midnight on a Friday means that I have finally reached the 7th level of
> editing you-know-what.
> Kirk
> >

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