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Subject:Re: Sentence case or Title Case From:"Cassandra Greer" <cassandra -at- greer -dot- de> To:Janice Gelb <janice -dot- gelb -at- sun -dot- com> Date:Wed, 19 Apr 2006 09:32:29 +0200 (MEST)
Janice wrote:
> Title case - trying to document items in a GUI in
> running text is difficult without initial caps (e.g.,
> "Select the Run automatically after login checkbox").
(definition clash again! Title case vs Title case)
So far in my translations, I have been lucky that most GUI labels I've come
across at least start with a cap. If they don't I send a note telling the
engineers that it would be better if the labels were initial capped and why.
I usually have to anyway because the Englisch (sic) they have used needs
work. Nice engineers comply :) Snotty ones are more of a challenge...
Janice explained:
> Our internal style guide actually now allows writers
> to use initial caps for GUI items even if they're not
> used in the GUI for ease of reading, contradicting
> our previous rule that everything in the docs had to
> exactly match what was on screen. We decided that
> the possible chance of confusion between a capitalized
> label in the docs and a non-capitalized label that
> used the same words on the screen wouldn't be as
> likely as the confusion of trying to read an
> instruction in running text where the label was
> mostly lowercase.
Ach ja, the eternal question of whether the documentation should reflect the
actual GUI or should it be correct... Sometimes I have to make shotgun
decisions based on practicality because no one else is willing to but then I
also try to influence the original whenever possible...
> Cassandra Greer wrote:
> >
> > Plus some labels can get relatively long and would
> > look dorky all capped.
> >
Janice rightly commented:
> Any label that long should be rewritten, imho, and not
> just because it would look weird when capitalized! But
> convincing engineers to do that is an entirely separate
> (but all too common) problem.
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