Re: Your typographical conventions

[Nancy Allison <maker -at- verizon -dot- net>]

Chris says:

>In my manual I use bold for button names and commands, and italics for
>radio button selections or choices in drop-down menus. 

I'm curious. Why make the distinction between these two sets of items?

>We end up with sentences where the same word can be used generically, so
>it's lowercase, and also used to name a specific app concept, so it's
>uppercase. The word "File" for example.

Oh yes. All you can do is hope that your reader is literate enough to understand why -- otherwise, the documentation takes a hit in credibility because of the poor literacy of the reader! 

(Just like the need never to split an infinitive or end a sentence with a preposition, not because those rules have had any serious weight for the past 100 years, but because readers and even in-house reviewers still perceive the text as incorrect and the writer as an ignorant fool. Aarrrgh.)
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