Re: To Gerund or Not to Gerund?

[Janice Gelb <Janice -dot- Gelb -at- Sun -dot- COM>]

Tsipi Erann wrote:
> 
> After the long intro, here are my questions:
> 
> 1. What is your opinion on the issue?
> 2. What style guide do you use/champion regarding procedure headings?
> 3. Do you have a good alternative to both gerunds and present simple? (one
> suggestion was a "How To" statement, which some style guides [Microsoft]
> prohibit... Do you know why they do?)
> 

The Sun style guide calls for procedure headings
to start with "To" or "How to" and headings for
general sections that are conceptual or explanatory
to use a gerund. For example:

    Creating a Database
       To Establish the Database Structure
       To Save the Database

    Modifying Your Database
       To Add or Delete Fields
       To Change the Field Notation
       To Rearrange Field Order

Our localization group is fine with this practice.

-- Janice

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