RE: 'log in to' or 'log into'?

Subject: RE: 'log in to' or 'log into'?
From: "Andrew Warren" <awarren -at- synaptics -dot- com>
To: "Claire Conant" <claireconant -at- comcast -dot- net>, "Sonja McShane" <sonja -dot- mcshane -at- str -dot- com -dot- au>, <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Date: Fri, 7 Mar 2008 00:17:21 -0800

Claire Conant [mailto:claireconant -at- comcast -dot- net] wrote:

> Feel free to disagree, but your rationale is just like saying,
> well, the masses do it, so it must be okay.

I don't think so, Claire.

I'd characterize it more like saying, well, all four phrases
are in my dictionary, they're synonyms, they're all commonly
used and no one will misunderstand me no matter which one I
choose... But I have to pick one SOMEHOW, so I'll pick the one
that most other people have picked.

> Most editors of software documentation (of which I'm one) would
> change your content.

Well, of course you would; you already said that you slavishly
follow MMoS. There's nothing wrong with that -- it's your
house style, so whatever -- but Apple and Sun prefer "log in".
If an editor followed either of those companies' style guides,
my content wouldn't be changed at all.

AP says "login, logon, logoff" (without any explanation or
differentiation between noun and verb forms), so an editor who
strictly followed that guide would change my content AND yours.
Vive la difference.

Clearly, though, the original poster doesn't have ANY style
guide that dictates a preferred phrase, so she has to make the
decision some other way. I don't think my suggestion was any
more arbitrary than "use Microsoft's style instead of Sun's".

In any case, I'm glad that we agree that the answer to the
question she actually asked -- "three words or two?" -- is
"three".

-Andrew

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References:
'log in to' or 'log into'?: From: Sonja McShane
Re: 'log in to' or 'log into'?: From: Claire Conant
RE: 'log in to' or 'log into'?: From: Andrew Warren
Re: 'log in to' or 'log into'?: From: Claire Conant

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