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Thanks folks for your help, that's pretty much what I thought, but wanted to make sure.
Regarding quotes, I only use it to show system errors ("File Not Found"). I wouldn't use it for anything a user needs to enter (unless it was part of the string) to avoid a user thinking they should enter the quote when they shouldn't, e.g. they enter "Red" instead of Red.
Ron Hearn
Documentation Specialist
Central 1 Credit Union
1441 Creekside Drive
Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada
V6J 4S7
rhearn -at- central1 -dot- com
Tel: 604.730.6391
Fax: 604.730-7792
-----Original Message-----
From: techwr-l-bounces+rhearn=cucbc -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com [mailto:techwr-l-bounces+rhearn=cucbc -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com] On Behalf Of Elissa K. Miller
Sent: Tuesday, October 22, 2013 1:46 PM
To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Subject: RE: Convention for navigation labels in documentation
Agree with everything said so far. However, per the original question, I'd suggest never using " " for any style/formatting standard unless you're being incredibly sarcastic and putting the item in air quotes.
I believe there was a discussion in the past few months about why you shouldn't use quotation marks for anything unless they are part of the actual character string that the user must enter. For example, in HTML, you frequently enter literal quotation marks to specify stuff, and I assume there are lots of command line examples that require quotation marks but I don't remember any command-line anything anymore. (That discussion was about whether you'd put quotation marks around something that the user enters, and the consensus was to use a different font so people don't think they're supposed to enter the quotation marks. This isn't directly relevant to quotation marks around navigation label names but I thought I'd throw this out there if you're also going to have to come up with other formatting
standards.)
--Elissa
-----Original Message-----
From: techwr-l-bounces+emiller=doubleknot -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
[mailto:techwr-l-bounces+emiller=doubleknot -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com] On Behalf Of Courtney, Robert
Sent: Tuesday, October 22, 2013 1:19 PM
To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Subject: RE: Convention for navigation labels in documentation
Yeah, there are no real standards. It is up to you and the organization to create your style. I know I have used the MS Manual of Style for some ideas.
At least it helped me to get some.
Bob
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-----Original Message-----
From: techwr-l-bounces+robert -dot- courtney=sorin -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
[mailto:techwr-l-bounces+robert -dot- courtney=sorin -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com] On Behalf Of Robert Lauriston
Sent: Tuesday, October 22, 2013 1:14 PM
To: Ron Hearn
Cc: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Subject: Re: Convention for navigation labels in documentation
Definitely no standard, different places I've worked have had different conventions. I think the most common is bold.
Italic is commonly used for placeholders for strings that will vary from one user to another.
On Tue, Oct 22, 2013 at 1:04 PM, Ron Hearn <rhearn -at- central1 -dot- com> wrote:
> Hi all,
>
> Our Product Marketing Manager asked me if there is an industry
> standard
for the font treatment used when describing the names of labels for navigation that exists within a program. For instance, if we were to describe the following:
>
> You'll find this report in Adobe Analytics under Site Metrics >
> Anomaly
Detection.
>
> Should bold, italics or " " marks for Site Metrics > Anomaly Detection?
>
> I generally use bold for the labels, but it would be nice to know if
> there
is a general standard.
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