Formatting file names (bold vs monospace)

Subject: Formatting file names (bold vs monospace)
From: Jen <jennee -at- gmail -dot- com>
To: "techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Date: Wed, 27 Nov 2013 11:14:31 +0200

Hi everyone,

I have a dilemma that probably has a simple solution that I can't see...
I'm documenting an application based on Eclipse and I have to refer to
files located inside Eclipse projects, but I don't know how to format them.
For reference purposes I'll use the following image from Eclipse help:
http://help.eclipse.org/kepler/topic/org.eclipse.platform.doc.user/images/Image241_nav_view.png
.

For example, my procedure would be something like this:
1. Open the TestProject project.
2. In the Explorer view, under SomeFolder, select AnotherFile.txt.

According to MS Manual of Style 4th ed, "Bold in procedures if the user
must click the file name or type the name as shown." So far, so good,
everything should be in bold (<guilabel> in DocBook).

But if I have:
1. Open the TestProject project.
2. Right-click Test.xml and select Run as Ant Build. The AnotherFile.txt
file is created under SomeFolder.

In this case, would AnotherFile.txt be in bold or Courier? You're not
supposed to click it, so it should be formatted like a regular file name
(<filename> in DocBook, which in my case is output as Courier), but then it
looks inconsistent... Am I overthinking this?

Thanks,
Jen


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