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If you are the person responsible for producing documentation, then you should have the implicit authority to make these kinds of style decisions and set rules; You can't be expected to accommodate the style preferences of every different reviewer. So you could just say "Well, this is my area of expertise, and I need to have standardized rules. I've done my research, and this is how I've decided to do it."
You can back it up by showing samples from Microsoft manuals, which use minimal bolding.
You could also present the person with samples of one or two pages from a manual; one that uses your capitalizing convention, and one with all those elements in bold. Ask them which they think looks better/less busy.
-----Original Message-----
From: techwr-l-bounces+lynne -dot- wright=tiburoninc -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com [mailto:techwr-l-bounces+lynne -dot- wright=tiburoninc -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com] On Behalf Of Nancy Allison
Sent: August-11-14 11:09 AM
To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Subject: Font tussle -- bolding bolding everywhere
Hi, all.
My company's UIs use sentence style capitalization. So, the UI controls
for setting the reference level are labeled
Ref. level
Ref. level down
Ref. level up
I refer to these controls in text by capping each term: "The vial
controls are Ref. Level, Ref. Level Up, and Ref. Level Down."
I reserve bolding for those UI items that I am telling the user to act
on directly (select, tap, click, and so on.) But I know one of my
reviewers is going to come back to me with "make these bold so people
know they're control names" or even just "make these bold so they stand
out."
I can explain about the caps setting the names off, I can explain about
reserving bold for actions, but if my questioner is persistent, I need
a solid resource to explain why it's bad to have bold type popping up
all over the page. Am I, in fact, simply going on my personal hunch
that overapplied bolding is distracting on the page and probably
reduces readability? Have I simply made up these claims?
I just searched for "do not overuse bold text" and found a few
articles, but they are very general. They go so far as to say "Bold
less instead of more." Well, thanks.
Are there any actual readability tests or other source of data
regarding the effectiveness of varying amounts of bolding on a page? By
the way, translation costs are not even a factor, since our
translator's software recognizes and preserves the bolding codes. They
don't have to be inserted manually.
Thanks for all suggestions.
--Nancy
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