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"Do most of you downstyle headings in your technical material? I
write computer manuals and quick ref guides, and we have always
adhered to Traditional Methods of Up and Down Styling for the
Headings. However, I read some compelling arguments (reading
ease) for instead
Doing headings just like this
and to hell with conventions bred long ago in publishing.
Comments from the field? Many thanks."
Yes, we do. Again the reason being readability. Besides
reading letters, we look at the shapes of the words to aid
readability. All caps yields a series of rectangles.
Upper/lower gives shape to a word, with some letters above
the line and some below. Some words you can make out simply
by the shape--you don't need to see the letters. Try some
tests for fun.
Barb Miller
millerb -at- tcplink -dot- nrel -dot- gov
