Re: Help me with text emphasis

[Robert Plamondon <robert -at- PLAMONDON -dot- COM>]

>    "For example, to search the Words in Text field for either
>     the term *oil* or the term *petroleum*, enter *oil,
>     petroleum*. The resulting set will contain records having
>     either the term *oil* or the term *petroleum*. The operator
>     OR searches for records that meet *any* of the search
>     criteria.

>     "If you wish to OR *between* fields, you must use the Guided
>     Search."

I use:

* One font to indicate what the user types,
* another font to indicate what the system types,
* a third font (the book font) for running text,
* the book font, italicized, for ordinary emphasis,
* a fourth font for non-words such as signal names or hexadecimal constants.

In our case, the user's input is in Helvetica, the system's output is in
Courier, the book font is Sabon, and the non-word font is Helvetica (which
is doing double duty).

System output and user input are normally put in paragraphs by themselves,
rather than buried in running text.  It's clearer, and we also believe
that mixing serif fonts (Courier and Sabon) inside a paragraph should
be a hanging offense.  Such rules change the way the material is
presented.  In this case, it encourages it to be broken down into a
more procedural style.

If someone had dropped your paragraph onto my desk, I would do the
following things to it (@helv() means 'Helvetica,' @i() means 'italic.'):

  For example, to search for words in the @helv(Text) field for either
  the term @i(oil) or the word @i(petroleum), enter:

      @helv(oil, petroleum)
        or
      @helv(petroleum, oil)

  The resulting set will contain any records containing at least one
  of the two words.

  (A comma in the search string specifies the @helv(OR) operator, which
  searches for records that match either the criteria on the left side
  of the comma, the criteria on the right side, or both.)

        -- Robert