Re: Text highlighting

[Loren Castro <lfc -at- SOL -dot- CHINALAKE -dot- NAVY -dot- MIL>]

Glenn Crumpley issues a request:

> We're updating our style guide and trying to arrive
> at a uniform convention for indicating field names.
> We currently use quotes, but agree that it adds too
> much noise to the page.  We are experimenting with bold,
> but many of us feel it overwhelms the surrounding text.
> I'd be interested in hearing what conventions are currently
> in use by others.

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Glenn:

When I started what is now a 200-page software requirements specification, I
suggested these conventions to the system and software engineers:

        When a direct reference to a word or term on a screen
        appears in the text, I change its font to helvetica and
        bold it.  I use helvetica because that's what our gooey
        guy (thanks, Bev) uses on his screens.

        I use a programming convention and one of my own to
        identify variables and constants.  The programmers use
        underscores to connect multiple-word parameters, which
        I believe is common practice.  I add acronyms in square
        brackets to identify the source.

        Example:  ST_Max_Acceleration [SPF] is a variable in
        the System Parameters File.

        Example:  Target_Height_Slew_Max [SCF] is a constant in
        the System Constants File.

I'm not sure whether this has any direct application to your request, but it
works for us.

lfc -at- sol -dot- chinalake -dot- navy -dot- mil