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The format that I have seen most often (and which I use) is:
Select File|Open|SOME.FIL
The use of the vertical bar as a seperator is useful because it is
grammatically uncommon (I believe it has some obscure phonetic
application) and catches the eye enough to differentiate the various
menu levels. Using a colon, dash or other commonly used characters raises
issues of preconditioning on the part of the reader in interpreting normal use
of these characters.
In other words, misusing a common colon or dash (et al) as a separator
here will likely cause the reader to loose the flow of the text, even if
only for a moment.
On Wed, 10 Jan 1996, George Allaman wrote:
> This is a system I use when showing friends how to use menus. I would like to
> propose it for technical manuals. I don't think I've seen it used anywhere,
> but it works really nicely.
> If I want a user to select File, then Open, then SOME.FIL, I represent it
> this way:
> Select File:Open:SOME.FIL
> It's concise, and great when the menu structure is deep or you need to
> combine several operations into one statement, like here:
Dan Azlin ** WORD ENGINEERS, Technical Writing & Publishing **
Ph/Fax: 508-921-8908 18 School Street
Internet: dazlin -at- shore -dot- net Beverly, MA 01915-4851
