TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
Ok, I understand the issue, and agree that it's best to put typed commands
in bold or italic or something to set them off. In the environment in
which I was working, the help files were in plain text, no bold, no italic,
no means of setting a word off except to put quotation marks around it--or
maybe asterisks, which would really confuse users. The other tech writer at
that job did the printed documentation, and had all the normal formatting
tools at his disposal, so it wasn't even an issue for him.