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Thought I'd delurk to comment here. This seems to be similar to the
thread a while back about punctuation when writing down what the user should
type in steps or what have you. Some think that if you include a comma,
period, colon, or other such thing, then the user is tempted to type in that
as well as what you want them to type. Just the same, some people might
think that, since the term is bold and the colon is bold, then they must
look for that and only that. Personally, I wouldn't bold the colon. Another
possible solution would be to include the terms in a table and make the
lines of the table invisible. Everything gets lined up nice and neat but
there's not a question about what should be bold or not. Just a suggestion.
Sam Beard
Technical Writer
General Dynamics
-----Original Message-----
From: Jo Baer [mailto:jbaer -at- mailbox1 -dot- tcfbank -dot- com]
Sent: Tuesday, October 05, 1999 3:32 PM
To: TECHWR-L
Cc: TECHWR-L
Subject: Re: bold the colon?
Yes, bold the colon. I have included definition lists in my
documentation for years. I have always used bold for the item being
described and the colon following the item. I don't think I've seen it
any other way. But try it both ways and look at it--see which looks best
to you.
Best of luck,
Jo
Chuck wrote:
>
>
> In reference documentation, documenting the various UI elements on screen,
I
> create lists such as
> Widget1: Widget1 description.
> Widget2: Widget2 description.
> Widget3: Widget3 description.
> and so on......
>
> I apply bold to "Widget1" and "Widget2." Should I apply bold to the colon
as
> well?
>
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