Re: Describing buttons and fields

[Maggie Pierce Secara <maggiros -at- yahoo -dot- com>]

I don't think I ever use quotati0on marks in technical
docs.  Nope. I'm sure I don't.  I emphasize the names
of things I want you to click or press with bold, same
font, 1pt smaller than regular text.  When I say,
"Locate a file called Spandex" I give the title in
italics.  When I want to tell them to enter a specific
thing in a field, I never ever use quotes, because you
know good and well that they'll type in the quotes. 
So I say: 

Type: Spandex  

And if I tell them what to put in a bunch of fields in
a dialog, I do it with a table.  Not need for quotes.

I also say "Click OK." and not "Click the OK button."

Nope, quotation marks clutter the page and tire the
eye.  At least, they tire mine.


Cheers!

Maggie Secara



--- DaveC <peninsula -at- covad -dot- net> wrote:
> 
> Is it
> 4. Click the "Browse" button...
> or
> 4. Click the Browse button... ?
> 
> Are quotes in this situation reserved only for
> find the file labelled "Bozo and Herman"...?
> How do you use quotes in technical docs?
> 

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