Re: Typographical treatment of GUI components

["Janice Gelb" <janice -dot- gelb -at- sun -dot- com>]

"atis" <atis -at- myway -dot- com> wrote:
>
>> The brand new fresh Sun Style Guide _Read Me First!  
>> A Style Guide for the Computer Industry_  Second Edition 
>> does not use bolding for GUI component names.
> 
> Can one get a look at this Style Guide online?
> 
> Would appreciate any pointers.
> 

The book can be purchased online but the text is not 
available online. However, as one of the authors, I 
can explain the reasoning behind this decision, as it 
is our in-house style as well.

We have found that one mostly refers to GUI component 
names in documents containing many procedures. The use 
of bold for GUI components in procedure after procedure 
means that the bolding, which is supposed to stand out 
in comparison to regular text, is so frequent that any 
given item doesn't really stand out. It also results in 
a distracting "ransom note" effect. Finally, the bolding 
often means that users will skip over often important 
explanatory text and just pick out the bold items.

-- Janice

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

NEED TO PUBLISH FRAMEMAKER CONTENT ONLINE? "Mustang" is a NEW single
sourcing tool for FrameMaker that lets you easily publish your content
online. No macro language required! http://www.ehelp.com/techwr-l3

Mercer University's online MS Program in Technical Communication Management:
Preparing leaders of tomorrow's technical communication organizations today.
See www.mercer.edu/mstco or write George Hayhoe at hayhoe_g -at- mercer -dot- edu -dot- 

---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as:
archive -at- raycomm -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
Send administrative questions to ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com -dot-  Visit
http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.