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Re: Style question about quotes

Subject: Re: Style question about quotes
From: Beth Agnew <beth -dot- agnew -at- senecac -dot- on -dot- ca>
Date: Tue, 28 Nov 2006 11:52:34 -0500

I have a few example pages from a manual that, as Janice mentioned previously, looks like a ransom note. It has 14 different fonts on a 2-page spread, of a 7.5 x 9 manual! I think this is just legacy thinking. 20 years ago we did this sort of thing, now it's not necessary and we've learned more about readability and usability. Another old chestnut is the About this Manual section. Of course, if you're not using the font differentiation for commands and input, then you don't need to explain it.

What other outdated practices need rethinking in your shop?

Janice Gelb wrote:

Kevin Amery wrote:
At my former employer, we had a character style for UI elements that
used a different font. the idea was to make it easier for customers to
recognize what they should look for on the screen.

We feel the initial caps sufficiently distinguish the
GUI elements. Also, because of the frequent appearance
of GUI elements in procedural steps, the special font
or bolding is so common that it does not serve the
purpose of being highly visible from surrounding text
because most of the surrounding text also contains
the distinguishing font or bold. (I also think it's
ugly when every other word changes font or weight back
and forth.)

-- Janice
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References:
RE: Style question about quotes: From: Beth Agnew
Re: Style question about quotes: From: Janice Gelb
Re: Style question about quotes: From: Kevin Amery
Re: Style question about quotes: From: Janice Gelb

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