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Joel wondered: <<A style guide that I have says that 'baud rate' is
redundant because baud is a rate (similar to ATM machine). And yet,
saying something like, "select the appropriate baud" just seems odd to
read. Any opinions on keeping or dropping "rate"?>>
This is one of those situations such as "ATM machine" and "Sierra
mountains" in which the guideline is technically correct, but
contradicts common usage. Although you can insist on the pure
definition, it's often simpler to revise so as to avoid the problem.
For example: "the rate (baud)".
Once you've established that "baud" is the specific type of rate you
mean, you can subsequently just refer to "the rate". Like defining an
acronym, it may be necessary to periodically redefine the meaning of
"rate" (e.g., once per chapter or help topic) if you're not certain
readers will have encountered the definition when they dive into your
docs. At the cost of a single word per chapter or topic, this
redefinition is a nice compromise between parsimony and incomprehension.
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Geoff Hart (www.geoff-hart.com)
ghart -at- videotron -dot- ca / geoffhart -at- mac -dot- com
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Effective Onscreen Editing: http://www.geoff-hart.com/books/eoe/onscreen-book.htm
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Free Software Documentation Project Web Cast: Covers developing Table of
Contents, Context IDs, and Index, as well as Doc-To-Help
2009 tips, tricks, and best practices. http://www.doctohelp.com/SuperPages/Webcasts/
Help & Manual 5: The complete help authoring tool for individual
authors and teams. Professional power, intuitive interface. Write
once, publish to 8 formats. Multi-user authoring and version control! http://www.helpandmanual.com/
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