[no subject]

[Solveig Haugland <Solveig_Haugland -dot- GPS -at- GPS -dot- COM>]

Glenn Crumpley writes:

>>We're updating our style guide and trying to arrive at a uniform convention
for indicating field names.  We currently use quotes, but agree that it adds
too much noise to the page.  We are experimenting with bold, but many of us
feel it overwhelms the surrounding text.  I'd be interested in hearing what
conventions are currently in use by others.<<


We use no additional formatting to set off field names. "Enter the tax detail
code in the Tax Detail field..." seems to be enough. With all the other
conventions one needs to indicate manual titles, chapters, sections, code
examples, and so on, using bold or another method to set off something with a
perfectly good name and identifying method seems unnecessary.

I have another question in the same vein, however, about how to set off file
names in a multiplatform system. My department documents a multiplatform
accounting system, in which you can use Macintosh or Windows clients to enter
data on a UNIX, Macintosh or Windows server. With the introduction of UNIX, I'm
struggling with finding a convention that can be used to refer to the same
*file* on all three platforms. All uppercase isn't accurate for Mac and UNIX,
and using all lowercase doesn't stand out enough unless it's bold, which
creates a lot of noise on the page, which we try to avoid. The file names are
almost always the same on all three platforms, so I can never differentiate
them by saying, "this information is stored in the XXX file in Windows, the YYY
file on the Macintosh," and so on.

Any ideas? Do any of you deal with this or other multiplatform issues?


Solveig Haugland
Senior Editor, Great Plains Software
shauglan -at- gps -dot- com