SUMMARY: Capitalize abbreviated document name or not?

[rivka <rivka -at- DIRECT -dot- CA>]

Thanks enormously to all who answered. The clearest, and (in my
opinion) best response was from someone who wishes to remain
anonymous.

The rule is that a general or generic reference is lowercase. If
"Guide" refers to part of a title, it is uppercase.

However language is in evolution, and most people prefer to use
lower case for all occurrences. This is particularly the case when
the text must be translated.

Thanks again everyone. What a treat to have such fine colleagues!
Rivka
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When referring to the book as "the Guide" use an upper case G if
"Guide" is part of the book's title.
When referring to the book as "this guide" use a lower case g.

Little, Brown states that titles and subtitles of works are to be
captilized.  So, when referring to the particular guide by part of
its title, in this case "Guide," as an abbreviation for the "The
XYZ Guide," then you should capitalize it.  When referring to it
as one of many guides, such as "this guide," or "that guide," then
it should not be capitalized.

In your example, "Five-hundred people have contributed to this
guide"
"guide" should not be capitalized.

If, however, the sentence read "Five-hundred people have
contributed to the Guide"
and "Guide" was an intentional abbreviated form of the actual
title, then yes, it would be capitalized.
Anonymous
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It has been my experience to use lowercase when referring to a
guide
by anything other than its specific title.  It is what I have
always
been taught and what I have typically seen published.

My Webster's Standard American Style Manual has this to
offer:  "Elements of full titles are lowercased when they stand
alone."

500 copies of _The XYZ Guide_ have been published.
500 copies of the guide have been published.
500 people contributed to _The XYZ Guide._
500 people contributed to the guide.

Alex Dianna
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Using "this" implies that the word "guide" is used
     generically, hence:

     Five-hundred people have contributed to this guide.
     Five-hundred people have contributed to this book.
     Five-hundred people have contributed to this manual.

     To use "Guide" as an abbreviation for "The XYZ Guide,"
     you would have to write something like:

     Five-hundred people have contributed to the Guide.

     Reinhard
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The general rule is to not capitalize common-noun elements that
stand alone in place of the full name. A few short forms are
capitalized
because of clear association with one place, such as using "the
Village"
for Greenwich Village. I used The Gregg Reference Manual by
William A.
Sabin for my reference.

So, my vote is to not capitalize it.

Laurel Nelson
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I say don't capitalise. It has no purpose and does nothing to make

the sentence easier to read. Although probably not relevant in
this
case, another reason to be mean with capitals is translation. My
company works in 17 languages. English has the widest usage of
caps
than any other European language, often for no grammatical reason.

These caps can cause problems when translating the text into
another
language.  I insist in my company that our writers replace all
unecessary capital  letters (such as this example) with lower-case

letters.
Jennifer
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I wouldn't capitalize; seems to me you're using the word "guide"
generically -- the name of the book isn't just "Guide" by itself,
so "guide" isn't a proper noun in this case.

-- Janice
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 The Associated Press Style Book would tell you that when you're
making
     this second reference, you should use lowercase, because
you're not
     using the entire actual title. You're using a generic
reference to it.
     It's a guide.
     Beth
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Yeah, my wife is a teacher. And, she gives me grief about grammar.
It's
the prescriptivist's that rule education.

But, the proper noun rule would say that this Guide is not a set
not a
single entity, so it should not be capitalized.

In "The XYZ Guide," you are using the up style rule for
capitalization.
It could just as easily been "The XYZ guide" had you used the down
style
rule.

But, with all things TW, just pick a rule, document your choice in
the
Style Guide, and move on. Ain't no absolutes. But, there are
absolutists.

David W. Locke
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I would have to disagree with you. IMO there is no reason to
capitalize this
word--perhaps that is why you can't find any references to support
your
position.

BTW, when you say "Five-hundred people have contributed to this
Guide." Do
you mean that 500 people contributed to this particular guide only
or did
500 people contribute to each one of the guides in the series? If
the
latter, were they the same 500 people contributing to each guide?

As you might have guessed, I'm feeling picky tonight.

Regards,
Dave.
====================================================================

 If the name of the book is _The XYZ Guide_, and a sentence reads
something such as "Thank you for reading this Guide," then NO, do
not
capitalize guide.  Guide, when used in a sentence as a reference
to
the actual book, should not be capitalized.  Guide, in that
instance,
is only coincidentally the name of the book as well as being the
service the book performs:  a guide.  It should read "Thank you
for
reading this guide," or "Thank you for reading _The XYZ Guide_."

Shannon White