Re: periods inside quotation marks?

[Scott Browne <sbrowne -at- UNICOMP -dot- NET>]

On Tue, 9 Jun 1998 Shannon White wrote:

> I am doing online Help for an application that has several buttons
> that use odd terminology.  The interface design (due to egos) will not
> be changed, so I have to make do.
>
> Question:  in referring to a button, where does the punctuation go?
<snip>
> If you think you have it figured out, here is the kicker.  I have
> several buttons that use punctuation within the button name, such as
> Modify. . .
<snip>

Shannon,

My own opinion (and that's all it is, I have nothing to back it up) is
that the punctuation would go outside the quotes. However, I would
suggest not using quotes at all. When I document this type of
interface, I usually use a different typeface (or perhaps Bold) to
signify a button name. I don't use the quotes.

As for the buttons which have the ... punctuation, don't include the
periods. Refer simply to the MODIFY button. The periods are used to
indicate that when the button is clicked, more information will be
required. Usually, another dialog box will pop up requesting more
input.

The same is true for menu commands. The SAVE command, when selected,
saves the document (or whatever) without further prompting. The SAVE AS
command, if you look on your file menu, uses the ... to indicate that
more input is required when you select it. In this case, the SAVE AS
dialog will pop up requesting a name and location of the file to
be saved.

Using the ... to indicate that a further step will be required is a
standard convention in many Windows applications. Although most
end-users don't know about it.

Hope this helps.

Scott
sbrowne -at- unicomp -dot- net
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