Re: Rhetorical question about formatting devices :-)

Subject: Re: Rhetorical question about formatting devices :-)
From: "Dick Margulis " <margulis -at- mail -dot- fiam -dot- net>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Date: Tue, 16 Oct 2001 11:20:56 -0400

Jessica,

Many people are moving away from the use of bold, italic, font changes, etc., to signify much of anything at all with respect to the user interface. It tends to make the page look as if it has measles, and is distracting to the reader.

Instead, what we do here is write in English, using caps where needed. Examples:

* The Edit User page opens.
* Click the Submit button.
* Complete the UserID and Initial Password fields.

The advantages of this style simplification are several:

1. The writers have fewer styles to keep track of, resulting in fewer errors.
2. The reader can get through the instructions faster.
3. We can use italics for emphasis, bold for lead-in headings, etc., as needed.

This change in style may be difficult to implement in a company that is wedded to the older way of doing things, so this may not work for you. But you might at least consider migrating to a cleaner look as you go forward.

Dick



"Nealon, Jessica" wrote:

>Are there any left? Is there some industrious writer with ties to layout
>design that are working on something other that bold, italics, underline,
>and the courier font?
>


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