Gary Schnabl wrote:
I thought it would be generally informative to review a few lines using
the rationale in the Template How-to for their edits. Let's go through
four examples from the first two pages of the current, published Working
with Fields chapter, each in its present style/format:
Good idea. Thank you for starting this discussion. I don't expect
the writers to pay close attention to the use of character styles
(although of course I wish they would), but I do expect the
editors (including myself) to tidy up that sort of thing.
However, I readily admit that getting all the highlighting
consistent (or even defining what it should be) was very far down
on my priority list when we were producing the first version of
the manual, so I am very glad that someone is coming along later
to tidy it up.
(1) An example of a checkbox: Fields have a gray background when viewed
on screen, unless you have deselected the *Field shadings *checkbox, or
changed the color of field shadings, on the Options–OpenOffice.org –
Appearance dialog. [The manual used an overridden OOoTableText (It was
in a note.) with bold styling.
My version is (using OOoEmphasis and OOoMenuPath): Fields have a gray
background when viewed on screen, unless you have deselected the /Field
shadings/* *checkbox or changed the color of field shadings on the
Appearance dialog box (*Options – OpenOffice.org – Appearance*).
In this case, the words in parentheses are in fact the name of a
dialog box, NOT a path, so they should be in normal type, not
bold or italic. If those words were a path, they would start with
Tools > Options [...] and use the > sign between the words
instead of a dash.
I think that in most of the chapters, the names of checkboxes are
bold, not italic, but a good case can be made for considering
them the same as fields and thus italic (OOoEmphasis). I don't
have a strong preference one way or the other.
(2) An example of a tab in a dialog box: The *User Defined *tab provides
four fields for you to use as required. [The manual used a overridden
OOoTextBody with bold styling.]
The style/format for a tab seems to be undefined in the How-to. I
planned to use OOoEmphasis: The /User Defined/* *tab provides four
fields for you to use as required.
The How-to does mention using OOoEmphasis (italic) for tab names
in a dialog box.
(3) An example with textfields: The example in Figure 3 shows that Info
1 has been changed to Chapter subtitle, Info 2 to Chapter number and
Info 3 to Name of guide. [All OOoTextBody.]
I planned to employ OOoEmphasis for the six entries: The example in
Figure 3 shows that /Info 1/ has been changed to /Chapter subtitle/,
/Info 2/ to /Chapter number/ and /Info 3/ to /Name of guide/.
In general, I have tried to avoid the use of italic (or any other
highlighting) unless it really adds value to the text, but my
approach has led to some odd inconsistencies. Your intended
changes are certainly in line with the how-to, so I don't have
any objection to what you are suggesting.
(4) An example of a name for a dialog box and a command: In the small
pop-up dialog *Edit Field Names* (not shown here), type the field names
you want, then click *OK*. [Here the dialog box's name and the OK used
an overridden OOoTextBody with bold styling.]
My planned version using proper OOo style/formats--OOeTextBody and
OOoMenuPath: In the small pop-up dialog box (Edit Field Names, not
shown here), type the field names you want, then click *OK*.
I agree: the name of the dialog should be in normal type, and
changing the location of the parenthesis is good too.
--Jean
