On 6/28/07, Gary Schnabl <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
Michele Zarri wrote: > Hello, > > I noticed that in some occasions throughout the user guide blue text > is used > in the main body (normally associated with strong emphasis). There is > however no character style for it neither guidelines on when it should be > used. > My proposal would be to revert this text to the default character or, > if we > believe it makes an useful addition, introduce a character style for > it (e.g. > OOoBlue or something like this) as well as indicate when it should be > used > in the howto document. > > Cheers, > > Michele > That blue was probably for formatting the text used in user-entered input. Past editions of the guides carried an overabundance of using quotation marks for a number of things: referring to chapters in other guides, user-entered input, enclosing various GUI component names mentioned in the text, etc. (BTW, the references to names of the various style guides (after those quotation marks were deleted and the reference format changed) still should be italicized, according to most US English style guides--and probably also for the other English flavors.) Eliminating quotation marks also has other advantages due to the differing manner of punctuating quotation marks among the various forms of English. No quotation marks--no punctuation issues with respect to various English dialects. Not having quotation marks for user input removes any ambiguity for those readers having doubts whether the quotation marks should also be included in their inputs. In my past editing of software manuals for programming firmware used for embedded microcontrollers and such, there have been instances where quotation marks MUST be included with the user input and others where they MUST NOT be so included. So, in the event that this could arise with OOo (and also uncluttering the exposition from needless punctuation), quotation marks were eliminated as much as possible. OOoAuthors styles use a variety of font effects (font typefaces, mostly), depending upon the GUI components. Other font effects, especially coloring among others, are not used much. The use of color is rarely used at all in our docs. However, coloring is one of the easier font effects to employ, and the various colors could carry a number of meanings. (Another BTW: we really do not inform the readers of the various font effects used--unlike many other documents that list their typographical conventions.) <rant> I find the occasional use of color to be far less irritating than the constant usage of left-aligned text--leaving all those "ragged right edges" for all text body paragraphs. Using justified text with text bodies--with or w/o automatic hyphenation)--eliminates those rough edges and might even save paper or lower page counts. </rant> -- Gary Schnabl 2775 Honorah Detroit MI 48209 (734) 245-3324
Hello Gary, I like colours (or colors (-: ) too, as long as they are applied consistently. If as you suggest we mark in blue the user input I will be happy to comply. I am reviewing chapter 9 of the Writer Guide and there blue is used to indicate what the cross reference text will be as well as to denote user inputs. As I wrote before, I would not mind having some guidance in the template and a character style (so we use only one shade of blue). Cheers, Michele
