Thanks, Dennis. Although I don't consider Wikipedia a definitive source, it's always nice when it agrees with me. ;-)
I note this sentence in the Wikipedia article you cited: 'The correct way to write it in English is "how-to", but it is common practice to write it as "HOWTO" in the Linux community.' That explains to me why many people on this project are used to the all-caps version. However, the majority of LO's users are Windows users and, therefore, I assume most the readers of our documentation are Windows users; they are less likely to be familiar with Linux conventions. Unfortunately, no style guide citation is given for the statement 'The correct way to write it in English is "how-to",' and I've been unable to find anything about this in a quick look through my style guides. Another possibility is to use "how-to" as an adjective, not a noun: for example, "a how-to guide" instead of "a how-to" or "a list of how-to guides" instead of "a list of how-tos". --Jean On Sun, Nov 6, 2011 at 06:36, Dennis E. Hamilton <[email protected]> wrote: > You have Wikipedia on your side, <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HowTo>. > > The HOWTO as a companion of FAQ and README is noted. I also think there is > affinity with the MAN-page Unixism, <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man_page>, > although it is apparently uncommon to use "man" full-capitalized. > > North America goes off daylight savings time in about 13 hours. Hoo Haa. > Now if I just go to be early anyhow! > > - Dennis > > -----Original Message----- > From: Jean Weber [mailto:[email protected]] > Sent: Saturday, November 05, 2011 12:57 > To: [email protected] > Subject: Re: [libreoffice-documentation] "how-to" or "howto" > > On Sunday, November 6, 2011, Marc Paré <[email protected]> wrote: >> I just wanted to ask if there is an agreed view on whether to use the > term "how-to" or "howto" or "HOWTO" (all uppercase) on our LibreOffice > pages? >> >> I believe that the convention is "HOWTO" much in the same way that we use > "FAQ" in uppercase. Is this how it is being used in documentation? >> >> I just wanted to ask for the sake on consistency on our web pages too. >> >> Cheers, >> >> Marc > > > I prefer "how-to" as a generic term. It's not like FAQ, which is an > acronym or initialism. I haven't researched this in style guides,, however, > so I'm not (yet) dead set on it. I don't recall if the term is in our own > style guide (which isn't fully up to date); I'll check that later. > > --Jean > > -- > Unsubscribe instructions: E-mail to [email protected] > Problems? > http://www.libreoffice.org/get-help/mailing-lists/how-to-unsubscribe/ > Posting guidelines + more: http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Netiquette > List archive: http://listarchives.libreoffice.org/global/documentation/ > All messages sent to this list will be publicly archived and cannot be deleted > > -- > Unsubscribe instructions: E-mail to [email protected] > Problems? > http://www.libreoffice.org/get-help/mailing-lists/how-to-unsubscribe/ > Posting guidelines + more: http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Netiquette > List archive: http://listarchives.libreoffice.org/global/documentation/ > All messages sent to this list will be publicly archived and cannot be deleted > -- Unsubscribe instructions: E-mail to [email protected] Problems? http://www.libreoffice.org/get-help/mailing-lists/how-to-unsubscribe/ Posting guidelines + more: http://wiki.documentfoundation.org/Netiquette List archive: http://listarchives.libreoffice.org/global/documentation/ All messages sent to this list will be publicly archived and cannot be deleted
