On Tue, 2005-02-01 at 11:41 +0000, Patrick Costello wrote: > > Shaun McCance wrote: > > On Mon, 2005-01-31 at 22:00 -0400, Steven Garrity wrote: > > > >>I'm working on evaluating (and hopefully improving) the consistency of > >>save confirmation dialogs in Gnome [1] and there's a bug in the HIG that > >>is holding me up. [2] > >> > >>As the comments on the bug explain, the problem is that the "Close" and > >>"Close without Saving" buttons both have "C" as their shortcut key. This > >>should be relatively simple to resolve. > >> > >>A smaller issue (also mentioned in the bug comments): I'm not sure if > >>the "w" in "Close without Saving" should be capitalized or not. > >> > >>The HIG says [3] that "Command button labels" should use "header" > >>capitalization and that means all initial-caps, except for "Prepositions > >>of three or fewer letters: at, for, by, in, to". So I think "without" > >>should have an upper-case W. Can anyone confirm/deny this? > > > > > > The Gnome Documentation Style Guide agrees with this, and so this is > > probably the best option at this time. It is worth noting, however, > > that the Chicago Manual of Style does not agree. The CMS recommends > > against capitalizing any prepositions, unless they are the first word. > > > > I think it's high time we followed suit on this one. Breaking from CMS > > should only be done when there is very good reason to do so. > > > > I'm CC'ing gnome-doc-list to get the rest of the GDP's opinions. > > > > > > An interesting topic, but not as simple as you might think on first sight.
Oh wow, nice references. Thanks, Pat. > Some references about title rules: > > Chicago Manual of Style, 14th Edition > ------------------------------------- > > - Lowercase all prepositions in titles, BUT: > > - Always uppercase a preposition if it is the first word or the last word. > > See section 7.127. > > The New York Public Library Writer's Guide to Style and Usage, 1st Edition > -------------------------------------------------------------------------- > > - Lowercase those prepositions of four or fewer letters. > > See page 216. > > Microsoft Manual of Style for Technical Publications, 2nd Edition > ----------------------------------------------------------------- > > - Lowercase those prepositions of four or fewer letters, BUT: > > - Uppercase prepositions that are part of a phrasal verb, eg "Backing Up > Your Disk". > > - Always uppercase the first word and the last word, regardless of part of > speech: "Text to Look For". > > See page 34. > > Sun Editorial Style Guide > ------------------------- > > - Lowercase those prepositions of fewer than four letters. > > See page 25. > > GNOME Documentation Style Guide > ------------------------------- > > Rules relating to prepositions: > > - Initial uppercase letter of the first word. > - All lowercase letters for ... prepositions of less than four letters. > - Initial uppercase letter for prepositions of four letters or longer. > > See Chapter 3, Headings. I'll add the Apple Publications Style Guide to this: - Lowercase prepositions of three or fewer letters. - Uppercase prepositions that are part of a verbal phrase. - Always capitalize the first and last word. http://developer.apple.com/documentation/UserExperience/Conceptual/APStyleGuide/AppleStyleGuide2003.pdf (Apparently only available in PDF) > My Thoughts > ----------- > > The problem is that longer prepositions such as "without" or "between" are > often longer than other words in the title, and therefore strike an odd > note, for example if we apply the CMS guideline: > > "What Can You Do without Your Computer?" > > or > > "Sending Mail between Remote Users" > > Readers, who are usually not consciously aware of the different parts of > speech, would notice the different casing on the long preposition. The > casing rule in the above examples draws unnecessary attention to the > preposition, and so reduces the effectiveness of the title. The effect is > even more apparent in a UI label, which is what prompted the original > question, i.e.: > > "Close without Saving" > > So, balancing up the various reference sources, the nature of the problem, > and taking into consideration our current GDSG and HIG recommendations, I > think we should do the following: > > - Decide that this is one instance where we want to depart slightly from > the CMS, i.e. retain the advice to uppercase longer prepositions. > > - Expand the guidelines in the GDSG. > > The additional guidelines in the GDSG that I would suggest are as follows: > > - Uppercase prepositions that are part of a phrasal verb. [As recommended > by the MS MSTP] > > - Always uppercase the first word and the last word, regardless of part of > speech. [As recommended by both CMS and MS MSTP] > > Therefore, the label in the original message would be: > > "Close Without Saving". Yeah, my recommendation was based solely on standard industry behavior, but I see that CMS isn't really capturing an industry consensus in this case. I do agree that "Close without Saving" looks awkward. Personally, I've never liked seeing "from" capitalized, but it looks as if only Microsoft agrees with me. I agree with your first suggestion, and strongly agree with the second. -- Shaun _______________________________________________ gnome-doc-list mailing list [email protected] http://mail.gnome.org/mailman/listinfo/gnome-doc-list
