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Subject:RE: When to bold From:Caroline Briggs <carolinp -at- Exchange -dot- Microsoft -dot- com> To:"'Humbird, LenX'" <lenx -dot- humbird -at- intel -dot- com>, TECHWR-L <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Wed, 23 Feb 2000 16:08:56 -0800
What's the delivery mechanism? If you're delivering content online, either
on the web or in HTML Help, your options are limited. Underlining is
obviously out, and italics are really hard to read on screen. You need to be
much more specific in your question, I think.
-----Original Message-----
From: Humbird, LenX [mailto:lenx -dot- humbird -at- intel -dot- com]
Sent: Wednesday, February 23, 2000 11:05 AM
To: TECHWR-L
Subject: RE: When to bold
Perhaps this is an antique way to address the matter. I believe you should
reserve embolding for text which is most important. IMHO, bold text catches
the eye faster than italic, underline, spacing, changes in typeface, boxing,
shading, special characters, and even changes in type size. (There are
exceptions, of course; combinations of the above mentioned attributes; some
fonts have very heavy bold faces.) If the reader is skimming, chances are
you want that person to see the important information (such as loss of data,
hazard, etc.), and pass over the details (such as command syntax). So unless
the text is important, use some other style to set it apart.
> From: Susan Arbing[SMTP:Sarbing -at- ITCCanada -dot- com]
>
> I'm in the midst of a discussing about bolding menu commands in
> procedures.
>
> I am writing a manual for a software program. My QA person is suggesting
> that I bold the commands. For example, in the step "Click Save" save
> would be bolded.
I'm not inclined toward bolding. I think bolding is more useful
> intraining materials and tutorials where a user is being introduced to a
> product and needs a lot of emphasis and reinforcement.
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