TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
That's why I try to keep font usage simple. If you use Palatino for most of your text, then your bold font should be Palatino Bold of the same size, rather than some other font/size in bold. If you need Palatino Bold, then copy the format from text with that format in a typical paragraph and reapply it.
My point is that if you have techniques for working quickly, such as applying a character format by pasting or by using ESC c c, then you don't have to choose to use quotation marks to save time, because applying a font becomes much more efficient than typing quotation marks.
Since many people on the list have said that quotation marks look cluttered and bolding GUI elements makes text easier to read, I'm glad a few of us have been able to point out some tricks to quickly bold text.
________________________________
From: "Combs, Richard" <richard -dot- combs -at- Polycom -dot- com>
To: Ruth Sessions <ruthsessions03051 -at- yahoo -dot- com>; Robert Lauriston <robert -at- lauriston -dot- com>; "techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Sent: Tuesday, July 19, 2011 3:42 PM
Subject: RE: Quotation marks around user interface labels
Ruth Sessions wrote:
> If you are using FrameMaker, you can use the Copy Character Format menu
> item, then just paste that format wherever it's needed using CTRL-V on
> each word. I find this menu/keystroke combination makes quick work of
> bolding or italicizing text.
Caution: This does _not_ copy the character tag at the insertion point (or selected text). It copies the specific formatting at that location, including the underlying paragraph formatting, formatting applied via a char tag, and formatting applied ad hoc (e.g., clicking the Bold button). So that's what gets pasted.
It works OK if the pgfs from which you're copying and to which you're pasting have the same font settings. But if you copy the char format from a body pgf using 11 pt Palatino and you paste it to some text in a table pgf using 9 pt Futura -- well, that text becomes 11 pt Palatino, plus whatever char tag or ad hoc formatting you copied.
Richard G. Combs
Senior Technical Writer
Polycom, Inc.
richardDOTcombs AT polycomDOTcom
303-223-5111
------
rgcombs AT gmailDOTcom
303-903-6372
------
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Create and publish documentation through multiple channels with Doc-To-Help.
Choose your authoring formats and get any output you may need. Try
Doc-To-Help, now with MS SharePoint integration, free for 30-days. http://www.doctohelp.com
---
You are currently subscribed to TECHWR-L as archive -at- web -dot- techwr-l -dot- com -dot-
