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I would be happy to provide a sample page or two of the original OEM
manual, if anyone wants an exhibit to show the reviewers of how *not* to do
it. Let me know........
> Chris
On Mon, Aug 11, 2014 at 9:18 AM, Lynne Wright <Lynne -dot- Wright -at- tiburoninc -dot- com>
wrote:
> If you are the person responsible for producing documentation, then you
> should have the implicit authority to make these kinds of style decisions
> and set rules; You can't be expected to accommodate the style preferences
> of every different reviewer. So you could just say "Well, this is my area
> of expertise, and I need to have standardized rules. I've done my research,
> and this is how I've decided to do it."
>
> You can back it up by showing samples from Microsoft manuals, which use
> minimal bolding.
>
> You could also present the person with samples of one or two pages from a
> manual; one that uses your capitalizing convention, and one with all those
> elements in bold. Ask them which they think looks better/less busy.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: techwr-l-bounces+lynne -dot- wright=tiburoninc -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
> [mailto:techwr-l-bounces+lynne -dot- wright=tiburoninc -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com]
> On Behalf Of Nancy Allison
> Sent: August-11-14 11:09 AM
> To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
> Subject: Font tussle -- bolding bolding everywhere
>
> Hi, all.
>
> My company's UIs use sentence style capitalization. So, the UI controls
> for setting the reference level are labeled
>
> Ref. level
> Ref. level down
> Ref. level up
>
> I refer to these controls in text by capping each term: "The vial
> controls are Ref. Level, Ref. Level Up, and Ref. Level Down."
>
> I reserve bolding for those UI items that I am telling the user to act
> on directly (select, tap, click, and so on.) But I know one of my
> reviewers is going to come back to me with "make these bold so people
> know they're control names" or even just "make these bold so they stand
> out."
>
> I can explain about the caps setting the names off, I can explain about
> reserving bold for actions, but if my questioner is persistent, I need
> a solid resource to explain why it's bad to have bold type popping up
> all over the page. Am I, in fact, simply going on my personal hunch
> that overapplied bolding is distracting on the page and probably
> reduces readability? Have I simply made up these claims?
>
> I just searched for "do not overuse bold text" and found a few
> articles, but they are very general. They go so far as to say "Bold
> less instead of more." Well, thanks.
>
> Are there any actual readability tests or other source of data
> regarding the effectiveness of varying amounts of bolding on a page? By
> the way, translation costs are not even a factor, since our
> translator's software recognizes and preserves the bolding codes. They
> don't have to be inserted manually.
>
> Thanks for all suggestions.
>
> --Nancy
>
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