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To leverage from what Keith wrote, it's a contextual matter. If it's
labeled that way on the device, I might go along with capitalizing it.....
but not without first raising questions about it.
Ordinarily, I'd never capitalize *external port*, as it's not a proper
noun. And as Jack wrote, Engineers Are Prone to Capitalizing Everything.
Why? Because they Don't Know Any Better.
Are the other ports capitalized on their labels? Then maybe External Port
(I said *maybe*).
But not knowing the context, I'd opt for all lowercase, coupled with a
cropped screenshot of the physical port and its label. That way it doesn't
matter how the physical port is labeled; your body copy will be correct.
On Thu, Jun 9, 2016 at 12:58 AM, Keith Hood <bus -dot- write -at- gmail -dot- com> wrote:
> In the absence of any more compelling argument, just maintain consistency.
> If the other port names are capitalized, then capitalize this one as well.
>
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> On Wed, Jun 8, 2016 at 2:06 PM, Jim <jameswitkin -at- gmail -dot- com> wrote:
>
> > I'm having this ongoing debate with my engineer coworkers: when to
> > capitalize the names of the parts that make up our hardware platform.
> I'm
> > describing a server we manufacture for telecom networks. On the back of
> the
> > server are various ports and plugs. I am providing instructions for
> > connecting a specific cable to a specific port, which we call the
> "external
> > port."
> >
> > Question: should reference to this specific port be capitalized (External
> > Port) or not (external port). My engineer coworkers say yes because we
> are
> > referring to a specific port so this is a type of proper noun. All the
> > other ports on the server have specific names so these should also be
> > capitalized. I'm not sure this does qualify as a proper noun. Thoughts?
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