Re: MS Manual of Style, disagreements with -Reply

Subject: Re: MS Manual of Style, disagreements with -Reply
From: Yvonne DeGraw <yvonne -at- SILCOM -dot- COM>
Date: Mon, 9 Jun 1997 09:39:16 -0700

Adele Higgins <adele -at- insurquote -dot- com> and Robin M. Allen
<robin -dot- m -dot- allen -at- worldnet -dot- att -dot- net> wrote that they use a vertical bar (pipe)
rather than an arrow in menu command instructions.

Previously, I used a vertical bar, also. It also caught on well in the
corporate culture. The doc tool I was using at the time didn't provide an
easy way to do arrows in text.

Eventually, I decided that I wanted a character that provided a sense of
motion and connection rather than separation. Also, I found that advanced
audiences thought about the redirection function of a pipe in a UNIX command
or saw it as providing options. (In SQL and other syntax definitions, "[ one
| two ]" can mean include either "one" or "two".)

I think "File | Open" works, but "File->Open" works better for me. (Perhaps
not enough to change if you are already using File | Open, because these
styles can really become a part of corporate/customer culture.)
Yvonne DeGraw, Technical Services o Technical Writing
yvonne -at- silcom -dot- com o Online Help
http://www.silcom.com/~yvonne o Web Documentation
Tel: 805/683-5784 o Database Publishing
Chair, STC Region 8 Conference: http://stc.org/region8/snb/reg8conf
Santa Barbara, CA Call for Presentations deadline is June 30.

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