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.
Not long ago we abandoned the use of special styles for menu or option
names or buttons. It simply got to the point in our manuals that this use
of different styles was very distracting on the page. We still use a
special character style when describing particular text-based items in our
software, because these items can be lengthy and otherwise
indistinguishable from regular text in a paragraph.
For those who are interested in typography, for our user manuals we use a
combination of Avant Garde for headings and special-use paragraphs (notes,
hints) and Palton for regular body text. For shorter technical instruction
documents, we use Leawood Book for body text and Copperplate Gothic for
headings and such.
