Path: utzoo!utgpu!attcan!uunet!husc6!amcad!stech!sysop
From: sysop@stech.UUCP (Jan Harrington)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.mac
Subject: Re: A question for Mac Authors
Message-ID: <649@stech.UUCP>
Date: 2 Sep 88 10:31:26 GMT
References: <1233@aucs.UUCP>
Distribution: na
Organization: Scholastech, Inc., Waltham, Mass.
Lines: 54

in article <1233@aucs.UUCP>, peter@aucs.UUCP (Peter Steele) says:
> 
> Here's a dumb question that someone might have an answer to. I write a
> lot of documentation on my Mac. When I want a hyphen, I just press
> the minus key. When I want an em-dash (a long dash), I use option
> shift minus. The Mac keyboard also has a medium dash (option minus).
> When is this type of dash used in documentation as opposed to the
> short dash and the long dash?

The "en" dash (the one you call a medium dash) is often used to separate
numbers, as in "pages 12-14." (Note that the dash in the example is
a plain hyphen, since this Unix machine doesn't know one dash from the other.)

> 
> And while we're on the subject...
> 
> When I write user documentation, I often have things like
> 
>    ...click on the button called "Okay".
> 
> Note the period:                       ^
> Should this be outside the quotes as I have it, or should it go inside
> the quotes? What are the general rules for quoted words/phrases and
 punctuation in cases like this in technical documents?

The punctuation almost always goes inside the quote, as in "Okay." I know,
it seems weird, but every time I do it differently, some copy editor changes
it.
> 
> And one final one: When an italicized phrase ends in a semicolon or colon
> and the text that follows is not italicized, should the colon or semicolon
> be italics or normal?

Normal.
> 
> I know this is pretty mindless stuff to be wasting bandwidth on, but
> would someone like to enlighten me?
> 

This isn't mindless stuff, if it's important to you and makes your life easier.
I hope this helps (I've posted it because I know there are so many people
who write using this newsgroup!)

Jan Harrington, sysop
Scholastech Telecommunications
UUCP: husc6!amcad!stech!sysop or allegra!stech!sysop
BITNET: JHARRY@BENTLEY

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