Humdinger wrote:
Yes, but it all boils down to either "title" or "sentence" capitalization. And Apple, too, uses "title" everywhere but, sentences in dialogs and longer options for e.g. radio buttons. (What Ryan said about more than 4/5 words applies here.)
It always boils down to two choices; that's all there is. :)
If I had to be honest, from a linguistic point of view, it is really strange that title case is used for all menu entries indistinctively. When the menu entry is used to open a window, then it makes sense to use title case, as the menu label shows the title of the window that it will open. But for menu entries like "Paste Without Formatting," I have a hard time justifying the use title case. I do realize that it would be easier to apply the title case across the board rather than selectively, so maybe that's the way to do. Maybe I am looking at this the wrong way... :)What about menus and menu items, buttons? Title case, right?No. I feel the same. I'd write "Forward without Attachments"
This would be very strange and incorrect use of capitalization from a grammar POV, and that's the kind of use that I think we need to avoid.
So:* Last word: always cap. * 2 words: always cap. * 3+ words in menus/labels/buttons: 1st, last and nouns cap. to/from/without/etc lowercase. * Normal English sentence style for radio/checkbox/dialog text. 4/5+ words should be formulated as sentence.
Capitalization on the basis of the number of words or because the word is the last one does not make any sense to me, and I don't see why we should apply such criteria. IMHNSHO, this is incorrect capitalization which nobody would use on printed text, and I can't find a reason or logic why it should be used on a GUI.
If I am not wrong, in English one capitalizes proper nouns, names and titles (native speakers in the know, please jump in to confirm or deny). To me, that's the criteria that should be applied in principle to the GUI as well; the question is how to translate that to the various GUI elements.
My 2 cents. :) Cheers, Jorge/aka Koki
