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Capitalization in English UI

Posted: Sun Jan 19, 2014 11:06 am
by Sergey Tkachenko
Currently, RichViewActions use classic rules in English localization: title-style capitalization for menu items, command buttons, tabs.
However, modern Microsoft UI guidelines ( http://msdn.microsoft.com/en-us/library ... 74176.aspx ) recommend using sentence-style capitalization for these controls (they suggest using title caps only for window captions)

(title-style examples: "Border and Background...", "Save As..."
sentence-style example: "Border and background...", "Save as...")

In out working version of RichViewActions, we changed buttons and tabs (but not menu items) to sentence caps , but now I have doubts, because many applications, including MS Word, continue following classic capitalization rules and use title caps.

PS: Arguments are welcome.

Posted: Sun Jan 19, 2014 9:09 pm
by lkessler
Microsoft does not always follow its own UI rules consistently, probably because they've got so many people developing so many products, and they've got so many UI rules, that not everybody knows all the rules.

Check this discussion here:http://ux.stackexchange.com/questions/2 ... ser-interf

where the top answer said:
"However, style guides don't all agree with each other and sometimes they change. For example, the Windows UX Guidelines used to recommend title-style capitalization for buttons and menu items, but now recommends sentence-style capitalization. Title-style capitalization is only recommended for tabs, window titles, pages, programs, folders, and other major components.”