Fwd: XDG critical grammar issue

[Philipp Wolfer]

Am Fr., 21. Juni 2024 um 11:00 Uhr schrieb David Chmelik <dchmelik at gmail.com
>:

> [...]
>
> A bugs.KDE.org person mistakenly told me it's 'title case', but most
> aren't names/titles rather than generic (non-title) categories--as in my
> first paragraph's example--which aren't proper nouns.
>


Some notes just because I researched the user interface capitalization
standards for various platforms recently. Title case (
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Title_case) for many UI elements is very
common and actually recommended in the style guides for various platforms.
That's true for window titles, but also notably for button labels and menu
items.

Here are a few key guidelines:

*Microsoft style guides* recommend title case only for window titles,
sentence case otherwise. See

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/win32/uxguide/text-ui#capitalization

*Use title-style capitalization for titles, sentence-style capitalization
for all other UI elements. *

It's worth mentioning that the older style preferred title case for more UI
elements, including buttons.


The *Apple human interface guidelines* leaves it to each app whether they
want to use title or sentence case, but it should be done consistently. See:

https://developer.apple.com/design/human-interface-guidelines/writing#Best-practices
<https://developer.apple.com/design/human-interface-guidelines/writing>

*Decide whether you want to use title case or sentence case for alerts,
page titles, headlines, button labels, and links. Throughout the HIG,
you’ll find guidelines for specific components, but how you format your
text is a reflection of your app’s voice. Title case is more formal, while
sentence case is more casual. Choose a style that fits your app.*

They do recommend title case for menu items (but it is preferable to use
single word items):

*Use title-style capitalization if you need to use more than one word in
the menu title.*

and for buttons:

*Using title-style capitalization, consider starting the label with a verb
to help convey the button’s action — for example, a button that lets people
add items to their shopping cart might use the label “Add to Cart.”*



The *GNOME human interface guidelines* tend more towards using title case
for most elements

*Header capitalization should be used for any headings, including headings
in header bars, tab titles, and view titles. It should also be used for
short control labels that do not normally form proper sentences, such as
button labels, switch labels and menu items.*

https://developer.gnome.org/hig/guidelines/writing-style.html#capitalization



The *KDE human interface guidelines* are in this regard similar to GNOME:

https://develop.kde.org/hig/text_and_labels/#capitalization-and-punctuation

*Android Material 3 guidelines* recommend sentence case:

https://m3.material.io/foundations/content-design/style-guide/ux-writing-best-practices

-- 
Philipp


-- 
Philipp Wolfer
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