Use of bold text within quotation marks Thread poster: George Rabel
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Greetings,
I have a simple question about a topic that has been bugging me, and for which I have not been able to find an asnwer.
Here it is:
When you write technical instructions in which there are instances of bold text within quotation marks, what should be bolded? Only text within the quotation marks, or the whole thing, including the quotation marks and the periods or commas?
Example:
A) Press "Brightness." If there's a blue check... See more Greetings,
I have a simple question about a topic that has been bugging me, and for which I have not been able to find an asnwer.
Here it is:
When you write technical instructions in which there are instances of bold text within quotation marks, what should be bolded? Only text within the quotation marks, or the whole thing, including the quotation marks and the periods or commas?
Example:
A) Press "Brightness." If there's a blue check mark to the left of "Automatic brightness," tap on it to disable this feature.
OR
B ) Press "Brightness." If there's a blue check mark to the left of "Automatic brightness," tap on it to disable this feature.
Common sense and logic tell me that only the text within the quotation marks should be bold, as in option B, but may be there is some rule out there prescribing the opposite.
NOTE: I do not have the option to use either bold type or quotation marks. I must use both, as it is standard practice in the company. What has not been clearly defined is whether the quotation marks themselves must be bolded.
Thank you! ▲ Collapse
| | | | Robert Forstag 
United States
Local time: 18:27
Spanish to English
+ ...
| My assumption | Jun 5, 2013 |
I think that any adjacent period, comma, etc. is formatted the same as the word that precedes it (i.e., whether that word be bold or italic) but that the quotation marks themselves are to be set in standard font.
I will be interested in a definitive answer here also.
In the particular text you cite, it strikes me that the quotation marks is redundant in conjunction with the use of boldface type....
[Edited at 2013-06-05 14:40 GMT]
| | | | | Just the word | Jun 9, 2013 |
Just the word, not the quotation marks, unless the source is consistent in always putting the quotation marks in bold. I would not put the English punctuation that precedes the closing quotation mark in bold. In fact, in examples like you give, e.g. 'Brightness', i.e. just a one-word term, I would not put any punctuation before the closing mark. All the more so considering how no punctuation was used to introduce that quotation.
Thus, it would look like this:
B) Press '... See more Just the word, not the quotation marks, unless the source is consistent in always putting the quotation marks in bold. I would not put the English punctuation that precedes the closing quotation mark in bold. In fact, in examples like you give, e.g. 'Brightness', i.e. just a one-word term, I would not put any punctuation before the closing mark. All the more so considering how no punctuation was used to introduce that quotation.
Thus, it would look like this:
B) Press 'Brightness'. If there's a blue check mark to the left of 'Automatic brightness', tap on it to disable this feature.
In American English, I'd opt for double quotation marks unless a relevant style guide provided otherwise, but I still wouldn't put the full stop or the comma inside the quotation marks. Also, I'd probably try to talk the client out of using quotation marks in this situation in the English text, no matter the client's initial opposition. The client's company may be unduly influenced by its own native language and the typography of that language. Some languages insist on wrapping names in quotations (e.g. company names, names of various establishments etc.), which probably rubs off on commands and options available in software, but if it depended me (for example because I worked directly for the client rather than an agency working for an agency that worked for an MLV), there'd be no quotation marks there but only the bold font alone.
Thus:
B) Press Brightness. If there's a blue check mark to the left of Automatic brightness, tap on it to disable this feature.
[Edited at 2013-06-09 02:17 GMT]
[Edited at 2013-06-09 02:20 GMT] ▲ Collapse
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