Re: [libreoffice-documentation] "how-to" or "howto"

[Jean Weber <jeanweber@gmail.com>]

Thanks, Dennis. Although I don't consider Wikipedia a definitive
source, it's always nice when it agrees with me. ;-)

I note this sentence in the Wikipedia article you cited: 'The correct
way to write it in English is "how-to", but it is common practice to
write it as "HOWTO" in the Linux community.' That explains to me why
many people on this project are used to the all-caps version. However,
the majority of LO's users are Windows users and, therefore, I assume
most the readers of our documentation are Windows users; they are less
likely to be familiar with Linux conventions.

Unfortunately, no style guide citation is given for the statement 'The
correct way to write it in English is "how-to",' and I've been unable
to find anything about this in a quick look through my style guides.
Another possibility is to use "how-to" as an adjective, not a noun:
for example, "a how-to guide" instead of "a how-to" or "a list of
how-to guides" instead of "a list of how-tos".

--Jean

On Sun, Nov 6, 2011 at 06:36, Dennis E. Hamilton
<dennis.hamilton@acm.org> wrote:
> You have Wikipedia on your side, <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HowTo>.
>
> The HOWTO as a companion of FAQ and README is noted.  I also think there is affinity with the MAN-page Unixism, <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Man_page>, although it is apparently uncommon to use "man" full-capitalized.
>
> North America goes off daylight savings time in about 13 hours.  Hoo Haa.  Now if I just go to be early anyhow!
>
>  - Dennis
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Jean Weber [mailto:jeanweber@gmail.com]
> Sent: Saturday, November 05, 2011 12:57
> To: documentation@global.libreoffice.org
> Subject: Re: [libreoffice-documentation] "how-to" or "howto"
>
> On Sunday, November 6, 2011, Marc Paré <marc@marcpare.com> wrote:
>> I just wanted to ask if there is an agreed view on whether to use the
> term "how-to" or "howto" or "HOWTO" (all uppercase) on our LibreOffice
> pages?
>>
>> I believe that the convention is "HOWTO" much in the same way that we use
> "FAQ" in uppercase. Is this how it is being used in documentation?
>>
>> I just wanted to ask for the sake on consistency on our web pages too.
>>
>> Cheers,
>>
>> Marc
>
>
> I prefer "how-to" as a generic term. It's not like  FAQ, which is an
> acronym or initialism. I haven't researched this in style guides,, however,
> so I'm not (yet) dead set on it. I don't recall if the term is in our own
> style guide (which isn't fully up to date); I'll check that later.
>
> --Jean
>
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