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Re: Title case capitalization rules in Firefox

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Axel Hecht

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Oct 2, 2006, 12:38:44 PM10/2/06
to
Matthew Gertner wrote:
> Can anyone give me a definitive answer on the rules for title case
> capitalization used in Firefox menus? Based on "Find in This Page" and
> discussions on IRC, I am assuming that internal preposition and pronouns
> are not capitalized. ChatZilla has a "Who is" item but I think that this
> is a mistake since only internal (i.e. not initial or final) words
> should be considered in standard English titles (all others are
> capitalized always). But the implication might be that forms of "to be"
> should also be lower case when used internally.
>
> Any official information on this would be appreciated.

Matthew, .l10n would be the right group to find all the places where
we'd be inconsistent with any rules, if they'd exist.

.firefox may be better to find the UE guys like beltzner or so, which
I'd expect to have an opinion. Not necessarily a spec, though.

Axel

beltzner

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Oct 3, 2006, 12:33:56 PM10/3/06
to Axel Hecht, dev-apps...@lists.mozilla.org
On 10/2/06, Axel Hecht <l1...@mozilla.com> wrote:
> .firefox may be better to find the UE guys like beltzner or so, which
> I'd expect to have an opinion. Not necessarily a spec, though.

No spec, other than to say that we use headline-style (also called
"Title Case") capitalization for menuItems. While the Chicago Manual
of Style is subscriber-only, I found two references that broadly agree
with each other on what this style entails:

Reference 1:

capitalize all words except articles (e.g., "the," "a," "an"),
prepositions (e.g., "into," "in," "by"), and coordinating conjunctions
(e.g., "and," "or"). The first and last words of the title and
subtitle are always capitalized, regardless of their part of speech.


Reference 2:

Capitalize the first and last words and all nouns, pronouns, verbs,
adjectives, and adverbs of titles and subtitles. Lowercase articles
(a, an, the), coordinating conjunctions (and, but, for, nor, or, so,
yet), and prepositions (to, toward, with, under, etc.), regardless of
length, unless they are the first or last word of a title or subtitle.
Lowercase the words to and as in any grammatical function. Lowercase
the second part of a species name or parts of proper names that would
be lowercased in text, such as de or von: Esox lucius, Alexis de
Tocqueville.

In the given example ("Find in This Page") the word "This" is properly
capitalized as its a preposition.

[1]: http://www.cbmr.org/pubs/sguide.htm#headline_style
[2]: http://www.buffalostate.edu/collegerelations/x572.xml

cheers,
mike
--
/ mike beltzner / phenomenologist / mozilla corporation /

Axel Hecht

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Oct 3, 2006, 12:59:38 PM10/3/06
to
beltzner wrote:
> On 10/2/06, Axel Hecht <l1...@mozilla.com> wrote:
>> .firefox may be better to find the UE guys like beltzner or so, which
>> I'd expect to have an opinion. Not necessarily a spec, though.
>
> No spec, other than to say that we use headline-style (also called
> "Title Case") capitalization for menuItems. While the Chicago Manual
> of Style is subscriber-only, I found two references that broadly agree
> with each other on what this style entails:
>
> Reference 1:
>
> capitalize all words except articles (e.g., "the," "a," "an"),
> prepositions (e.g., "into," "in," "by"), and coordinating conjunctions
> (e.g., "and," "or"). The first and last words of the title and
> subtitle are always capitalized, regardless of their part of speech.
>
>
> Reference 2:
>
> Capitalize the first and last words and all nouns, pronouns, verbs,
> adjectives, and adverbs of titles and subtitles. Lowercase articles
> (a, an, the), coordinating conjunctions (and, but, for, nor, or, so,
> yet), and prepositions (to, toward, with, under, etc.), regardless of
> length, unless they are the first or last word of a title or subtitle.
> Lowercase the words to and as in any grammatical function. Lowercase
> the second part of a species name or parts of proper names that would
> be lowercased in text, such as de or von: Esox lucius, Alexis de
> Tocqueville.
>

How nice of them to use Esox lucius as example :-)

Thanks

Axel

Myk Melez

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Oct 3, 2006, 3:50:29 PM10/3/06
to
beltzner wrote:

> Reference 1:
>
> capitalize all words except articles (e.g., "the," "a," "an"),
> prepositions (e.g., "into," "in," "by"), and coordinating conjunctions
> (e.g., "and," "or").

...


> In the given example ("Find in This Page") the word "This" is properly
> capitalized as its a preposition.

If reference 1 says to "capitalize all words except... prepositions...",
and "This" is a preposition, then it seems like we should lowercase it.

But I think "This" is actually an adjective in this case, so its
capitalization is correct.

-myk

beltzner

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Oct 3, 2006, 7:09:40 PM10/3/06
to Myk Melez, dev-apps...@lists.mozilla.org
On 10/3/06, Myk Melez <m...@mozilla.org> wrote:
> But I think "This" is actually an adjective in this case, so its
> capitalization is correct.

Er. Yes. Whoops. Talk about typo!

Matthew Gertner

unread,
Oct 4, 2006, 3:28:54 AM10/4/06
to
beltzner wrote:
> On 10/3/06, Myk Melez <m...@mozilla.org> wrote:
>
>> But I think "This" is actually an adjective in this case, so its
>> capitalization is correct.
>
>
> Er. Yes. Whoops. Talk about typo!

Interesting, my first reaction was that "This" might be considered an
article but my dictionary agrees with Myk. Thanks for the clarification
(and thanks for cross-posting here, Axel).

Matt

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