Text Style Guidelines

Inserting Spaces Between Sentences

If any part of your app's user interface displays two or more sentences in a paragraph, be sure to insert only a single space between the ending punctuation of one sentence and the first word of the next sentence.

Although much of the text in an app's user interface is in the form of labels and short phrases, app help, alerts, and dialogs often contain longer blocks of text. You should examine these blocks of text to make sure that extra spaces do not appear between sentences.

Using the Ellipsis Character

When it appears in the name of a button or a menu item, an ellipsis character (…) indicates to the user that additional information is required before the associated operation can be performed. Specifically, it prepares the user to expect the appearance of a window or dialog in which to make selections or enter information before the command executes.

Because users expect instant action from buttons and menu items (as described in “Buttons” and “Menu Appearance and Behavior”), it's especially important to prepare them for this alternate behavior by appropriately displaying the ellipsis character. The following guidelines and examples will help you decide when to use an ellipsis in menu item and button names.

Use an ellipsis in the name of a button or menu item when the associated action:

• Requires specific input from the user.

  For example, the Open, Find, and Print commands all use an ellipsis because the user must select or input the item to open, find, or print.

  You can think of commands of this type as needing the answer to a specific question (such as "Find what?") before executing.

• Is performed by the user in a separate window or dialog.

  For example, Preferences, Customize Toolbar, and App Store all use an ellipsis because they open a window or dialog in which the user sets preferences, customizes the toolbar, or shops for new apps.

  To see why such commands must include an ellipsis, consider that the absence of an ellipsis implies that the app performs the action for the user. For example, if the Customize Toolbar command does not include an ellipsis, it implies that there is only one way to customize the toolbar and the user has no choice in the matter.

• Always displays an alert that warns the user of a potentially dangerous outcome and offers an alternative.

  For example, Restart, Shut Down, and Log Out all use an ellipsis because they always display an alert that asks the user for confirmation and allows the user to cancel the action. Note that Close does not have an ellipsis because it displays an alert only in certain circumstances (specifically, only when the document or file being closed has unsaved changes).

  Before you consider providing a command that always displays an alert, determine if it's really necessary to get the user's approval every time. Displaying too many alerts asking for user confirmation can dilute the effectiveness of alerts.

Don't use an ellipsis in the name of a button or menu item when the associated action:

• Does not require specific input from the user.

  For example, the New, Save a Version, and Duplicate commands do not use an ellipsis because either the user has already provided the necessary information or no user input is required. That is, New always opens a new document or window, Save a Version saves a snapshot of the current document, and Duplicate creates a new copy of the current document.

• Is completed by the opening of a panel.

  A user opens a panel to view information about an item or to keep essential, task-oriented controls available at all times (for more information about panels, see “Panels”). A command to open a panel, therefore, is completed by the display of the window and should not have an ellipsis in its name. Examples of such commands are Get Info, About This App, and Show Inspector.

• Occasionally displays an alert that warns the user of a potentially dangerous outcome.

  If you use an ellipsis in the name of a button or menu item that only sometimes displays an alert, you cause the user to expect something that will not always happen. This makes your app's user interface inconsistent and confusing. For example, even though Close displays an alert if the user has never named the current document, it does not display an alert at other times, and so it does not include an ellipsis.

An ellipsis character can also show that there is more text than there is room to display in a document title or list item. If, for example, the name of an item is too long to fit in a menu or list box, you should insert an ellipsis character in the middle of the name, preserving the beginning and the end of the name. This ensures that the parts of the name that are most likely to be unique are still visible.

Using the Colon Character

Use the colon character (:) in text that introduces and provides context for controls. The text can describe what the controls do or a task the user can perform with them. The combination of introductory text, colon, and controls forms a visually distinct grouping that helps users find the controls that apply to a particular task and understand what the controls do.

Because a colon implies a direct connection between the descriptive text and a particular control or set of controls, it does not belong in the text that appears in a control, such as a push button name or a command pop-down menu title. Similarly, you should not use a colon in the text that appears in the following user interface elements:

• Menu items (unless the colon is part of a user-created menu item) and menu titles

• Tab and segmented controls

• List view column headings

Although the colon is a good way to associate introductory text with related controls, be aware that you can depict this connection in other ways. For example, you might use a tab view to display different groups of related controls (for guidelines on how to use this control, see “Tab View”).

Don’t use a colon in the text that serves as a group box title. In these cases, the group box itself takes the place of the colon and makes explicit the relationship of the introductory text to the controls that follow it.

If you choose to use a colon to show the relationship between introductory text and controls, the following guidelines and examples will help you use it appropriately.

Use a colon in introductory text that precedes a control or set of related controls. The text can be a noun or phrase that describes either the target of the control or the task the user can perform. The following examples illustrate some variations on this arrangement of text and controls:

• Use a colon in text that precedes a control on the same line.

  

• Use a colon in text that precedes the first control in a vertical list of controls.

  

  Use a colon in text that precedes the first control in a horizontal list of controls.

  

• Use a colon in introductory text that appears above a control.

  

• Use a colon in checkbox or radio button text that introduces a second control. (Note that if the text describing a checkbox or radio button state does not introduce a second control, it should not include a colon.)

  

A colon is optional before a control that is part of a sentence or phrase. This guideline is flexible because it depends on how much of the text follows the control and how the sentence or phrase can be interpreted. Consider the specific combination of text and controls and the overall layout of your window as you decide whether to use the colon in the following situations.

If, for example, none of the text follows the control, then the control's value supplies the end of the sentence or phrase. A colon is recommended in this case, because this is another variation of the guideline to include a colon in text that precedes a control. For example, the term “Genie effect” completes the sentence that begins “Minimize windows using:”

If, on the other hand, a substantial portion of the sentence or phrase follows the control a colon is optional.

Similarly, if there is some text following the control, but that text does not represent a substantial portion of the sentence or phrase, the colon is optional. To help you decide whether a colon is appropriate in these cases, determine if the presence of a colon breaks the sentence or phrase (including the value of the control) in an awkward or unnatural way.

Labeling Interface Elements

Make labels for interface elements easy to understand and avoid technical jargon as much as possible. Try to be as specific as possible in any element that requires the user to make a choice, such as radio buttons, checkboxes, and push buttons. Although it’s important to be concise, don’t sacrifice clarity for space.

When the context of a label is clear, it’s usually best to avoid repeating the context in the label. For example, within the context of an extended Save dialog, it’s clear that the dialog acts upon a file or document, so there’s no need to add the words “File” or “Document” to the Format pop-up label. Similarly, users understand that the items in an app’s Edit menu act upon the current editing context, so there is seldom a need to make this explicit in the menu item names.

The capitalization style you should use in the label for an interface element depends on the type of element. For information on the proper way to capitalize the words in labels for different types of interface elements, see “Capitalizing Labels and Text.”

The names of menu items and buttons that produce a dialog should include an ellipsis (…). For details on when to use an ellipsis, see “Using the Ellipsis Character.” The dialog title should be the same as the menu command or button label (except for the ellipsis) used to invoke it.

Capitalizing Labels and Text

All interface element labels should use either title style capitalization or sentence style capitalization.

Title style capitalization means that you capitalize every word except:

• Articles (a, an, the)

• Coordinating conjunctions (and, or)

• Prepositions of four or fewer letters, except when the preposition is part of a verb phrase, as in “Starting Up the Computer.”

In title style, always capitalize the first and last word, even if it is an article, a conjunction, or a preposition of four or fewer letters.

Sentence style capitalization means that the first word is capitalized, and the rest of the words are lowercase, unless they are proper nouns or proper adjectives. If the text forms a complete sentence, end the sentence with proper punctuation; otherwise, do not add ending punctuation.

Table 9-1 lists several examples of ways to capitalize text within UI elements.

Using Contractions

When space is at a premium, such as in pop-up menus, contractions can be used, as long as the contracted words are not critical to the meaning of the phrase. For example, a menu could contain the following items:

• Don’t Allow Printing

• Don’t Allow Modifying

• Don’t Allow Copying

In each case, the contraction does not alter the operative word for the item. If a contraction does alter the significant word in a phrase, such as “contains” and “does not contain,” it is clearer to avoid the contraction.

You should also avoid using uncommon contractions that may be difficult to interpret and localize. In particular, you should:

• Avoid forming a contraction using a noun and a verb, such as in the sentence "Apple's going to announce a new computer today."

• Avoid using less common contractions, such as "it'll" and "should've."

Using Abbreviations and Acronyms

Abbreviations and acronyms can save space in a user interface, but they can be confusing if users do not know what they mean. Conversely, some abbreviations and acronyms are better known than the words or phrases they stand for, and an app that uses the spelled-out version can seem out-of-date and unnecessarily wordy.

To balance these two considerations, you should gauge an acronym or abbreviation in terms of its appropriateness for your app's users. Therefore, before you decide which abbreviations and acronyms to use, you need to define your user audience and understand the user's mental model of the task your app performs. (For more information about this concept, see “Mental Model.”)

To help you decide whether or not to use a specific abbreviation or acronym in your app's user interface, consider the following questions:

• Is this an acronym or abbreviation that your users understand and feel comfortable with? For example, almost all users are used to using CD as the abbreviation for compact disc, so even apps intended for novice users can use this abbreviation.

  On the other hand, an app intended for users who work with color spaces and color printing can use CMYK (which stands for cyan magenta yellow key), even though this abbreviation might not be familiar to a broader range of users.

• Is the spelled-out word or phrase less recognizable than the acronym or abbreviation? For example, many users are unaware that Cc originally stood for the phrase carbon copy, the practice of using carbon paper to produce multiple copies of paper documents. In addition, the meanings of Cc and carbon copy have diverged so that they are no longer synonymous. Using carbon copy in place of Cc, therefore, would be confusing to users.

  For some abbreviations and acronyms, the precise spelled-out word or phrase is equivocal. For example, DVD originally stood for both digital video disc and digital versatile disc. Because of this ambiguity, it's not helpful to use either phrase; it's much clearer to use DVD.

If you use a potentially unfamiliar acronym or abbreviation in the user help book for your app, be sure to define it when you first use it. In addition, you should enable searching on your help book so users can easily find definitions of unfamiliar terms. For an overview of help technologies, see “User Assistance”; for details on working with Apple Help, see Apple Help Programming Guide.