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List:       kde-i18n-doc
Subject:    Re: Question About Header Capitalization
From:       "Grigory Mokhin" <mokhin () gmail ! com>
Date:       2008-05-03 11:47:28
Message-ID: 2984c4d50805030459o72043441v2a5a22cec8117df1 () mail ! gmail ! com
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On Fri, May 2, 2008 at 9:33 PM, Mauricio Piacentini
<mauricio@tabuleiro.com> wrote:
> Hi, people. I have a question from the pt_BR team, which is currently
> undergoing a new surge of activity, with lots of new people and energy
> resulting from our first Brazilian meeting.
> The question regards capitalization of menu items. According to the
> usability wiki, these should use header capitalizatio:
>
> http://wiki.openusability.org/guidelines/index.php/Guidelines:Menu_Items
>
> So in this case:
>
> Save As -> Salvar Como
> Open File -> Abrir Arquivo
>
> Some people consider that this is not "proper" Brazilian Portuguese, and
> that we should do regular capitalization, like:
>
> Save As -> Salvar como
> Open File - > Abrir arquivo
>
> Others reasoned that in titles it is OK to use header capitalization,
> including names of songs and other instances.
>
> MacOSX and KDE3.5 in Portuguese use header capitalization, but Vista is not
> consistent, with most programs (including Office, Firefox) going for the
> sentence form, even in menus.
>
> I would also like to request comment from people involved in KDE 3.5
> translation, and also our Gnome pt_Br friends, if possible. They seem to use
> header capitalization for menus as well (consistent with KDE 3.5).
>
> So, is this an usability guideline that should be followed in localized
> versions as well? What do other Latin languages do, and what do our friends
> in the Portuguese team do in this case?
>

I think you should follow the rules for "proper" Brazilian Portuguese.
In Russian, for example, it is wrong if the second word in the
sentence is capitalized (Save As... =  Сохранить как... is correct,
but Сохранить Как... is incorrect). For Latin languages rules may
vary, but in no case English grammar should be a guideline for
localized versions. Ask language experts if in doubt.

Regards,
Gregory

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