Caption title for screenshots
When creating a figure caption related to a software screenshot, can I use title case or should I match the case that is in the application?
For Example, "Figure 1-1. New Virtual Machine – Select a name and guest OS Pane" (actual case in application)
or
"New Virtual Machine – Select a Name and Guest OS Pane"
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I would tend to match the case of the interface, but here is a way to think it through:
Labels on interface elements are often brief instructions rather than actual names. The capitalization of those instructions will frequently be unconventional because the people who wrote and implemented them were not familiar with, or did not care about, the conventions.
So then the question becomes, are you:
- Giving essentially the same instruction as is used to label the UI control?
- Using the label of the UI control as it it were actually its name?
- Simply quoting the actual text of the UI?
The logic course in each case is:
- Use sentence case as this is just an instruction, even if the UI gets it wrong.
- Use name case as this is a name, even if the UI gets it wrong.
- Reproduce the case from the UI, even it it is wrong.
To make it clear that you are doing 3, you can apply some formatting change, such as bolding, to the text that matches the UI text.
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I would use the case which is in the application, to make it easier for the reader to match apples to apples. You might even add quote marks and other formatting for additional clarity:
Figure 1-1. "New Virtual Machine — Select a name and guest OS Pane"
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