openstack-manuals/doc/doc-contrib-guide/source/ux-ui-guidelines/ui-text-guidelines/ui-text-capitalization.rst

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Follow UI text capitalization guidelines

Interface element labels use a combination of headline-style capitalization and sentence-style capitalization. It is important to apply these capitalization guidelines consistently to make the UI clear and succinct.

Headline-style capitalization capitalizes every word in the text, except:

  • Articles, except as the first word (a, an, the)
  • Coordinating conjunctions (and, or)
  • Prepositions, except the first or last word
  • Infinitives (to, in, an)

Examples of headline-style capitalization: Restore Defaults, Allocate to Project

Sentence-style capitalization only capitalizes the first word in the text. Unless the word is a proper noun that must be capitalized.

Example of sentence-style capitalization: Maximum number of downloads

Capitalization style for common UI elements

Headline-style capitalization

  • Chart titles
  • Dialog box titles
  • Icon labels
  • Links used for an action or navigation
  • Menu items (both menu bar and context menus)
  • Menu titles
  • Page titles
  • Button labels
  • Section headings
  • Step titles
  • Table column headers
  • Tab titles
  • Table titles
  • Toolbar buttons
  • Window titles

Sentence-style capitalization

  • Check box labels
  • Field labels
  • File names
  • Group box labels
  • Headings for groups of radio buttons or check boxes
  • Hover help text
  • Input hints
  • List box, drop-down list, and combination box entries
  • List box labels
  • Messages (information, warning, and error)
  • Page instructions or descriptions
  • Progress bar label
  • Radio button labels
  • Status bar text

UI capitalization cheat sheet

Use this image to quickly view common capitalization styles:

UI text cheat sheet