Projects/Usability/HIG/Contractions

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    Revision as of 20:37, 30 July 2010 by AndrewColes (talk | contribs) (Added a note about contractions)
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    Short version

    Instead of:

    don't, won't, it's, can't, there's, ...

    ...use:

    do not, cannot, will not, it is, there is, ...

    Longer version

    In general, contractions (such as the examples above) should not be used when writing user-interface strings, for two main reasons:

    • contractions are avoided in formal writing
    • they make English text harder to understand for non-native readers (and although KDE has great translation teams, the original English string is used if no translation exists)

    For further discussion on this issue, in general, see the following blog post: Don't Use Contractions?