What is an acceptable rule of thumb for emphasising content with bold / italics?
I read the FAQ but didn't find a reasonably explanatory answer.
I ask this because of the comments I got for my question:
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Sign up to join this communityWhat is an acceptable rule of thumb for emphasising content with bold / italics?
I read the FAQ but didn't find a reasonably explanatory answer.
I ask this because of the comments I got for my question:
Having gone through the revisions of your question I would say that actually none of it needs to be emphasised. It's a very short piece of text that is easy to read without a real key point to be drawn.
The code formatting is correctly used for the code itself but I see no real reason to have error in backticks at all, that would seem to be used for highlighting which is misuse.
Perhaps you could justify emphasising the browser as it's specific to that, however you would only need to do this once.
I would say that italics are most useful when writing a sentence that would be said with an intonation (as above) that might be lost when just reading.
Don't use emphasis. It makes stuff hard to read, especially when used to the extent that you use it.
Don't use code blocks as emphasis, either. Use them for code.
The only time you normally need use emphasis is when you want the sentence to sound different. "I tried logging into Stack Overflow with my Google account in IE 8
" sounds silly when read out aloud with the emphasis. When in doubt, don't use emphasis.
There's a nice cheatsheet on italicizing. The first point is the only relevant one here, really (and it applies to bolding as well).
If you need to emphasize something make it bold or italic. If you need to inline a bit of code use the code
styling.
These formatting options are there to make a point stand out or to help with showing this is code.
These points mean that something like IE8, which is just the name of the browser, shouldn't be emphasized at all (in particular if it has been mentioned in the title or tag).
I use bold to emphasize main points.
I avoid italics except to reference literary works such as books.
I use inline code to emphasize that I am referring to the name of a class, function, code expression, etc.