Inititial capital letters

[Whitegate]

For the ease of reading please avoid using initial capital letters.

[Neonkittie17]

Not sure I understand you as your post is brief, but I was trained many years ago as a personal assistant where we were taught when to use initial capitals so I can’t suddenly undo all that after over 35 years of typing initial caps. How is it causing you a problem? It is also easier to see organisations and names, etc with initial capitals. They stand out more in text.

plainenglish.co.uk/capital-...

[HappykindaGal in reply to Neonkittie17]

I lose my rag if my team don’t use capital letters in messages to clients where they should be used. Grrrrrrr.

[ruth_p in reply to HappykindaGal]

I spend most of my year teaching children to use capital letters and full stops. I definitely won’t be stopping that 😂

[HappykindaGal in reply to ruth_p]

Hahaha, please don’t. I’m forever whining about it. My quality lady is always picking some of my team up on it. Drives me nuts.

[Neonkittie17 in reply to HappykindaGal]

I taught typewriting so won’t ever be stopping the IC’s!

[Green230461 in reply to ruth_p]

I agree ☝️

[Neonkittie17 in reply to HappykindaGal]

I completely understand! 😁

[nomoreheels in reply to Neonkittie17]

You probably have the same skill J, I was always handed confidential letters or documents to type because I can do so without taking in the content. I think it's something touch typists often find easy to do.

[Neonkittie17 in reply to nomoreheels]

I do/did touch type but I did have to scrutinise content when my boss when wrote documents. I think Whaleroad May have meant acronyms and abbreviations rather than specifically initial caps? That’s understandable. Think he/she may be in the USA. Or Canada?We have differing official bodies and organisations, so no wonder some confusion, but like yourself I’m kind of “programmed” to type initial caps when appropriate. x

[nomoreheels in reply to Neonkittie17]

You may be right, though he's in the UK. We do have a lot of abbreviations so it's understandable if you don't use them yourself, they may be really baffling. I do try to use the full generic name of a med first (& the brand name in brackets) then the abbreviation thereafter, the same for companies etc, but may well forget some times.

[Knip in reply to Neonkittie17]

That's a good response because we do often use acronyms and they are probably confusing if we don't know the word they represent. I was baffled initially by the request but your answer has clarified it. xx

[Mmrr in reply to Knip]

He has also used acronyms in his previous posts, so I wasn't sure what he was requesting.

[Knip in reply to Mmrr]

It is rather confusing in that case. I hadn't noticed to be honest, but I do hope that he will let us know what he is referring to so that we can avoid it. This site is so helpful that I'd hate to think he couldn't understand something that someone is referring to. Now, that sentence I've just written is pretty weird as it is! It's giving me a chuckle and one of those is always welcome. Laughter really is good for the soul and the pain levels and I have to laugh at myself so often...I do some pretty daft things these days that I think I'd cry if I didn't laugh! I truthfully hope it's only 'brain fog' rather than the start of something more lethal because it's quite scary! xx 🤣

[Neonkittie17 in reply to Knip]

I’m not sure my answer has but maybe it was abbreviations/acronyms of the British kind which confused. X

[HappykindaGal]

Hi! Do you mean abbreviations and jargon?

[skinnycappuccino in reply to HappykindaGal]

That's what I thought as well!

[Hidden]

Morning. If you are using a screen reader or other adaptive software please let people know what they should or should not be doing to help you.

[Josephine13halffull]

?????????????

[Choccy23]

Hi Whitegate, Do you mean using initials (abbreviations) for medication etc.? I think you posted about that last week.

[nomoreheels]

Can you please clarify or better still give us an example where it's causing a problem for you so we can try to help. In a similar way to Neonkittie, I was taught to touch type from the age of 13, then trained further into my college years so it may be difficult to go against all those years of typing without thinking.

[nomoreheels in reply to nomoreheels]

Just wondering Whitegate… is it that you'd prefer us to use longhand? Your other recent post entitled HU made me think. In this instance it's Healthunlocked. We do use capitalisation with others we use quite a lot, medications for example. Any abbreviation is helpful for those of us when typing with sore fingers. Might it be helpful if you print out the abbreviation list, for you to refer to when reading posts & replies?

[Mmrr in reply to nomoreheels]

Whitegate himself used MTX in a previous post rather than writing out methotrexate, so I'm assuming it is not abbreviations that are the problem ?

We do tend to forget that some of the language we use can be problematic for someone just starting out, difficult one, as the language used is the language of RA.

[nomoreheels in reply to Mmrr]

Just looked back & yes he has, though noticed he has been a member since July 2020 so not just starting out. Also noticed that 9 days ago he posted asking for "initial capital letters for conditions and medications associated with RA ( ! )". Helix gave him the same link I gave him, the Common abbreviations and acronyms on this community. It's a mystery & hope he replies to one of us so we can work out just what it is he needs to help him.

[oldtimer]

Do you mean the using capital letters for conditions and drugs (I find that irritating too and sometimes have to look them up)? Like RD for Rheumatoid Disease, NSAIs for non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs etc?

[Blodynhaul]

Presuming you mean the use of acronyms? it is a bit annoying having to look up them often to see what they stand for, I do it a lot! Good practice is to say the thing in full first then put a bracket with the acronym, thereafter use the acronym. But - hey - not the end of the world!

[Hobbledehoy]

PERHAPS HE MEANS POSTS ALL IN CAPITALS, which can indeed be tiring to read. But then, I haven't noticed this often.