Capitalization and Punctuation Guidelines

Article
08/28/2006

The following table indicates the type of capitalization you should use for user interface (UI) controls.

Title capitalization specifies that all parts of speech are capitalized, with the exception of articles, coordinating conjunctions (and, but, for, not, or, so, and yet), and prepositions containing four or fewer letters. Sentence capitalization specifies that only the first word and any proper nouns are capitalized.

Title capitalization	Sentence capitalization
Button label	Check box label
Header	Combo box label
Menu label	Drop-down list items
Menu command label	Error message text
Option button label	Instructional text
Pop-up menu command	List box label
Split button label	Option button label
Soft key label	Progress bar label
Tab label	Slider label
Text header	Text box label
Toolbar buttons	Drop-down list label
Screen tip	Text sub header
Tree view label	Time picker label
Window, dialog box, and error message titles

The following table indicates standard rules of punctuation for UI controls.

Mark	Usage
Colon (:)	In most cases, labels for controls such as text boxes, drop-down lists, progress bars, and spin boxes end with a colon. Do not end the label with a colon when the text box or drop-down list is embedded in a sentence or when the drop-down list appears in a main window.
Comma (,)	In a series of three or more controls, separate the controls with commas.
Ellipsis (...)	Because of space constraints, ellipsis should be used on a Windows Mobile–based Pocket PC but not on a Windows Mobile–based Smartphone. Use an ellipsis at the end of a menu command and at the end of a button command that opens another dialog box instead of performing an action. Use an ellipsis in a progress bar label to indicate a continuing action.
End punctuation (. ? !)	Use ending punctuation only in instructional text. Add only one space after ending punctuation to separate sentences.

Capitalization and Punctuation Guidelines

See Also

Additional resources