IntelliJ Platform Plugin SDK Help

Capitalization

Title

Use for:

  • Actions in buttons, menus and tooltips

  • Headers in tables, popups, message boxes and dialogs

  • Headers of UI control groups

Do not use for:

  • Actions in links

  • Actions in the popup on Alt+Enter: quick-fixes, intention actions, and others

  • Headers in notifications

Rules

Always capitalize the first and the last words.

Capitalize the words in-between except:

  • articles: a, an, the,

  • coordinating conjunctions: and, or, but,

  • prepositions of four and fewer letters which are not a part of a phrasal verb: in, with.

In hyphenated phrases, capitalize all nouns, adjectives and adverbs: Auto-Indent, Command-Line Launcher. Do not capitalize articles, prepositions and conjunctions: Side-by-Side, Drag-and-Drop.

Examples

  • Compare With… — the short preposition with is capitalized as the last word.

  • Compare with Latest Repository Versionwith is not capitalized when in the middle.

  • Check Out from Version Controlout is a part of the phrasal verb check out and is capitalized.

Sentence

Use for:

  • Labels of UI controls: text boxes, checkboxes, radio buttons, combo boxes, etc.

  • Items in combo boxes, lists, trees and tables

  • Links

  • Actions in the popup on Alt+Enter

  • Header and body text in notifications

  • Body text in error messages, tooltips, status descriptions and any kind of instructions

Rules

Capitalize the first word in a sentence, proper nouns and adjectives, and abbreviations.

Examples

  • Control+Shift+F — keyboard button names are considered proper nouns.

  • Accept the terms of the License Agreement — License Agreement is a proper noun.

  • Side-by-side layout — only the first word of a hyphenated phase is capitalized.

Last modified: 17 May 2024