: Re: Is emphasizing a point by underlining still appropriate? Instinctively I find underlining for emphasis distracting and much prefer bold or italic. From my research it seems underlining is a carryover

@Carla500

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No, no, no, hell no, frak no, can I get a no from the peanut gallery? oh, and NO.

We are not typing on typewriters any more. We are using computers. Word processors, HTML, CSS. Underlining means a hyperlink. Period. If you want to emphasize something, use bold, italics, indents, all caps, or any combination thereof.

The only exception is certain legalese, if the lawyers insist on underlining for some archaic reason which gives formatting weight in court. Still annoying, but there's no arguing with Legal.

If you are not dealing with lawyers, then change the underlines to italics as a matter of course. If the writers object, tell them, "But in typesetting, when something is underlined in the manuscript, that's what it means. It's telling the typesetter 'italicize this.'" Brook no arguments.

(Sorry. I am a writer, editor, and typesetter, and seeing underlined non-hyperlinked copy makes my blood pressure rise.)

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