Should text in button be capitalized in English? [duplicate]

Question

As far as I know, in English titles each word should be capitalized.

Should each word of the text in buttons be capitalized if it is a title (e.g. "Add Job Offer"), or should the button text be treated the same as a sentence when there are more than one word (e.g. "Add job offer")?

Answer 1

I would say this is more of a stylistic decision based on branding as oppose to a UX decision.

Majority of systems do capitalize, or use title case on buttons labels. This may help in making button labels stand out as stand alone actions that aren't full sentences (e.g. Ask Question, Edit Details, Save Changes).

If your button labels are longer and more descriptive though, capital/title case may impair readability of the item.

e.g.

[ Apply Bulk Edits To The Selected Items ]

[ Apply Bulk Edits to the Selected Items ]

[ apply bulk edits to the selected items ]

When you're reading the above text, the last item with all text in lower case is the faster scan because the capitalized letters can get in the way.

In the systems I work with, we have a mix of short and longer button labels. So we decided to go with title case in order to balance these two things.

Answer 2

Capitalize letter will slow down the Reading Process

So i would suggest that

• If your buttons have maximum 3 words, then no problem using it
• If your button text is longer than 5 words, then don't use it unless you intentionally want the user to read the text carefully and slowly

Inside a website/app, you are more concerned about readability and consistency of buttons, text across your app

Answer 3

1. Try to limit your Button's Text to a maximum of 2-3 words. Anything more than that, doesn't fall in good design and depicts that you could do better with the UI design to comprehend what the button might do clearly to the User.

2. Yes, capitalizing the Initials for every new word for the button's text makes it more legitimate to click and improves the harmony of the entire UI.

3. If you are having trouble in cutting down your Button's Text to 2-3 words, it's probably time you should use an icon instead to depict the action clearly.

Answer 4

It's not a question of label's length. Commonly, when you describe an action about a push button, you use "Title Capitalize".

Therefore I advice you to use Add Job Offer.

You can try to build your label with two questions :

- What is your action? (verb : Add, Save, Edit, Delete, ...)

- What is your entity? (noun, : User, Setting, ...)

I advice you to check it : https://developer.apple.com/library/mac/documentation/UserExperience/Conceptual/OSXHIGuidelines/TerminologyWording.html#//apple_ref/doc/uid/20000957-CH15-SW1

Read the paragraph Use the Right Capitalization Style in Labels and Text if you want more informations.

Answer 5

No. This isn't a rule to do with the English language, it's more a UX and branding question. Form buttons are already identifiable as buttons because of the visual styling, so how the label is written is more about making it easy for the user to read. I use meaningful button labels written in sentence case (capitalising the first word and any names) because:

• Meaningful labels are UX good practice: the label should be clear what happens ('Generate report') rather than the vague 'Submit'
• This is known to be easier to read and less visually 'heavy' than all capitals
• Someone using screen magnifier software can see the start of the sentence more easily than using title case

Answer 6

In my opinion Buttons are not something that should contain long sentences. Button Label should be one word not the whole sentence.

As in your case. The Page (or area/panel) Title should be something Like "Job Offer" and the Button should be "Add" or "Create". The basic purpose of button is to state an action and one word can describe that easily and since the context (Page/area/panel, etc.) are informing the user of the details.

The one word button label should suffice.