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<TITLE>RE: asterisks as bold or italic? (another push)</TITLE>
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<P><FONT SIZE=2>One more good reason for *strong* and _em_: MS Word's autoformat feature used *bold* and _italics_. Not that many of us would care, but if we're looking for the tool to be used by less technical folks...</FONT></P>
<P><FONT SIZE=2>>-----Original Message-----</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>>From: Timothy Binder [<A HREF="mailto:lists@cyberthorn.net">mailto:lists@cyberthorn.net</A>]</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>>Sent: Tue, March 30, 2004 2:55 PM</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>>To: markdown-discuss@six.pairlist.net</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>>Subject: asterisks as bold or italic? (another push)</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>></FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>>Specifically, on a typewriter, you are supposed to mark certain items, </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>>such as titles (e.g. Romeo and Juliet), by underlining them. When you </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>>typeset them (which is what you are effectively doing when using </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>>computerized publishing), the equivalent is to italicize the item. </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>>This, to me, shows a long-standing one-to-one correspondence between </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>>italics and underlining.</FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>></FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>>I also feel that *emphasis* is stronger than _emphasis_. Just on a </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>>visual basis, "*" is larger & stronger than "_". Looking at a paragraph </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>>with both, the *asterisked* word jumps out at you, whereas the </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>>_underlined_ word is more subtle, at least to me. This, too, directly </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>>corresponds with the difference between boldface and italics. Boldface </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>>tends to interrupt the flow of the text and jump out at the reader, </FONT>
<BR><FONT SIZE=2>>whereas italics are a more subtle emphasis.</FONT>
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