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Majuscule or minuscule

To be or not to be is not the question here. The question is whether you should use a lowercase letter for proper names, company names, or product names that begin with a lowercase letter.
Markus Cekan
March 4, 2021
Internal Communication
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This text has been automatically translated from German to English.

No! A distinction is made between text and logo; between editorial articles and image ads. With the text you want to inform and with a logo you want to visually attract attention. They are therefore two different functions. Therefore, in general, it is always important to pay attention to readability and to the reader when it comes to informative, even entertaining textual contributions. Every publisher and advertising agency should have design guidelines, so also for writing styles, unfortunately this is often not the case. The principle is to pay attention to a universally valid spelling.

It is no longer a trend that company or product names should begin with a lowercase letter (minuscule). However, this is called a stylistic element to make them stand out or stand out visually. It behaves the same way as color, font, style, etc. From there it is a design element and it is a logo, a so-called word picture. A logo does not presuppose that one should or even must adhere to it in a textual rendering.

Many agencies now use the hackneyed word "recognition" as a reason for this. But you don't achieve recognition by trying to make proper names as close as possible to the original in the text; on the contrary. We have learned to capitalize names, among other things, and unconsciously we expect to do so. We are also sensitized to this because of the valid orthography.

With lower case at the beginning of the sentence, one would also have a problem interpreting this correctly. Capitalization is also an important structuring element at the beginning of a sentence. Many international and/or long-established companies, such as Google, Amazon, Accenture, and Pepsi, specify capitalization for texts in their corporate design specifications.

A few words about acronyms. "SAP" or "Sap", "S/4HANA" or "S/4 Hana"? The spelling "SAP" results from the pronunciation, you say "Es A Pe", for S/4 Hana you pronounce the "Hana" and don't say "Ha A En A", this results in the spelling with majuscule and minuscule. Many customers also keep referring to SAP's website regarding the spelling of "Hana".

Just because it says so on the website doesn't mean that those responsible know the orthographic guidelines, it's not like turning on a computer means you know how to program either.

In publishing - whether print or web - one is actually obliged to give the best possible advice to the reader and the customer in order to present the optimum of textual contributions or even advertisements. Readability or even visually quick absorption are conducive to being read and noticed. In order to achieve this, it is therefore necessary to adhere to uniform and legible writing styles.

Now imagine if, in publishing, we were to cater to the ideas of everyone who wanted their article published. Every page would look different. What effect would that have on you? Doesn't it look unprofessional? Would you want to permanently purchase and also read this magazine? Would interested parties continue to advertise in such a magazine? Here, too, experience says: No! (mc)

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Markus Cekan

Art director and production management at E-3 magazine


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Working on the SAP basis is crucial for successful S/4 conversion. 

This gives the Competence Center strategic importance for existing SAP customers. Regardless of the S/4 Hana operating model, topics such as Automation, Monitoring, Security, Application Lifecycle Management and Data Management the basis for S/4 operations.

For the second time, E3 magazine is organizing a summit for the SAP community in Salzburg to provide comprehensive information on all aspects of S/4 Hana groundwork.

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Wednesday, May 21, and
Thursday, May 22, 2025

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Thursday, March 6, 2025

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Available until December 20, 2024

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The event is organized by the E3 magazine of the publishing house B4Bmedia.net AG. The presentations will be accompanied by an exhibition of selected SAP partners. The ticket price includes attendance at all presentations of the Steampunk and BTP Summit 2025, a visit to the exhibition area, participation in the evening event and catering during the official program. The lecture program and the list of exhibitors and sponsors (SAP partners) will be published on this website in due course.