Abbreviations

Using Accepted Abbreviations | Creating New Abbreviations | Abbreviating a Two-Word Structure | Abbreviating Several Words | Choosing from Several Words | Compounds

Space restrictions may necessitate the use of abbreviations in many situations: in dialog boxes, for field names in the applications, for lines in the menu bar or pulldown menus, and for function key names.

Do not use abbreviations if sufficient space is available.

Using Accepted Abbreviations

Refer to standard abbreviations such as listed in dictionaries and/or the ABAP Dictionary short forms. If there is already an accepted abbreviation for a word, use it. Use abbreviations only if you are sure that the user can easily understand them. In general, do not use abbreviations that consist of only one letter.

Examples

Creating New Abbreviations

If there is no accepted abbreviation available, words can be abbreviated according to the following guidelines arranged in order of priority:

1. Right truncate words

If possible, create abbreviations for individual words by omitting the end of the word. Menu options and function key names should have a period at the end of the word.

In a table column heading, also use the period, if possible.

Example: "abbreviation" becomes "abb."

Never use a closing period if the last letter of a word is contained in the abbreviation.

Example: "screen" becomes "scrn".

The word fragment "number" is generally no longer used in the field name. An exception to this rule is "Personnel number" which can be abbreviated to "Personnel no.".

2. Omit vowels

Omit vowels only if you cannot form a meaningful word fragment. Vowels that do not influence the pronunciation of the word very much can be left out.

Example: "group" becomes "grp"

3. Create an acronym

Create acronyms (artificially created new terms consisting of the first capitalized letters of the word fragments or individual words) only if this is clear from the application field (for example, GR for goods receipt in purchasing) or if this is required for table column headings.

Examples: "Data Processing" becomes "DP", "Human Resources" becomes "HR", "General Ledger" becomes "GL"

Abbreviating a Two-Word Structure

The guidelines for creating a new abbreviation apply here as well.

The individual word fragments are not separated by a period and not by space. Each new word fragment always begins with a capital letter if the previous word fragment has been abbreviated.

Examples

"Start date" becomes "StrtDate", "Document type" becomes "DocType", "Tolerance key" becomes "TolKey", "Object group number" becomes "ObjctGrp"

Abbreviating Several Words

Proceed as follows when abbreviating several words:

1. If the preceding word was abbreviated according to the guideline "Right truncate words", it should end with a period and be followed by a blank, if there is enough space.
   Examples:
   "Fixed vendor" becomes "Fix. vendor" or even "Fix.vendor",
   "Fixed capacity requirement" becomes "Fix. CapReq." or even "Fix.CapRep."
2. If the last letter of the word is used, insert a blank between the words.
   Examples:
   "Create new charge" becomes "Crte new chrg.", "Fixed vendor" becomes "Fixed vdr"
3. If the second or a following word is written in lowercase, use the lowercase.
   Example:
   "Fixed date" becomes "Fix. date"

Choosing from Several Words

If you look at the short descriptions in the ABAP Dictionary, you can also find complete phrases, such as "Fixed machine-related capacity requirements in hours".

For the abbreviation, only choose the significant words. You may need to change the word order to form a suitable abbreviation.

The guidelines 1. to 3. apply for the creation of abbreviations.

Example: "Fixed machine-related capacity requirements in hours" becomes "Mach.fix" or "Mach. fix"

Compounds

In the case of different abbreviations for words which consist of more than two word fragments, make sure that individual word fragments are not completely omitted. Otherwise, it could result in the impression that two different things are meant.

Example: "Minimum order amount" could be abbreviated to "MinAmount".

Here, it is better to use either "MinOAmt" or "MinOrdAmt", so that the word fragment "order" is not forgotten.

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Source:  SAP Interaction Design Guide for WAP Applications