What's New in Director 8.5 > Getting Started > Conventions used in Director Help and printed books |  |

Conventions used in Director Help and printed books

The help system and printed books use the following conventions:

| Lingo elements and actual code are shown in `this font`.
| A backslash (\) at the end of a line of Lingo code is a continuation symbol, indicating that the lines are actually one continuous statement. If it's necessary to enter the statement in the Message window, enter it in one line.
| Straight quotation marks are used in Lingo statements. Curly quotation marks are used everywhere else.
| Variables representing Lingo parameters appear in `italics`. For example, `whichCastmember` indicates where you insert the actual name of a cast member.

Optional parameters in Lingo syntax appear within curly braces. The following syntax for a Lingo command provides an example:

    gMultiuserInstance.checkNetMessages({numberOfMessages})

In this example, `numberOfMessages` is an optional parameter.