Guidelines 

Using Abbreviations

Do not use abbreviations if sufficient space is available or if the user rarely accesses a particular screen.

Using Accepted Abbreviations

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.

Good: Dr.; Su.; min.; DM
Bad: Dctr; Snday; minmum; Deu. Mark

Explanation: Most abbreviations are known to the user from his/her own work area or through everyday language and not from DP or SAP jargon. Create abbreviations in cooperation with the users.

Creating New Abbreviations

If there is no accepted abbreviation available, words can be abbreviated in accordance with the following guidelines arranged in order of priority.

  1. Omitting the end of the word:

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

    Reason: If choosing a menu option or function key results in a dialog box, three periods are usually added to the function name. The abbreviation of a function name can therefore only be recognized here if four periods follow the function name.

    In a table column heading, the period should also be used, if possible.

    "abbreviation" becomes "abb."

    "date" becomes "dat."

    "costs" becomes "cost."

  2. Omitting vowels:

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

    "profession" becomes "prfssn."

    "group" becomes "grp."

  3. Creating an acronym:

Acronyms (artificially created new terms consisting of the first letters of the word fragments or individual words) should only be created 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.

If acronyms are used, they should be included in a list for an application area. This list must be regularly updated and distributed to the other applications. You should always use existing acronyms for other abbreviations of words which contain the same word fragment.

"Data Processing" becomes "DP"

"Human Resources" becomes "HR"

"General Ledger" becomes "GL"

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

For example, "screen" becomes "scrn". The word fragment "number" is generally no longer used in the field name.

Abbreviating Two-Word Structure

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

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

"Start date" becomes "StrtDate"

"Document type" becomes "DocType"

"Tolerance key" becomes "TolKey"

Abbreviating Several Words

Proceed as follows when abbreviating several words:

  1. If the previous word was abbreviated according to the guideline "Omitting The End of the Word", it should end with a period and be followed by a blank, if there is enough space.

    2. "Fixed vendor" becomes "Fix. vendor"

    or even "Fix.vendor"

    "Next object" becomes "Nex. object"

    or even "Nex.object"

    "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.

    3. "Create new charge" becomes "Crte new chrg."

    "Fixed vendor" becomes "Fixed vend."

  3. If the second or a following word is written in lowercase, use the lowercase.

"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, you should 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.

"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, you should make sure that individual word fragments are not completely omitted. Otherwise, it could result in the impression that two different things are meant. For example, "Minimum order amount" could be abbreviated to "MinAmount" and also to "MinOrdAmount". Here, it is better to use either "MinOAmt" or "MinOrdAmount", so that the word fragment "order" is not forgotten.