Defining the solution format

[FrenchWeek]

Just joined Cruciverb - hello everyone.

Is there a standard for defining solution formats? I'd always simply used (4,7) for 'half-hearted' and (4,1,7) for 'taux d'intérêt' (our crossword is in both English and French). Now it has been suggested that they should be (4-7) and (4,1'7).
Your comments gratefully received,

Alison, French Week (www.french-week.com)

[mercyscene]

Most of us posters here are not very experienced with British style crosswords.  You might scan recent online offerings of this style of puzzle to see how they are handling this issue.  I did observe that English puzzles are using a dash between numbers for hyphenation; I did not find any examples right away of the use of a contraction in the solution, but this might be a good equivalent to judge by if you find one.  Regardless, the change you mentioned seems to be an improved way of communicating what the solution should be, where (4,1,4) might be "kill a king" and (4,1'4) "coup d'etat."

[HGHJulien]

I think you can choose (4,1,4) or (4,1'4)...both are commonly use...except (4-7)...