16:42 Jan 17, 2011 

Style guide rules are often taken as gospel, but normally they are geared towards specific formal registers like academic writing, EU documents or high-brow journalism.

16:30 Jan 17, 2011 

I know this question is closed, and James has chosen a good answer, but there has been a lot of discussion about exclamation marks and I wanted to follow up. I don't like 'em much myself and agree with whoever it was that said using one was a bit like laughing at your own joke. But "You should never put more than one exclamation mark in published copy"? Says who, apart from Phil? You simply can't be so prescriptive. What about comic books, or characters in novels who use them in their emails, or ads which may choose to use them for their own attention-seeking ends? What about text as graphic art? Are these not 'published copy'? And what about the case in point, a breathy website for thrill-seekers? And as translators, shouldn't we reflect the source faithfully? So I don't think any rule applies here, apart from the general principle that if possible we should keep the pesky !!!s to a minimum. My tip: use bold or italic - or capitals if you must - to avoid putting an extra exclamation mark.