[waqf]

I don't see what knowing these abbreviations has to do with knowing Latin. They are, to all intents and purposes, English words used in English writing, and people who have had the opportunity to develop a good English vocabulary in other respects will have learned these words too.

(Note, I grew up in England. I have begun to suspect that these abbreviations are used a little less in the US. But there again, if that is the case then the problem still lies with people's unfamiliarity due to not much usage — or perhaps with screen readers' unfamiliarity due to US-centric development — not with Latin.)

(Also, wouldn't the German equivalent of "i.e." be "d.h." which I'm sure I've seen for "das heißt"?)

[yorwba]

You are right about "d.h." being the German equivalent of "i.e." but I've met a lot of Germans who pronounced it "daher" ("therefore"). I guess that proves a point about avoiding obscure abbreviations when someone else needs to understand what you wrote.