I've been looking at some answers and comments and I see several different ways of writing an instruction to install a particular application.

There is of course command line apt which is somewhat standard. However, with the package names there are sometimes more specific version packages. For example, [this question about Wine][1] is answered with (in part):

    sudo apt-get install wine1.2

According to the Ubuntu Software Centre on my computer, unless I've misunderstood something, this package is the beta release and the "wine" package is the regular one.

The same question I just referenced also describes using Synaptic, with the instruction to "install it from within Administration → Synaptic Package Manager", but "Administration" is not a top-level menu (presumably that would be "System" then "Administration"). 

Should references to something like Synaptic always include a path from a top-level menu?

Other questions, such as [this one][2], reference the Ubuntu Software Centre. I haven't looked at all the questions that mention it but some just say "open the Ubuntu Software Centre" or "search the Ubuntu Software Centre" without giving a menu path.

What is the appropriate way to give a Software Centre instruction? And, should the Software Centre or Synaptic be preferred when giving GUI instructions, or does it matter?

Possibly related: this [question about package managers][3] has some good answers about the different methods of installing things on Ubuntu.

  [1]: http://ubuntu.stackexchange.com/questions/988/how-can-i-install-windows-software-in-ubuntu
  [2]: http://ubuntu.stackexchange.com/questions/348/installing-pyjamas-on-ubuntu
  [3]: http://ubuntu.stackexchange.com/questions/76/whats-the-difference-between-ubuntus-package-managers