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If the time is inconcequential, why say momentarily at all?
"Press and release the button to...."
However, due to the 'without starting engine' part, I'd say that you have to
define how quickly the user must react. How about: "Without starting the engine,
press and release the start button." Follow up with an explanitory note.
IMO, momentarily, quickly and other such adjectives should be avoided.
Technically they convey no useful information and what they try and convey is
subjective and open to interpretation. Define the action to be taken and the
parameters to be observed before, during, and after the action.
"Press the start button and release when X."
Eric L. Dunn
A good rule of thumb--as with all writing the words you choose depend largely
upon the tone and the style of writing.
in the two examples:
"press the start button and release before the engine starts"
and,
"momentarily press the start button and release before the engine starts"
IMO, momentarily provides a flag to the reader. When you tell
someone to press the start button, they think "oh, start
the motor". If you prefix it with momentarily, they think "hmm, just push the button
quick." Maybe it is because I scan-read so much, I like the extra flags :-?
Anyway, I think that you would be safe with either. In my original post, my main
point was tell the user what action needs to occur before you give the instructions.
This sometimes helps them to put the actions in context.
I wasn't necessarily condoning the use of all those adjectives, though it really looks that way :-)
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