Touch-screen terms

[Michael West <mbwest -at- bigpond -dot- net -dot- au>]

I'm revising instructional material for
users of a touch-screen based interface.
I'm attempting to standardize some
inconsistent procedural language, including
the use the following verbs as synonyms:
	touch
	press
	select 
	choose

I want to pick one and stay with it. 
My reasoning follows this path--

1. It's a "touch" screen, so we "touch" 
it. It isn't a "press" screen.

2. "Choose" is a possibility because it 
is portable across other types of hardware
(e.g. mouse-based). The only way to
"choose" something on a touch screen is
to touch it, so it seems unlikely to be
a point of confusion.

3. "Select" has a distinct meaning that is
sometimes useful: we select an item in
a list and then choose an action to perform
on it. Using "select" for both the list item
and the command seems to remove a useful
distinction -- but is it worth preserving? It
is only a conceptual distinction, not procedural.
You touch one thing and then you touch the 
other thing.

Comments invited.

-- 
Mike West
Melbourne, Australia


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