[Author Prev][Author Next][Thread Prev][Thread Next]
[Author Index (this month)][Thread Index (this month)][Top of Archive]

Re: life imitates techwr-l

Subject: Re: life imitates techwr-l
From: Dick Margulis <margulisd -at- comcast -dot- net>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Date: Fri, 14 May 2004 13:19:24 -0400




Martha J Davidson wrote:


Hi everyone,

As one of those coincidences that sometimes hit you in the face, I just found the following text in the instructions at the top of a dialog box created by one of our GUI developers, whose expertise is in usability:

"To disable searching for a particular criteria, uncheck the corresponding check box."

If we hadn't just had the criteria/criterion discussion, I would have found the usage in this dialog box disconcerting. Instead, I'm going to have a chat with the developer to ask whether using "criteria" as a singular was a conscious choice on his part or the result of faster linguistic shift than I was aware of.



How about asking him whether the superfluous wording was a conscious choice while you're at it?

"Uncheck items not relevant to your search." Seven words instead of twelve. That was just off the top of my head; I'm sure others can whittle it down more.


^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

SEE THE ALL NEW ROBOHELP X5 IN ACTION: RoboHelp X5 is a giant leap forward
in Help authoring technology, featuring Word 2003 support, Content Management, Multi-Author support, PDF and XML support and much more! http://www.macromedia.com/go/techwrldemo
From a single set of Word documents, create online Help and printed
documentation with ComponentOne Doc-To-Help 7 Professional, a new yearly
subscription service offering free updates and upgrades, support, and more.
http://www.doctohelp.com

---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as:
archiver -at- techwr-l -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
Send administrative questions to ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com -dot- Visit
http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.


References:
life imitates techwr-l: From: Martha J Davidson

Previous by Author: Re: Usability: Serif and Sans-Serif font faces?
Next by Author: Re: Creating PDFs in PageMaker
Previous by Thread: life imitates techwr-l
Next by Thread: Re: life imitates techwr-l

[Top of Archive] | [Author Index (this month)] | [Thread Index (this month)]

What this post helpful? Share it with friends and colleagues:

Sponsored Ads