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Re: Nitpicky little style question

Subject: Re: Nitpicky little style question
From: "Kathleen MacDowell" <kathleen -at- writefortheuser -dot- com>
To: "Beth Agnew" <Beth -dot- Agnew -at- senecac -dot- on -dot- ca>
Date: Tue, 12 Dec 2006 12:22:46 -0600

Good reminders so I appreciate seeing this discussion.

Re "Click," I've always preferred using a direction, i.e., "Click on" (for
button) or "Click in" (for box).

I think it's partially an effort to avoid getting trapped into the overly
terse/telegraphic style writers sometimes use.

Kathleen

On 12/12/06, Beth Agnew <Beth -dot- Agnew -at- senecac -dot- on -dot- ca> wrote:


That's probably what I would have said without consulting MMS. I like the
most direct route between user and instruction. At some point, if one must
refer to the interface, using the correct terminology helps educate users.
That's why we drive cars that have distributor caps instead of, I dunno,
insulated rotor covers.

While "radio buttons" nicely describes buttons that allow only one choice,
if you've never had a car radio with buttons, it becomes meaningless --
almost an arbitrary term, in the absence of context. We have enough legacy
language (hit Return, dial a number) that we have to deal with, but we're
comfortable with it. Ask any 24-year old digital native about radio
buttons
and it's a different story.

My point is that we need to be aware of what makes sense to our audience,
and continually ask ourselves whether the terms in the venerated style
guides are still relevant.

-----Original Message-----
From: techwr-l-bounces+beth -dot- agnew=senecac -dot- on -dot- ca -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
[mailto:techwr-l-bounces+beth -dot- agnew=senecac -dot- on -dot- ca -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com]On
Behalf Of Milan Davidovic
Sent: Tuesday, December 12, 2006 9:49 AM
To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Subject: RE: Nitpicky little style question


--- Beth Agnew <Beth -dot- Agnew -at- senecac -dot- on -dot- ca> wrote:
> Well, I'm a little tired of the World According to
> Microsoft... Why not
> figure out a style that works for your user base,
> whether it conforms to
> Microsoft or not?

Good point, but I think in this case Microsoft also
has a good point. Why say "Click the Landscape radio
button" (in the Page Setup dialog box) when "Click
Landscape" would work just as well?

Milan
http://altmilan.blogspot.com
http://www.terminus1525.ca/studio/view/2758

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Kathleen MacDowell
www.writefortheuser.com
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Follow-Ups:

References:
RE: Nitpicky little style question: From: Milan Davidovic
RE: Nitpicky little style question: From: Beth Agnew

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