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Subject:Re: Carrying out From:Janice Gelb <Janice -dot- Gelb -at- Sun -dot- COM> To:techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com Date:Thu, 24 May 2007 02:18:05 +1000
Kathleen MacDowell wrote:
> As an aside, I always avoid using a formulation like "Click Run," which I
> think is why I usually say click on Run or (xxx verb). I might even say
> "click on the Run button" or whatever is suitable. I realize that this
> appears to be verbose, but I suspect that these types of constructions are
> processed pretty quickly (mentally), whether the "the" and other niceties
> are included or not. But, the advantage to including the extra information
> is that there's no doubt about what to do, whereas with more terse
> constructions, there can sometimes be doubt.
>
> I'd be interested in hearing if anyone else agrees with me (maybe for some
> situations?). From what I've seen, people appear to accept the terse mode,
> especially in documenting software.
>
Just curious why you feel the "on" is necessary after
"click"? We generally say "Click OK" or the like for
really common buttons and add "the ... button" for button
names that might not be so obvious.
-- Janice
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