RE : More usage: "Open" or "Access" web addresses

Subject: RE : More usage: "Open" or "Access" web addresses
From: Yves JEAUROND <jingting -at- rogers -dot- com>
To: Techwr-l <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
Date: Wed, 19 Mar 2008 11:40:33 -0400 (EDT)

Give users the easiest path: "Click [URL]."

Btw, "open" is a figure of speech for output---you can open a can
or a door, but not an URL.
And by giving them a link to the URL, they have access. :-)

A trick that helps with such problems is asking what the user is
trying to make. To do so , consider Aristotle's four causes,
if the example were a marble statue:
- material cause: marble (The result is made of what?)
- formal cause: the model posing for the statue (The result is made to look like who?)
- efficient cause: hammer & chisel (The result is made how?)
- final cause: payment for finishing the statue. (The result is made why?)

Focus on the efficient cause, by answering the question "How?",
rather than the material cause---the computer implementation, HTML...

Sad Fact
=> A user can only click [to select, to enable, to use], type, scroll, read,
and very little else.
All the other verbs---go, visit, surf, access, run, draw---are highly metaphorical;
at best they give a specialized audience an analogy of some formal cause;
at worst they are ambiguous. Ask the localizers.

Regards,

YJ

"Cardimon, Craig" <ccardimon -at- M-S-G -dot- com> a écrit :
Again, I'm seeing different variations here. If I want to direct users
to ftp://ftp.comeandgetit.com , would I
tell them to open that URL or access it?



I probably just advised them to "open" IE, so should I use "open" again
so soon, or should I tell them to "start" IE, and "open" this web
address?



Are web addresses opened or accessed?



I'm getting dizzy.



-- Craig


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More usage: "Open" or "Access" web addresses: From: Cardimon, Craig

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