RE: Open...

["Combs, Richard" <richard -dot- combs -at- Polycom -dot- com>]

Gene Kim-Eng wrote:
 
> I think the real question is what point there is putting it in the UI.  An
> "Open" button without an ellipsis already is an obvious link to some other
> menu
> or dialog and the ellipsis is redundant.  But once the "Open..." button is
> there, the manual description of it needs to name it precisely, or as sure
> as
> the sun rises someone will call tech support to complain that the "Open"
> button
> described in the manual isn't there, just one that says "Open..."

I agree that an "Open" menu item or button doesn't need or deserve an ellipsis. But as for including the ellipsis in the manual, I recommend that you and Tony do as I suggested: Look at the menus in practically any popular software program from a major vendor, and you'll see many commands that use (properly, in most cases) ellipses to indicate that they open a dialog box for additional user input. Now look at the manual or online help for those programs. I bet you'll be hard-pressed to find examples that include the ellipses. 

For the reasons I and others have mentioned, the docs should simply use the button or menu item names, and not extraneous matter like ellipses, keyboard shortcuts, or ending punctuation. 

"It's my opinion and it's very true." :-)


Richard G. Combs
Senior Technical Writer
Polycom, Inc.
richardDOTcombs AT polycomDOTcom
303-223-5111
------
rgcombs AT gmailDOTcom
303-903-6372
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