TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
--------------------------------------
Date: 7/22/96 12:20 PM
From: Alma Schipper
I guess that the terms "icons" and "buttons" have been used so often for so
many different things (as this thread has made obvious) that it's no longer
possible to provide complete definitions.
In my experience with Windows, I've come up with the following distinction:
to choose an icon (usually on the desktop), you have to double-click it. To
choose a button, you only need to click once.
Has anyone else noticed this? It seems a silly way to distinguish
between them.
--------------------------------------
Not bad, though, Alma, and not so silly. You're right that the
meanings have gotten stretched through time.
My practical rule of thumb (evolved as I've watched this thread evolve),
is that buttons and icons are metaphors. So let's go back to the source.
A button is something locked onto something else. You press it to
perform an action. You press a button to turn on your computer, perhaps.
(Most apps even actually show a software "button" being "pressed" in 3D.)
You usually can't move a button around on the object that holds it.
Icons are pictures that represent things--usually objects
"reduced" to icons. Icons can have menus or actions associated
with clicking on them. Icons can usually be moved around (but not always).
For the middle ground, the locked-in-place icons that you click to
perform an action--if it looks like a button, most people will think of
it as a button. If it looks like a picture, most folks will think of it
as an icon. Use the term that people will ordinarily expect.
Sorry for making a long discussion longer.
To the person with the original question--go by feel and be as
consistent as you can. Then finish the book and move on. Keep in
mind that no solution will be perfect, and none of what we
do is Shakespeare. (It one of us IS Shakespeare, writing in the
tech manual genre, I pity the English lit grad students of the
23rd century....)
Hope this helps.
Tom Neuburger
TECHWR-L List Information
To send a message about technical communication to 2500+ list readers,
E-mail to TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU -dot- Send administrative commands
ALL other questions or problems concerning the list
should go to the listowner, Eric Ray, at ejray -at- ionet -dot- net -dot-
