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> Just to start another discussion, should one say that a window "is
> displayed", "appears", "will be displayed", or what? Personally, I
> think the future tense should not be used, and that "appears" has a
> rather magical ring about it.
FWIW, Apple's Publications Style Guide says "A dialog box appears, or
the application program presents or displays a dialog box."
I usually write either:
"Select an object and choose Information from the Edit menu. The
Object Information dialog box will appear."
or
"Choose Information from the Edit menu to display the Object
Information dialog box."
While I could write:
"Choose Information from the Edit menu. The Object Information dialog
box will appear."
for the second example so that it was more consistent, I prefer to
adjust the wording to improve readability. I sometimes cheat and don't
use display or appear when dealing with additional dialog boxes to
improve readability. For example:
"Choose Define Colors from the Edit menu to display the Define Colors
dialog box. Click New to create a new color with the Edit Color dialog
box."
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