Windows 95 terminology (help!)

[Beth Baxter <bethb -at- MCSDALLAS -dot- COM>]

Hi all,

This debate is probably as old as this list but I need to
solicit responses on what everyone is calling their windows in
Windows 95 type applications. Windows? Dialogs? Dialog boxes?

In the last app I documented, I decided to call everything a
"window" regardless of whether the user had to enter data. The
exception to this was tabbed property sheets, which I referred
to as "tabs."

Since then, I've declared to my company that we will
henceforth be conforming to the MS style manual. From what I
can gather from the vague writing on this subject, they want
you to use "dialog box" to describe windows in which the user
must enter data. Also according to MS, my "tabs" would become
"tabbed dialog boxes." Even better, MS says to "avoid using
the term dialog box or property sheet." An indignant harrumph
to that piece of useless advice.

I'm inclined to stick with my first method, where everything
is a window except the tabbed property sheets, which would be
"tabs." This makes it less awkward for long window titles such
as "Advanced User Login Options."

I guess I'm looking for a little reassurance before I declare
to the company that MS is basically full of it on this issue
and that my way is better than their's. Any comments?


Beth Baxter
Technical Writer
Micro Computer Systems, Inc.

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