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Subject:Displays From:geoff-h -at- MTL -dot- FERIC -dot- CA Date:Wed, 21 May 1997 08:17:50 -0500
Judy Morgon asked <<Can a dialog box "display" or just
appear?>> I'd agree that "display" is not the best choice,
because my first reaction is always "displays what?" I
don't like "appears" any better. The usage of "display" as
an intransitive verb is slowly becoming more common, but
(IMHO) not yet so common that you should accept it. A
better approach is something like "To display the dialog
box, do X...": this uses the verb properly, puts the most
important contextual information up front (so the reader
can decide whether to continue reading the rest of the
sentence), and has a few other virtues such as phrasing
instructions in the imperative voice, where they belong.
--Geoff Hart @8^{)} geoff-h -at- mtl -dot- feric -dot- ca
Disclaimer: Speaking for myself, not FERIC.
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