Command nomenclature

["Andrew F. Swartz" <aswartz -at- HARLEQUIN -dot- CO -dot- UK>]

I did a small survey of my company's users (mostly police officers) and
found that over half didn't understand the convention Yvonne DeGraw
suggests: "Choose File-->Open." However, we explain the convention only in
the preface, and I suspect not many readers look at prefaces. I look
forward to trying Yvonne's suggestion of explaining the convention on first
use of each chapter. Since this is one of the most common sorts of
instructions in a software user manual, it seems like it's worth taking the
time to figure out the best wording.

I have no major quibble with MS's recommendation

>   On the File menu, click Open.
>   From the File menu, choose Open.

for standalone sentences, but it's difficult to think how to use that
recommendation when it's part of a bigger sentence, such as 'To open a
file, from the File menu, choose open.' I prefer to word a sentence like
that as 'To open a file, pull down the File menu and choose Open.'

Best wishes,
--Andrew Swartz
----------
> From: Yvonne DeGraw <yvonne -at- SILCOM -dot- COM>
> To: TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU
> Subject: MS Manual of Style, disagreements with
> Date: 09 June 1997 16:34
>
> Bev Parks wrote:
> >It is quite possible that not all people want to be Microsoft zombies.
> >There just *may* be a better way out there. Maybe someone at Microsoft
> >made a poor decision. It could happen.
>
> I now use the MS Manual of Style for most things. But I've found several
> places where I disagree. Here's my pet disagreement...
>
> MS says for menu commands, use one of these (File & Open are bold):
>
>   On the File menu, click Open.
>   From the File menu, choose Open.
>
> An alternative I've used and gotten excellent user feedback on is:
>
>   Choose File-->Open.
>
> (File-->Open is bold and --> is a Wingding character or an image.)
>
> In the preface and on first use (maybe first use in each chapter
depending
> on the manual structure), I explain this style. I've found that users
> internalize it either without an explanation or after the first
explanation.
> For less-experienced audiences, I've also used:
>
>   Choose the File-->Open menu item.
>
> Users say they like this style because they can easily skim for menu
> commands in a set of steps. Users and customer support at companies where
I
> use this style commonly start using it themselves in e-mail messages and
bug
> reports.
>
> Perhaps many people think about choosing menu commands as one action, and
> this supports that thought mode. (They choose Open, and File happens to
be
> the place where that is located.)
>
> Also, describing cascading menus is less cumbersome. "Choose
> Edit-->Sort-->By Name" is a natural extension.
>
> Of course, all I have is anecdotal evidence. I don't have any studies to
> back up the advantages of this style. And, since it isn't currently
> standard, it depends on your audience and your client.
>
> If MS used this style it would become familiar to all users and the
> advantages would be even greater. Anyway, if you like this idea, feel
free
> to use it. I've seen others use it successfully, too. I'd love to see
this
> style become more common so I could use it with more clients.
>
> P.S. This isn't a Microsoft/Gates flame. If you can't beat 'em, buy their
> stock. I've bought more MS stock than software over the years.
>
> P.P.S. My other disagreements the MS Manual of Style are "email" vs.
> "e-mail" and "Select the XXX check box." I prefer to spend a few extra
words
> to "Put a check mark in the XXX box."
> Yvonne DeGraw, Technical Services     o Technical Writing
> yvonne -at- silcom -dot- com                     o Online Help
> http://www.silcom.com/~yvonne         o Web Documentation
> Tel: 805/683-5784                     o Database Publishing
> Chair, STC Region 8 Conference: http://stc.org/region8/snb/reg8conf
> Santa Barbara, CA       Call for Presentations deadline is June 30.
>
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