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Subject:Re: To ellipse or not to ellipse From:BILL KONRAD <konradb -at- UL -dot- COM> Date:Thu, 3 Jul 1997 15:15:34 CDT
>Darla Kennington <kenningt -at- t-iii -dot- com> wrote:
>> We are having a large and ridiculous debate over putting an ellipse on
>> all the buttons in our software (such as print, save, etc.) with the
>> developers of the GUI. The Windows Interface Guidelines for Software
>> Design seems to indicate you should leave the ellipse off of the
>> buttons, but always use them in menus. I agree with this, but I can't
>> get it through anyone's head.
Are you talking about buttons in a dialog box or about buttons on a
toolbar. I don't have the Windows Interface Guidelines, but I don know that
many Microsoft applications include ellipsis in buttons that appear in
dialog boxes. For example, the Print dialog in Word 6 has a "Printer..."
and an "Options..." button.
I think Beth Mazur is correct that ellipsis are used to indicate that
further input is required to perform an action. However, I cannot think of
any button on a toolbar that has ellipsis in it. Even if the tool button
is for a command that has an ellipsis when it appears in a menu or dialog.
Not even the tooltips have an ellipsis then. Go figure.
Bill Konrad
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