Re: GUI questions

[Melissa Fisher <mfisher -at- MOBSEC -dot- COM>]

Hi Jill,

FWIW, here is what I would do...

1(a) Assuming that your window has a title, I would call it the BlahBlah
window.  For instance, "You can view the settings on the BlahBlah
window.  To change these settings, click the Blah-Edit Blah menu option.
The BlahBlah dialog box appears."  (And yes, I do use "appears," but
that's a different topic. :-)

If your window does not have a title, then I would reference it
according to the command or option used to display the window.  For
instance, "When you click the BlahBlah button, a window appears showing
the current settings."  This may not cover all your possible
scenarios...in which case, I would probably stick to "information
window".  Just remember if you use a generic phrase like this, to be
consistent.

1(b) I don't have a problem with "field," but I may try writing around
such a label altogether, especially if you are showing a screen shot in
the doc.  For example, "The blah-blah dialog shows the Connection
options installed on your system."  If it is not obvious in the program
that a field is not editable, (most often non-editable fields are
grayed-out or shaded or simply not accessible) then state this
explicitly: "The Humbug field cannot be changed."

2. Since I've also seen a right-click or pop-up menu referred to as a
context menu, I'd try to eliminate the potential for ambiguity as much
as possible.  Maybe I go about this the long and hard way, but I'm most
likely to use a phrase like "Click the right mouse button to display the
pop-up editing menu" or "Click the right mouse button to display the
context menu" or "Right-click the yakety-smakety option to display the
pop-up menu."

Melissa Fisher
mfisher -at- mobsec -dot- com