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Subject:Re: Style Guidelines for pull-down menus From:Frederique Courard-Hauri <fch -at- FCHCOMM -dot- COM> Date:Fri, 6 Aug 1999 12:18:29 -0400
DHICKEY -at- ALIS -dot- COM responded to the query:
> Greetings!
>
> >We are trying to get some clarity about how
> > to document a pull-down menu correctly.
>
> This is the way I usually write the instruction:
>
> 1. Select Open from the File menu.
> or
> 2. Select Spelling from the Tools sub-menu in the Options menu.
>
> The way I see it, put the command the user needs at the beginning of the
> sentence, giving it more emphasis, then tell the user where to find it. I
> also find it more natural: "Get my keys from the glove compartment"
instead
> of "From the glove compartment, get my keys".
>
>
Actually, I prefer it the other way : Select Options--Tools--Spelling.
That's
how the user would get there, from start to finish. I think it would be
more
confusing to say, "Sure, Grandma's house is 317 Oakley Street. You take a
right off Oak to get there. Oak is the third light down on the left from
here."
. . . Maybe that's why Grandma doesn't get as many visitors as she used
to.;-)
--
Frederique Courard-Hauri FCH Communications
fch -at- fchcomm -dot- com http://www.fchcomm.com