TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
Subject:Re: USAGE: Drill down From:Nancy Smith <smithcds -at- ICI -dot- NET> Date:Sat, 14 Aug 1999 10:45:10 -0400
I have heard and used the term in more than one database software company.
In the company where I previously worked, it was the only term that made
sense. If the user clicked on a specific graphical data element, another
window popped up with further details about that data.
However, I would hyphenate drill-down in the example you gave, because the
marketing person is using it as a noun. As a verb, use "drill down to..."
Nancy
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Technical Writers List; for all Technical Communication issues
> [mailto:TECHWR-L -at- listserv -dot- okstate -dot- edu]On Behalf Of Kathleen Frost
> Sent: Friday, August 13, 1999 10:51 PM
> To: TECHWR-L -at- listserv -dot- okstate -dot- edu
> Subject: USAGE: Drill down
>
>
> The questionable term here is "drill down" and, nope, we're
> not in the oil
> industry or searching for water....
>
> Our marketing person wrote a typical bulleted feature list
> for one of our
> Internet application products. This one bothers me. I know
> she must have
> gotten the term from a programmer but I have never heard it
> at any other
> company I've worked for. I need to know if this is a common
> phrase in the
> software industry that I just missed along the way.
>
> ....the right combination of features:
> * Point-and-click drill down to detailed information.
>
>
> I know that, in this case, you generate a report of all
> records. You click
> one record name to get the summary report on that record.
> Then you click an
> icon on the summary report to display to the detailed-level
> report of the
> selected record. The programmers call the multi-step action "drilling
> down."
>
> Does anyone else use this term? To avoid clutter on the list, please
> respond offline and I'll summarize in a few days.
>
> Kathy Frost
> FrostDoc -at- Earthlink -dot- Net
>
> ==============================================================
> =============
> Send commands to listserv -at- listserv -dot- okstate -dot- edu (e.g., SIGNOFF
> TECHWR-L)
> Check out topic summaries at
>http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/topics.htm
> Send all
>
>
>
