term for "numbers and letters but not punctuation or special symbols"

[Sam Beard]

Jessica,

   Why not "alpha-numeric characters, without punctuation or special
symbols"? It's wordy, but seems fairly clear to me. Or, instead of
alpha-numeric, if you're concerned about misinterpretation of that,
"letters and numbers...".

Samuel I. Beard, Jr.
Technical Writer
OI Analytical
979 690-1711 Ext. 222
sbeard at oico.com
 

-----Original Message-----
From: techwr-l-bounces+sbeard=oico.com at lists.techwr-l.com
[mailto:techwr-l-bounces+sbeard=oico.com at lists.techwr-l.com] On Behalf
Of Jessica Weissman
Sent: Friday, August 24, 2007 11:02 AM
To: TECHWR-L
Subject: term for "numbers and letters but not punctuation or special
symbols"

In our user documentation we want to say something like "the more
letters you enter, the more specific your search results will be".

 

Our technical reviewers changed this to "characters", which is not
suitable for the audience (it's a consumer product).  We originally had
"the more you enter, the better your search results will be" to which
the technical reviewers wanted to add "letters".

 

Any ideas for a better term than "letters"?

 

Thanks,

 

Jessica

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