Press this, or just Press

[Janice Gelb]

Milan Davidovic wrote:
> My apologies if a question of this sort has recently
> been covered; I've obviously missed it. 
> 
> This question is intended for tech writers who create
> call outs that instruct the reader to press a button
> (or some such) illustrated in the figure, and draw a
> line with an arrow from the call out to the button in
> question.
> 
> The question: in the call out, do you write "Press to
> <do x>" or "Press this to <do x>". I'm curious as to
> whether you regard the inclusion of "this" as
> redundant.
> 

We specifically tell writers not to use
callouts to an illustration to give
instructions, preferring instead to
provide tasks that incorporate the GUI
instructions. If I were working in an
environment that did so, however, I'd
probably just say "Does X" given that
most readers will know that buttons are
invoked by pressing.

-- Janice

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