"Appears" vs. "will appear"

[Bryan Sherman]

It's wordy. Especially if you have a number of steps in a row that all
say "The system confabulator displays..."

On 5/3/07, Mike Starr <mikestarr-techwr-l at writestarr.com> wrote:
> Choose the File>>Save menu item. <software product> displays the Save dialog
> box.
>
> What's wrong with that??
>
> Mike
> --
> Mike Starr                            WriteStarr Information Services
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>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Sarah Bouchier" <Sarah.Bouchier at exony.com>
> To: <techwr-l at lists.techwr-l.com>
> Sent: Thursday, May 03, 2007 12:03 PM
> Subject: RE: "Appears" vs. "will appear"
>
> > >I use "displays" instead of "appears." But I have no good reason why.
> >>Just a preference.
> >
> > The problem I always have with that is that when I see a sentence such
> > as 'Click X.  The X window displays' I mentally wait to find out what it
> > is that the X window displays.
> >
> > Sarah Bouchier
> > Technical Author
> >
> > exony