Use of 'populate'

[Combs, Richard]

Michelle Vina-Baltsas wrote:
 
> How do you all feel about using the word 'populate' in 
> technical documents?
> 
> For example, 
> 
> 1) Click the Actions button, then select Modify from the menu.
> 2) Populate the Approval Date:.
> 3) Populate the CR Number:. 

I'll join the chorus of people declaring this use an abomination. But
once I got over the queasiness induced by "Populate," I noticed a couple
of other issues with your example. 

Maybe Step 1 is just made up -- surely, you don't click a button to open
a menu, do you? 

As for Steps 2 and 3, for crying out loud, lose the colons!! The field
name may be followed by a colon in the interface, but that doesn't mean
you should slavishly copy it into your document. A colon followed by a
period is a horrible, horrible thing -- fingernails on a chalkboard. 

IMHO, of course. 

Richard


------
Richard G. Combs
Senior Technical Writer
Polycom, Inc.
richardDOTcombs AT polycomDOTcom
303-223-5111
------
rgcombs AT gmailDOTcom
303-777-0436
------