Hocus pocus focus

Subject: Hocus pocus focus
From: "Alex Silbajoris" <alsilba -at- hotmail -dot- com>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Date: Wed, 15 Nov 2000 13:45:55 GMT


Subject: Hocus Pocus (was "appears" vs. "is displayed")
From: "Thomas Quine" <quinet -at- home -dot- com>

I'm inclined to add the word "will", (making this the future conditional
tense) since it adds the implication "If you click the "New" button, the New
Customer window will appear." If you just say it appears, that seems to me
to sever the causality between the apparition and the act of clicking the
"New" button.

Why not instruct the user to click the New button to display the window? That tells the user what to click, and what to expect as the result.

I went back and took another look at some documents I recently helped create, and I did find the construct "the following data will display..." although more often we said "the screen will display the..." We also used alternate verbs such as "the header area indicates the mode."

One TW manager I had was also in the camp that says data displays, and magicians appear. I thought it sounded silly at the time but these days I prefer "display" because it sounds more deliberate.

I could imagine using "appear" when writing for users who probably never use "display" as we are here. For someone who knows next to nothing about a GUI interface, perhaps windows and messages really do appear, wraithlike, from unknown causes.

- A

_________________________________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free E-mail from MSN Hotmail at http://www.hotmail.com.

Share information about yourself, create your own public profile at http://profiles.msn.com.


^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Develop HTML-based Help with Macromedia Dreamweaver! (STC Discount.)
**NEW DATE/LOCATION!** January 16-17, 2001, New York, NY.
http://www.weisner.com/training/dreamweaver_help.htm or 800-646-9989.

Sponsored by SOLUTIONS, Conferences and Seminars for Communicators Publications Management Clinic, TECH*COMM 2001 Conference, and more http://www.SolutionsEvents.com or 800-448-4230

---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as: archive -at- raycomm -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
Send administrative questions to ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com -dot- Visit http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.


Previous by Author: Re: Need help with a research project
Next by Author: Formatting, proficiency (Word)
Previous by Thread: RE: Displays versus appears--which one?
Next by Thread: RE: Displays versus Appears-Which One


What this post helpful? Share it with friends and colleagues:


Sponsored Ads