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Subject:RE: About that whacky MS MoS for TPs From:"Swallow, William" <WSwallow -at- courion -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Thu, 21 Jun 2001 10:43:25 -0400
:: That'd be the "Microsoft Manual of Style for technical
:: publications"? I've
:: heard so many bad things about this guide that I can't
:: recommend it to
:: anyone who isn't already an accomplished editor and thus
:: able to overrule
:: the book as required. In fact, I have only one thing to add to the
:: discussion about the guide itself: it's a ***GUIDE***, not a book of
:: physical, holy, or other law. Use it to _guide_ your
:: decisions; don't adhere
:: to it slavishly where it makes no sense whatsoever in your
:: particular context.
I have to agree with Geoff. But I will add that the MS MoS(fTP) is a decent
resource when trying to figure out what the heck to call something, even if
you don't use the MoS's definition. It's nice to know that there *is* a
division between "panel" and "tab" (although it may not be recognized *vbg*
- that's for a certain lurker out there *g*) and "pane" and "frame" and so
on... If you have enough editorial insight and heck, a decent amount of
common sense, this guide is an excellent resource for helping define
technical jargon in your documentation. But I don't think it should be
treated as an end-all by any means, as general technical conversations with
software users illustrates that there is no one set term for these interface
elements.
*****************
BILL SWALLOW
Technical Writer
C O U R I O N C O R P O R A T I O N
1881 Worcester Road
Framingham, Mass. 01701
T E L * 508-879-8400 x316
F A X * 508-879-8500
www.courion.com
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