Re: Populate as a verb for "to fill in"

[Romay Jean Sitze <rositze -at- NMSU -dot- EDU>]

This looks like a perfect example of the importance of knowing your
audience.

Doug wrote:

> So, if the audience is people who routinely work with rows and columns and
> primary keys and SQL and such, I would stick with "populate" to show that
> I understood the correct technical terminology.  If the audience is people
> who are normally shielded from all the details by icons and entry boxes and
> such, I would probably say "fill" or "type."  I'd avoid "enter" unless I
> really wanted the user to press the <ENTER> or <RETURN> key at the end of
> the process.  Many long-service data entry folk had the distinction
> between "enter" and "type" drummed into them for years, and old habits
> die hard.

> Skoal,

> Doug                            "Praise not the day until evening has
> ENGSTROMDD -at- phibred -dot- com           come; a woman until she is burnt; a
>                                  a sword until it has been tried; a
>                                  maiden until she is married; ice
>                                  until it has been crossed; beer until
>                                  it has been drunk."

>                                                 --Viking Proverb

> ***********************************************************************
> The preceding opinions and positions are mine alone, and are only
> coincidentally related to those of Pioneer Hi-Bred International, Inc.
> ***********************************************************************



        RoMay Sitze             A musician must make music, an artist must
        rositze -at- nmsu -dot- edu        paint, a poet must write, if he is to be
                                ultimately at peace with himself.
                                                -Abraham Maslow-