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What if your software developers, in their wisdom and thoughtfulness,
have provided not only a mouseable, clickable menu option but also a
hot key like Shift-Command + O for options? What if you tell the
user to click and he or she suffers from something medical in the arm
and is trying to use hot keys whenever possible?
What I am trying to get up the nerve to ask you is: If what I so
loosely describe is the case, should we not write "Choose Options"
and not "Click Options"? Tell them what to do, but let them deduce
how to do it? Isn't that what their vanishing system manuals are
for?
Bill
bsullivan -at- deltecpower -dot- com
>>> Bonni Graham <bonnig -at- ix -dot- netcom -dot- com> - 1/30/96 9:55 AM >>>
You wrote:
>The specific usage is this (occurring in procedures where there
>is a step and then a result below it telling the reader what to
>expect):
> 1. Click Options.
> o The Options dialog is displayed.
I struggled with this one forever, too. <g> Here's what I came up
with:
(in User Guides)
1. Click Options to open the Options dialog.
(in Tutorials)
1. Click Options.
This opens the Options dialog:
<<picture of dialog here, so they know they're at the right
one>>
Hope that helps!
--
Bonni Graham
Manual Labour bonnig -at- ix -dot- netcom -dot- com
