Re: Window "panes" - a better term?

[Jane Bergen <janeb -at- ANSWERSOFT -dot- COM>]

On  2 Oct 96,  Beth Kane wrote:

>      The Microsoft tech pubs style book says when you have to refer
>      to the separate parts of a split window, you should call them
>      "panes." This is not a term my company has generally used.
>      We've usually referred to the part of the window by its name
>      (sometimes pointing out which side of the window it's on), and
>      we have sometimes called them fields, etc.
>      (snipped for brevity)
>      and lower halves. The engineers are already referring to them
>      as panes. I find this term to be user-unfriendly (and just
>      plain painful) and would like to see it kept out of the docs,
>      if possible.

Beth, I think you may have to concede this one. First, by your own
admission, you've not been consistent with what to call them.
Second, your engineers are already calling them panes. And third,
perhaps most important, panes is an accepted term industry-wide.

Panes have a clear semantic link with "windows" and most people can
visualize window panes fairly easily. Frames on the internet usually
exhibit slightly different behavior than panes.

I do know how you feel about a word, though. My "hate-word" is box,
which the Microsoft Style Guide wants to use in place of field. For
example, "In the Name box, type....." Ugh. I hate it. But generally
when Microsoft starts using it for their own products, enough people
follow to make it a trend....good or bad.

It will be interesting to see what the other tech writers think.

Jane Bergen
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
 Jane Bergen, Technical Writer
 janeb -at- answersoft -dot- com
 AnswerSoft, Inc.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^