RE: Style convention question - fields, text boxes, etc.

["Hager, Harry (US - East Brunswick)" <hhager -at- dc -dot- com>]

Laura,

Here's a convention we've used for a while:

- data entry field = a field in which the user enters or selects the value. 
- display-only field = a field in which the program enters the value and the
user cannot change.

With this convention there are always only two types of fields in your
window, pane, dialog box, or whatever, and they are both called fields. 

We tend not to use the term text box, unless we need to differentiate it
from the other kinds of data entry fields, such as list box. 

Jim Hager
hhager -at- dc -dot- com


>The application window consists of a list/search pane, and two other panes
which display information but that the user does not actually act upon. In
one of the display panes, there are several "fields" that display
information but are not acted upon. (The programmers refer to them as "text
boxes" and the information in them as "values.") <

>In the documentation, how would you describe these areas of the application
window that contain values that the user does not actually change? <

>The first-draft writer calls them "fields," but that does not seem
accurate.
We currently use "text box" to refer to the areas where the user will
actually be entering information, so that term does not seem accurate
either. <