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Subject:RE: What do we call this button? From:"Giordano, Connie" <Connie -dot- Giordano -at- FMR -dot- COM> To:"'Newman, Sarah'" <snewman -at- bechtel -dot- com>, TECHWR-L <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Wed, 18 Oct 2000 14:16:38 -0400
Tell the idiot programmers to rename the button List ... It's about 10
seconds of their time.
Nobody other than programmers EVER knows what the ellipsis by itself means.
Programs that have it usually have high annoyance factors from typical end
users.
-----Original Message-----
From: Newman, Sarah [mailto:snewman -at- bechtel -dot- com]
Sent: Wednesday, October 18, 2000 2:00 PM
To: TECHWR-L
Subject: What do we call this button?
Hi,
We have a minor controversy going here, and I hope some of you can give us
some input. I searched the archives but didn't find anything related.
The program we're documenting has numerous fields where you can directly
enter a value or you can select one from a list. To get to the list, you
click a button to the right of the field with an ellipsis (...) on it. This
brings up a separate dialog box with the list and an OK button.
We have been referring to this as the ellipsis (...) button (e.g. "Click the
ellipsis button and select the item from the list"). However, the developers
want to call it the list button. We have a colorful former colleague who
referred to this button as the "three dot button". I suppose we could write
around a name (e.g., "click the button to the right of the field"), but this
adds to the bulkiness of an already very long book.
Any suggestions/votes as to what we should call this button?
Thanks,
Sarah Newman
Technical Writing Group
Bechtel
(713) 235-3352
(281) 240-9111
