Using a gerund phrase for procedure topic titles

["Chuck Martin" <twriter -at- sonic -dot- net>]

Hey all, I've been away from reading and contributing awhile, but now...  :)

For many years, I've used as the title for procedural topics (in online
Help) the gerund phase: Creating a New Document, Changing the Modem
Settings, and so on. But I see in Office 2000, Microsoft seems to have
changed this (at least in Word). Now I see the simple form of the verb:
Create a New Document, Change the Modem Settings, etc.

So I'm wondering: is one or the other better for users to find and
understand? Does anyone know of any research in this area?

One though that comes to my mind, a mind that's always thinking of keeping
online files as compact as possible, is that the simple form is typically a
character or 3 shorter--which results in a byte or 3 less for each topic. It
may not be much, but in the online world, every little bit can help--and
when a Help system has hundreds of topics, this can really add up too. So
cuould this be nothing more than a way for MS to squish the Help file a bit
more?

--
--
"I don't entirely understand it but it is true: Highly skilled
carpenters don't get insulted when told they are not architects,
but highly skilled programmers do get insulted when told
they are not UI designers."
      - anonymous programmer quoted in "GUI Bloopers"

Chuck Martin
User Assistance & Experience Engineer
twriter "at" sonic "dot" net      www.writeforyou.com



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