Re: Refernce to menu options??

Subject: Re: Refernce to menu options??
From: Mike Stockman <mstockman -at- mac -dot- com>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Date: Mon, 25 Mar 2002 07:35:46 -0500


On 03/25/2002 7:33 AM, Swati Jain (swatij -at- ggn -dot- aithent -dot- com) wrote:

>Scenario: The application for which i have to document has the main menu
>option File and sub menu option Save
>
>What do i say?

To begin with, it depends on the platform you're on (check out the
Microsoft Manual of Style for their recommendations, I don't have a copy
handy right now) if you want to match the style of the OS and other
applications the user will already know.

Once you know your platform's style for menu commands, you can implement
it, or throw it out and pick another, as long as you are consistent
throughout your documents.

You're sure to get a lot of opinions on which of your choices is better,
worse, more user-friendly, sure to kill the user, and so on, but the
bottom line is that you have to *be consistent within your own material.*
There's no sense in perpetuating something stupid just because
Microsoft's or Apple's style guide says to.

True story: Apple's style guide has maintained since 1986 or so that the
plural of mouse (as in computer mouse) is "mouse devices," not "mice." I
don't know anyone who has followed this advice.

Hope this helps,
Mike

________________________________________________________________
stockman -at- jagunet -dot- com -- AOL and AOL Instant Messenger:MStockman



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