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Subject:RE: When is it right to be wrong? From:Kelly Werner <kwerner -at- eaglesoft -dot- net> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Fri, 5 Apr 2002 13:56:20 -0600
Addressing the multiple requests for an example (you aren't going to like
it...) it's back to this weeks debate over 'Select the Checkbox' and 'Check
the Box'.
If I were a support tech walking a user through a process, I would not say
"Select the Checkbox."
Kelly Werner wonders: <<Is it justifiable to commit a MS Manual of Style
faux pas for the sake of user comprehension? I put the question to you, oh
counsel of elders, is it more important to be proper or understood?>>
It's obviously far more important to be understood. Don't forget that even
Microsoft doesn't have the hubris to call their style _guide_ a universal
book of _rules_. More to the point, I've found over the years of discussing
the guide with other editors and communicators that much of Microsoft's
advice is outright wrong, and where it's not wrong, it's often idiosyncratic
and arbitrary.
Bottom line: Use MS MoS as a guide if you do lots of Windows-related work,
but don't expect to agree with everything they recommend and don't feel
obliged to do so. In particular, rely on a good dictionary (American
Heritage is great if you're writing for Americans) rather than Microsoft for
word definitions.
--Geoff Hart, geoff-h -at- mtl -dot- feric -dot- ca
Forest Engineering Research Institute of Canada
580 boul. St-Jean
Pointe-Claire, Que., H9R 3J9 Canada
"With Linux, customers end up being in the operating systems business,
managing software updates and security patches while making sure the
multitude of software packages don't conflict with each other."--Microsoft
spokesperson in a News.com article
"And just how would that be different from Windows?"--Adam Engst, TidBITS
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