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Subject:Re: when is it right to be wrong? From:"Margaret Secara" <margaret -dot- secara -at- alphather -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Fri, 05 Apr 2002 13:02:01 -0800
How on earth could it more proper to be proper than understood? And how can anything be proper if it can't be understood, or if it is ambiguous or confusing?
I use the MS Manual of style *for technical publication* to keep documentation/GUI terms consistent; right-click, drop-down list (instead of dropdown), and the parts of windows and dialog boxes, or whatever. I certainly don't use it as the fount of knowledge on matters of "good English".
It's good to have guides to turn to. Just be sure you're using the right tool for the particular job, though. I go to Strunk & White, myself, for English usage. Joseph M. Williams (_Style_) for structure and organization. Microsoft for the names of user-related bits and pieces. And even then I have to make some decisions, because Microsoft isn't always consistent in their own documents!
Certainly place the user's needs ahead of the likes of some Microsoft tome. Its
only a guide and rules were meant to be broken (some of them anyway <g>).
Pete (pkleczka -at- yahoo -dot- com)
--- Kelly Werner <kwerner -at- eaglesoft -dot- net> wrote:
>
[snip...]
> 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?
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