RE: Typographical treatment of GUI components

Subject: RE: Typographical treatment of GUI components
From: Michael West <mbwest -at- bigpond -dot- net -dot- au>
To: "TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com>
Date: Tue, 15 Jul 2003 08:03:58 +1000



Dick Margulis wrote:

> what I write
> in the procedure is this (using title case):
>
> From the Select an Output Format list, choose ...
>
> Now I well know that THEY say the words in the procedure should
> reflect EXACTLY what is on the GUI. But y'know what? I like my
> way better. No bold, no italic, no font change, no graphic
> buttons.

I had to read the instruction twice to make
sure I hadn't missed a word between "the" and
"Select" because the first time through, it seemed
like "Select" was an instruction rather than the name
of something.

I don't think I would have tripped over it if a
distinctive style of some kind had been used for
the name of the list. You're giving me something
that I recognize as a verb (Select), but you're expecting
me to intuit that *this* time, anyway, the verb is
supposed to be understood as a noun-modifier.

Maybe I'd get used to it if I spent enough time
in it -- but I really shouldn't have to, should I?

==
Mike West
Melbourne, Australia



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Re: Typographical treatment of GUI components: From: Dick Margulis

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