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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:Wed, 16 Jul 2003 10:23:42 +1000
Gabrielle wrote:
> At my current job there are mountains of existing training documents
> with procedures where the action (verb) has been treated differently
> typographically. So for example "Click the Apply button" becomes
> "<bold><small caps> Click </bold></small caps> the apply button."
>
> Needless to say, I find this convention awkward and unnecessary. These
> are simple procedures and the action is almost always either click,
> press, or enter. However, it is an established style here and it is
> going to be difficult for me to convince people to change. Does anyone
> have any ammunition for me?
Gabrielle,
Does "it doesn't make any sense" carry any weight
where you are? Highlighting "click" does nothing
except cause confusion. What can I do with a button
besides click it? How does the
<bold><small caps> Click </bold></small caps>
action differ from the plain old everyday click
action?
If anything should be highlighted, it is the thing
to be acted upon -- the literal character string
that the user has to find on the screen.
Is the user supposed to be looking for something
that says "apply" or something that says "Apply"
or something that says neither but serves the
purpose of applying a change? How do they know
which?
*That's* where typographical emphasis
comes in -- it solves that problem. It tells
me *exactly* what I'm supposed to be looking for.
--
Mike West
Melbourne, Australia
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