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Re: can you think of an example of 'click on' used in a grammatically incorrect way?
Subject:Re: can you think of an example of 'click on' used in a grammatically incorrect way? From:"Bonnie Granat" <bgranat -at- granatedit -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Fri, 5 Dec 2003 19:32:59 -0500
>
> > > Bonnie Granat wrote:
> > >
> > Not if you understand the meaning of the word "click" in a GUI
> > context. It has a specialized meaning that includes the concept of
> > "on," because you cannot "click" at all unless you ARE "on."
> >
> > That is, how do you click in a GUI context and accomplish anything
> > without being ON the object.
> >
>
> That's a bit of a stretch, at least to me...You can click anywhere
on the
> screen, constantly and forever, regardless of whether you're
accomplishing
> anything at all.
>
That's the point. For "click" to make any sense whatsoever to a user,
one needs to be over something. So "Click _OK_" is clear to many
people who can see a "thing" with "OK" written on it.
> We use "click on" in the manuals where I work...we use it as as
shorthand
> for "click the left mouse button while your pointer is covering the
> specified object on the screen to accomplish this task." In this
context,
> "Click on" is perfectly acceptable.
>
But they can't "click" unless they ARE on. (Btw, for those of you who
have QuoteFix, which I recently downloaded (free program), you'll see
all the asterisks and underlining and whatnot as real,
honest-to-goodness formatting, even though you may be reading plain
text. It also changes smilies into yellow graphics. I wonder if it
will make this glyph into a tongue-out face or not: ; p
> As far as I'm concerned, neither usage bothers me. If I had my
druthers, I'd
> simplify to just "click," but I adapt to the place where I work.
Just
> choose one and use it consistently.
>
Yup. Maybe "never" was too strong a word, after all.
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