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Isaac Rabinovitch responded to my note that "focus" and "proc'd" don't
belong in non-programmer end-user documentation: <<... you can carry the
principle too far. In the case of "focus", this is a concept that basic to
GUI usage, and not one
you can avoid. If you try, you have to do a *lot* of paraphasing. Not a
formula for clear writing!>>
"Focus" simply isn't a word in the vocabulary of the vast majority of users:
it's a programming or UI design term, not something the average user ever
thinks of. When I suggested that you recast things from the viewpoint of the
reader (rather than the software), I didn't mean doing lots of paraphrasing,
I meant rewriting to focus on the user's task and not how the interface
implements that task.
For example:
Avoid: Bring the Print window into focus [shift the focus to the Print
window, etc.], then proc the Print function.
Instead, say: Select the Print window, then click the "Print" button.
Making the Print window the focus of the operating system or software is
irrelevant to the user: what they need to know is that they must select that
window before they can use its features, and that's exactly how the
overwhelming majority of them will frame the task in their minds. Writing to
reflect the way they think of the task is far more likely to succeed than
describing the plumbing--unless you're writing for programmers. _That's_
what I mean when I say to write from the user's perspective.
--Geoff Hart, ghart -at- [delete]videotron -dot- ca
Forest Engineering Research Institute of Canada
580 boul. St-Jean
Pointe-Claire, Que., H9R 3J9 Canada
"I don't read literary theory anymore; it makes my brain hurt... I have way
too much time on my hands and way too little to think about. In this
respect, the laundromat is not much different from the English department
office."--Tim Morris, U of Texas English professor ("Suds", in _The American
Scholar_)
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