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Robin Kelsey wondered: <<Our software has a drop-down menu button
labelled "Actions." In the first edition of the user manual I called
that menu the "Actions menu," because that is how it is labelled and I
didn't want to cause any confusion>>
So far, so good. The idea of matching the docs to the interface is to
avoid raising a "why doesn't the documentation match the interface?"
question. If you don't match the interface, jaded old pros like us will
sigh and observe that it's "just another documentation error that
nobody will notice because nobody reads the documentation". But
insecure users, who are legion, will wonder about the difference, and
they already have enough insecurities without us creating more.
<<but the fact is that nobody really calls it that in speech - they
call it the "Action menu.">>
How many users (what sample size) is this "fact" based on? What
proportion of the total user population does this number represent? How
many technical support calls do you get per day complaining that
"there's no Action menu--just this Actions menu, which sounds similar,
but surely can't be the same thing"? How many of your corporate
trainers have filed bug reports stating that users are confused by the
menu name or complain that it doesn't match the name they use?
Those questions aren't intended to be snide, though they might sound
that way. The questions are important ones, because if you can justify
your opinion based on the answers to any of those questions, you have a
strong case for requesting an interface change. If none of those
answers provides that hard evidence, then you should stick with
matching the docs to the interface. The problem is one of incorrect
perception of your audience, not reality.
If the mismatch were much greater (e.g., "inactions" or "deeds" vs.
actions), then it would be a good idea to resolve the problem. One way
to do so is to include the synonym as a synonym. This can be done in
the index (deeds: see actions), in the glossary (deeds: another name
for actions), and in the text itself ("many users refer to the Actions
menu as the Deeds menu because of their familiarity with other software
that uses a Deeds menu").
<<I actually find "Actions menu" kind of hard to pronounce. It trips up
my tongue in the middle.>>
Whereas I have no problem with it, any more than I have a problem with
the "Tools" (not Tool) menu in Word. Maybe I've just got an uncommonly
nimble tongue? <g>
--Geoff Hart ghart -at- videotron -dot- ca
(try geoffhart -at- mac -dot- com if you don't get a reply)
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