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Re: Open vs Appear, Yet Again (was: "RE: WG: Newbie question - GUI terminology")

Subject: Re: Open vs Appear, Yet Again (was: "RE: WG: Newbie question - GUI terminology")
From: "Nilesh Jahagirdar" <nilesh -dot- jahagirdar -at- gmail -dot- com>
To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Date: Thu, 12 Oct 2006 12:08:26 +0530

RoboHelp X5 documentation uses "display" as an intransitive verb in a few
places.

Here are two instances from the RoboHelp HTML Tutorial CHM:

A text-only popup is a small window containing information that displays
over the main topic window when users click on a hotspot.

Since we've already set up the layout, click Finish to start the generation
process. A status dialog displays.

In both cases, I would prefer to use "appear", which is legitimately
intransitive.

A question for all those who voted for "appear": would you use "disappear"
just as willingly? As in, "Click OK. The window disappears"? Or is
"disappear" more "magical" than "appear"?

--
Nilesh Jahagirdar
Technical Writer
Pandora Networks
nileshATpandoranetworksDOT com

On 10/12/06, Janice Gelb <janice -dot- gelb -at- sun -dot- com> wrote:


Jeff Cross wrote:
>
> What about "displays" used as an intransitive verb, in place of
> "appears" or "opens"? (As in, "The Add Participant window displays.")
>

Not only do I agree with Susan about problems with
it as an intransitive verb, but we also avoid this
usage due to possible confusion because "display" is
commonly also used as a noun. Localization isn't
happy when we use a word as both a verb and a noun.

As for "opens," I've been trying to pin down why it
bothers me and I haven't been able to come up with
a grammar-related explanation. Somehow, although I
have no problem with something like "Choosing
Print from the File menu opens the Print dialog
box," the phrase "The Print dialog box opens" seems
awkward to me.

-- Janice

***********************************************************
Janice Gelb | The only connection Sun has with
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Follow-Ups:

References:
RE: Open vs Appear, Yet Again (was: "RE: WG: Newbie question - GUI terminology"): From: Jeff Cross
Re: Open vs Appear, Yet Again (was: "RE: WG: Newbie question - GUI terminology"): From: Janice Gelb

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