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Re: Press this, or just Press

Subject: Re: Press this, or just Press
From: "Kathleen MacDowell" <kathleen -at- writefortheuser -dot- com>
To: "Janice Gelb" <janice -dot- gelb -at- sun -dot- com>
Date: Thu, 1 Mar 2007 17:16:42 -0600

Until recently I've used the call outs to identify a component and
explained what one does with the components in the body rather than the
figure.

However, recently I've been setting up a series of instructions that can be
pretty complex, so I'm using another set of figures with (primarily) step
indicators, including a hand. In these situations I have a brief statement
such as "Confirming deletion" in the key. I should note though, that we are
using letters and numbers for our callouts to aid in translation. IMHO, it's
important to be careful with text in figures, because it can mess it up so
much that it's useless.

.02

On 3/1/07, Janice Gelb <janice -dot- gelb -at- sun -dot- com> wrote:


Milan Davidovic wrote:
> My apologies if a question of this sort has recently
> been covered; I've obviously missed it.
>
> This question is intended for tech writers who create
> call outs that instruct the reader to press a button
> (or some such) illustrated in the figure, and draw a
> line with an arrow from the call out to the button in
> question.
>
> The question: in the call out, do you write "Press to
> <do x>" or "Press this to <do x>". I'm curious as to
> whether you regard the inclusion of "this" as
> redundant.
>

We specifically tell writers not to use
callouts to an illustration to give
instructions, preferring instead to
provide tasks that incorporate the GUI
instructions. If I were working in an
environment that did so, however, I'd
probably just say "Does X" given that
most readers will know that buttons are
invoked by pressing.

-- Janice

***********************************************************
Janice Gelb | The only connection Sun has with
janice -dot- gelb -at- sun -dot- com | this message is the return address



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--
Kathleen MacDowell
www.writefortheuser.com
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

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References:
Press this, or just Press: From: Milan Davidovic
Re: Press this, or just Press: From: Janice Gelb

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