RE: Display, Displays, or Appears

["Andrew Warren" <awarren -at- synaptics -dot- com>]

Tim Lewis wrote:

> I am sure this has been discussed here before but I cannot find it
> in the archives.

    It's beaten to death about four times a year.  I just searched
    the archives for "display appear" and got hundreds of hits.

> For software user guides, I prefer to not use the word, "appear"
> or "appears" when the user clicks a button or selects a menu choice
> and something shows up on the screen. Which sentence below is the
> standard convention for the results of user interface actions?
> 
> 1. When you click XYZ on the Main Menu screen, a ABC dialog box is
> displayed. 
> 
> 2. When you click XYZ on the Main Menu screen, a ABC dialog box
> displays. 
> 
> 3. When you click XYZ on the Main Menu screen, a ABC dialog box
> appears.

    I like #3 (with "a" changed to "an", of course), but there's
    a vocal group of writers who'd prefer either "is displayed" or
    "opens", because "appears" seems to them to mean "appears as
    if by magic".  They don't like that for some reason, even
    though "appears as if by magic" is PRECISELY what a dialog box
    DOES.

    A dialog box doesn't have a real-world physical equivalent
    like a folder or document -- it's OUTSIDE the desktop
    metaphor -- so it doesn't have to "open" like a folder or
    document.  It's an intrusive, metaphor-breaking interface
    between the user and the computer; "appears" describes its
    behavior perfectly.  Plus, "appears" has an antonym that you
    can use when the box goes away; "is displayed" doesn't.

    ... but that's just my opinion.  You really should check the
    archives again.

    -Andrew

=== Andrew Warren  - awarren -at- synaptics -dot- com
=== Synaptics, Inc - Santa Clara, CA
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