Re: Select, choose, click style guide

[Janice Gelb <Janice -dot- Gelb -at- Sun -dot- COM>]

Ned Bedinger wrote:
> Janice Gelb wrote:
>> Ned Bedinger wrote:
> 
>>> 1. Edit > Find > Replace > All
>> Readers can indeed probably figure out what you
>> mean but your solution seems to me to be the
>> equivalent of writing a sentence of all nouns
>> without any verbs. I think that adding a simple
>> imperative verb makes the instruction clearer
>> and the step would be more quickly read and
>> comprehended.
> 
> Yes, that isn't unreasonable--it communicates in a standard way--but is 
> one of the most common types of instruction. I'm not so sure that 
> anything is gained by sticking to standards at the level of the 
> ordinary, mundane instruction.
> 
> I forget where I first saw it done as Edit > Find > ..., but I'm drawn 
> to it as the atheistic alternative to the religious beliefs about the 
> right standard way. I do want written knowledge transfer to be 
> progressive. It needn't be stuck in 1980 vocabulary reflecting concerns 
> about how to get people to use a mouse! We've learned that mousing isn't 
> a big problem area requiring finely segmented vocabulary. Haven't we?
> 

I don't think mousing "is a big problem area requiring
finely segmented vocabulary." I do think that including
an imperative verb in a step makes reading the instruction
easier for the user. People are used to reading with verbs
and nouns. The fact that a piece of text that they're
expected to read has a number in front of it does not
change that expectation, imho, and eliminating expected
verbs could cause confusion or at least hesitation.

-- 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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