Re: What do you call the Three Dots?

[Bill Swallow <techcommdood -at- gmail -dot- com>]

We called our three dots Moe, Larry, and Curly. ;)

But if it's vertical, is it an ellipsis or is it a very skinny hamburger
(real term with binary dispositions toward it in the UX crowd)?

These types of buttons are everywhere. Whether people know what they
mean/do, who knows. I think the bigger problem is that you have multiple
conventions for the same button to contend with. If you haven't already,
start documenting these cases. If you have a UX team/person, they're a good
place to start. Otherwise you may want to make friends with QA before
approaching Development with UI changes.

On Tue, Oct 17, 2017 at 7:53 AM, Cardimon, Craig <ccardimon -at- m-s-g -dot- com>
wrote:

> Next thing is, you'll be telling me no one knows what the pound sign is.
> Sigh.
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: techwr-l-bounces+ccardimon=m-s-g -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com [mailto:
> techwr-l-bounces+ccardimon=m-s-g -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com] On Behalf Of
> Robert Lauriston
> Sent: Monday, October 16, 2017 9:03 PM
> To: TECHWR-L Writing <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com>
> Subject: Re: What do you call the Three Dots?
>
> Yeah, I don't understand why anyone would not use the self-explanatory
> button label. In my experience, most people don't know what "ellipsis"
> means. Even fewer than know "asterisk."
>
> On Mon, Oct 16, 2017 at 1:17 PM, Daniel Friedman <
> daniel -dot- friedman42 -at- gmail -dot- com> wrote:
> > Since the button can be represented in text, why not call it the *...*
> > button? To me it is always more intuitive to identify buttons by the
> > visual appearance rather than giving them some other name. On top of
> > that, the alternate name will not show up in the software on
> > screenreaders if it is not part of a tooltip or alt.
> >
> > On a lighter note, in developer circles, any button from a combination
> > of dots or lines has a food name. According to this, you could also go
> > with calling it the Meatballs button:
> > http://image.slidesharecdn.com/lukasz-przywarty-productcamp-2015-15053
> > 0064210-lva1-app6891/95/hamburgerless-on-creative-mobile-navigation-16
> > -638.jpg
> >
> >
> > On Mon, Oct 16, 2017 at 4:05 PM, Marguerite Krupp
> > <mkrupp128 -at- gmail -dot- com>
> > wrote:
> >
> >> If youâre writing across platforms, Iâd stick with âEllipsisâ. Itâs
> >> more commonly understood, and âMoreâ can also refer to the selection
> >> menu you get on a right-click of the mouse. This will probably change
> >> as interfaces evolve, but for now, the former is a safe choice. If
> >> your stuff is translated, you might check with your translation
> >> agency to see whatâs universally understood.
> >>
> >> Sent from my iPhone
> >>
> >> > On Oct 16, 2017, at 11:26 AM, Cardimon, Craig <ccardimon -at- M-S-G -dot- com>
> >> wrote:
> >> >
> >> > I used to call the three dots element the Ellipsis Button.
> >> >
> >> > However, I see other technical and UX writers are calling this
> >> > element
> >> the More Button.
> >> >
> >> > How say you?
> >> >
> >> > Cordially,
> >> > Craig Cardimon
> >> > Senior Technical Writer
> >> >
> >> >
> >> >
> >> >
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> >
> > --
> > *Daniel Friedman*
> > *friedmantechdocs.com* <http://friedmantechdocs.com>
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-- 
Bill Swallow
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