Re: another click

[Heli Roosild <HeliR -at- MSMAILHQ -dot- NETIMAGE -dot- COM>]

Shannon wrote:

>Our style guide uses `click on the X button'.

>Apple's Publications Style Guide says `click the X button'.


I prefer "Click on ..." despite the fact that both Microsoft and Apple
manuals use "Click ...."

I know that sometimes, in an effort to simplify my  language, I myself
introduce a new coinage or usage, only to find later that it simply does not
work. Maybe  the writers of the MS and Apple manuals were doing something
similar, and for many of us it doesn't work..

To me,  there is a distinction in meaning between "click the ... button" and
"click on ... the button", much like the distinction between "Type" and
"Enter" that was discussed recently.  "Click on ..." includes both moving
the mouse pointer to the item on the screen and clicking or pressing the
left mouse button.  For example, consider the following:

     "Move the pointer to the name you want and click the left mouse button
to select it."
               versus

     "Click on the name you want to select it."

Just as sometimes you need the user to refrain from pressing the Enter key
after typing data, you sometimes may need to separate the  operations of
pointing to something on the screen and pressing the mouse button.

Hence, I use "click on."

 --Heli
========================================================
Heli L. Roosild                    Network Imaging Systems
helir -at- msmailhq -dot- netimage -dot- com        Herndon VA  22070