re "appears" at work

Subject: re "appears" at work
From: Chuck Martin <techwriter -at- VNET -dot- IBM -dot- COM>
Date: Fri, 15 Jul 1994 10:27:12 PDT

Arthur Comings changed

The Line Name dialog box appears to allow you to specify the seismic
line to wish to edit.

to

MaxPro displays the Line Name dialog box, which you use to specify
the seismic line you want to edit.

While "successfully" correcting the ambiguity of "appears," I think
the construction (both old and new) suffers from containing part of
two steps. The first part is the result of a previous user action.
In a procedure, I'd want to put that result immediately following.
Then the second part would become the next step, something like this:

#. (User action: From the Edit menu, choose Line Name.) The Line
Name box appears.

#. Select the seismic line you want to edit, then press ENTER.
(Part of this step may have to describe how the selection process
takes place in the user's environment.) The seismic line
is highlighted, and the Edit screen appears.

I think this one-action-one-result works well for procedures. Any
thoughts? Have I opened up a major can o' worms?

Chuck Martin
Information Developer, IBM
techwriter -at- vnet -dot- ibm -dot- com


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