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Sierra Godfrey is <<I'm writing a manual which contains several sections with
setp-by-step directions. I have given the headings of the sections imperatives,
such as: "Set Network Addresses" and "Select the Operation Mode". The manual is
in review right now and the main reviewer is my old nemesis from earlier posts,
the engineer. He wants to change all imperative headings to "Setting Network
Addresses" and "Selecting the Operation Mode". >>
Your old nemesis is probably right if you're talking about a reference manual,
since the headings must describe the activity (setting) rather than telling the
user to do the activity (set). The latter is fine for a
task-based (not reference) manual, but would be better written as "to set" so
that you're not commanding the reader to do something, but rather telling them
"how _to_" do something.
--Geoff Hart ghart -at- netcom -dot- ca
"Most business books are written by consultants and professors who haven't
spent much time in a cubicle. That's like writing a firsthand account of
the Donner party based on the fact that you've eaten beef jerky."--Scott
Adams, The Dilbert Principle
