Re: Style Guide vs. GUI terminology

[Janice Gelb <janiceg -at- marvin -dot- eng -dot- sun -dot- com>]

Geoff Hart <geoff-h -at- mtl -dot- feric -dot- ca> wrote:
>
> Because users may occasionally need to use the righthand mouse 
> button, you need a different term for that, and that's where 
> "right-click on X" comes in. There's some logic to the
> suggestion that a few users rewire their mice to switch the 
> left and right buttons, and thus, that "right click" isn't the 
> best term, but my take on this is that anyone smart enough to 
> rewire the mouse will know they've done so and will know what 
> to do when they see the instruction "right click".
>

We avoid the left/right problem by saying "Click mouse button 3  
on" instead. Of course, here in UNIX land users usually have a 
three-button mouse but even in our x86 docs we prefer the number 
to the position to allow for cases where the user has switched.

*********************************************************************
Janice Gelb                  | Just speaking for me, not Sun. 
janice -dot- gelb -at- eng -dot- sun -dot- com      | http://www.geocities.com/Area51/8018/


^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
Are you using Doc-to-Help or ForeHelp? Switch to RoboHelp for Word for $249
or to RoboHelp Office for only $499. Get the PC Magazine five-star rated
Help authoring tool for less! Go to http://www.ehelp.com/techwr

Free copy of ARTS PDF Tools when you register for the PDF
Conference by April 30. Leading-Edge Practices for Enterprise
& Government, June 3-5, Bethesda,MD. www.PDFConference.com

---
You are currently subscribed to techwr-l as: archive -at- raycomm -dot- com
To unsubscribe send a blank email to leave-techwr-l-obscured -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com
Send administrative questions to ejray -at- raycomm -dot- com -dot-  Visit http://www.raycomm.com/techwhirl/ for more resources and info.