Re: dialog versus dialog box revisited

["Dick Margulis " <margulis -at- mail -dot- fiam -dot- net>]

Samuel -dot- Beard -at- tdcj -dot- state -dot- tx -dot- us wrote:
>
>   For right or wrong, the way I handle this things is, perhaps, a
>combination of your suggestion and those listed in the manual. I say
>something like "the "OK" button" or "the "Open" dialog box" to refer to
>these items. I place the name of the button or box or what-have-you in
>quotations and then call it what it is: a box, button, or pull-down or
>whatever. I'd be interested to hear other's suggestions/comments on this
>topic.


Sam,

It isn't a matter of right or wrong. It's a matter of style. I think you are using too many quotes, but if you are using them in a consistent way and abiding by whatever style guide you use, then who am I to complain?

Many people who have considered the way we render words into type have suggested that less is more. Mark Baker (whatever happened to Mark Baker?), a long-time techwr-l contributor, talked about avoiding "double marking" of text. If you indent a paragraph, you don't need to put extra space before it, too, for example. Edward Tufte, in discussing graphic display of information, says, "Relevant to nearly every display of data, the smallest effective difference is the Occam's razor ('what can be done with fewer is done in vain with more') of information design. And often the happy consequence of an economy of means is a gradeful richness of information, for _small_ differences allow _more_ differences." (Visual Explanations, p. 73)

So what I do is use capitalization to mark the name of a control and leave out the quotes. Thus:

... in the Open dialog ...

Click OK.

Choose File > Open (OR, if you prefer: Choose Open from the File menu)

HTH,

Dick


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