Re: Naming NAME fields (was RE: Coordinating Field Defs and Procedura l Info
Chinell, David F (GE Indust, Security) added:
Lisa:
We never confuse the field name with the item in question. Thus, we'd write:
Enter your last name in the Last Name box.
not
Enter your Last Name.
The above exchange raised a hackle or two, not directly related to the thread (so I changed the thread name).
In a world where the vast majority of our American English forms ask for Street Address when they actually want Mailing Address, I don't have much hope that Kevin's contention about name conventions will ever be addressed in English language software interfaces. As one who has no postal service at my street address, I know what it means to be marginalized by a system that services only what is within one or two standard deviations of the mean. It does happen, and it it is a problem that could be solved, but it is I who must "Move On" and accept that if I like my residence, I must go elsewhere to pick up my mail. I do, I do, and I have learned to cope and be happy. I even hover now somewhere near the point of accepting the fulminating illiteracy of form designers who don't even think about what they're doing.
If I can do it, why can't you (billions of non-English speakers who want to use unlocalized English software, if indeed that is what you are and what you want)?
Ned Bedinger
doc -at- edwordsmith -dot- com
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