RE: What is the best term to use?

["Combs, Richard" <richard -dot- combs -at- Polycom -dot- com>]

jlshaeffer -at- aol -dot- com wrote
  
> As a user, I don't care if I'm running an application, a 
> program, an applet, a widget or a glimph. I'm just using 
> tools to get my job done. 

I'll cast another vote of support for Jim's "breath of fresh air," as
Jan put it. 

Call what the user clicks the Payments tab -- it looks like the tab on a
file folder, and computer users nowadays are probably familiar with the
metaphor. But then, describe tasks, not software components. "Click the
Payments tab to schedule a payment, view pending payments, ..." 

I recall a thread back in the distant Techwr-l past in which someone
asked what to call the divider between panes of a window. My response
was why in the world would you name it at all?

If you find yourself obsessing about what to call every obscure part of
the interface and worrying about whether the software you're documenting
is a module, application, applet, add-on, plug-in, or widget, then
you're probably spending too much time describing the system and not
enough telling the reader how to use it. You're producing
software/system-centric documentation instead of user-centric. Bad idea,
IMHO.

Richard


------
Richard G. Combs
Senior Technical Writer
Polycom, Inc.
richardDOTcombs AT polycomDOTcom
303-223-5111
------
rgcombs AT gmailDOTcom
303-777-0436
------




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