RE: Display, Displays, or Appears

[Keith Hood <klhra -at- yahoo -dot- com>]

There's probably several other reincarnating topics in the archives. I'd be willing to bet the "serial comma" argument comes back at least once a year.

In the paragraph below, you mention something that I also use in documents. You apparently use a variety of ways to refer to view changes, and I do the same, to avoid monotony.

One of the most frequent complaints about technical documents is, they are boring. The human mind requires variety, and readers get tired of seeing exactly the same phrases on every page. When a document contains too many repeats of the same words, people won't read it because the uniformity becomes irritating. I think varying the text a little makes the documents more usable, because it makes people more willing to reading them.


--- On Fri, 6/6/08, Lauren <lauren -at- writeco -dot- net> wrote:

> Personally, I choose whatever term causes the least amount
> of grief in
> dealing with my clients.  If they have a rule about
> "displays or appears,"
> then I use that rule.  Otherwise, I pick whatever feels
> right for the moment
> and go with that.  The window pops up(drops down),
> opens(closes),
> displays(hides), is displayed(is concealed),
> appears(disappears),
> unhides(hides again), is forced to submit to my
> commands(cowers and runs
> away), flies-in(flees), and does any number of things
> depending on my
> mood(does nothing).
> 
> Lauren
> 
> 
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Help & Manual is the most powerful authoring tool for technical
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