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This sounds more like one of those things that one does, in passing, while doing other stuff. In other words, you're going to be there anyway, so why not?
You won't encounter any "a/an" problems with those two words, so a simple search-and-/d/e/s/t/r/o/y/... er... -replace would get it done in no time... unless your product has physical screens that are mentioned umpty-seven times throughout the documentation, and so you'd have to preserve _some_ instances of "screen" while nuking others. That would be a little annoying, but might offer an excuse to re-read some text you haven't seen in a while and maybe tighten it up, improve the flow... wax editorial... you know you want to...
But in the absence of any time-consuming problems like that, just DO it if you want to. Don't ask for permission. You do own the docs, don't you?
It's not even a problem if your docs go to translation, except for languages where modifiers change gender or something equally silly (says Kevin who lives in a land where the other language is French...).
Don't ask for forgiveness either.
Sometimes, a cow-orker is right. Sometimes a Techwirl poster is right. You say "aha" or "humph" as your perspective changes and you nod in agreement about something that you hadn't noticed or considered before, but that now has a flavor of sore thumb or incipient hang-nail about it, and will nag you until you do something about it.
You get to decide how important it is to you to update current docs to your new viewpoint. You probably have a good idea how much (or how little) effort will be involved, and are in the best position to decide how much satisfaction you'll derive from expending that amount of effort.
For the luvva gawd, don't call a meeting about it. Just don't, okay? Back way from the meeting scheduler. Put your hands in your pockets until the urge dissipates. No good can possibly come of raising it as meeting grist. None.
:-)
-k
-----Original Message-----
From: Mike Starr
Sent: January-20-13 12:04 PM
To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Subject: Re: Page or screen?
In a word, the answer is "Yes". What's technically correct isn't always what we end up using for various and sundry reasons.
As someone else pointed out, MSMOSTP says page; I generally would say page myself. However, a couple points...
If it's been out there in the wild as "screen" for a number of years it might be better to keep it the same.
Sometimes, the pointy-haired bosses override our prodigiously researched and well thought out decisions. I used page in a document for one assignment and the manager I reported to decided it should be screen. And so it was.
Of course you could always throw a meeting or start an email thread within the organization, expressing your colleague's concern and disclosing how you've researched the subject and found supporting documents that agree with your colleague.
However, in the grand scheme of things, it's a trivial issue; it's one of those small things that isn't worth throwing a hissy fit over... pick your battles.
Best Regards,
Mike
--
Mike Starr WriteStarr Information Services
Technical Writer - Online Help Developer - WordPress Websites
Graphic Designer - Desktop Publisher - Custom Microsoft Word templates
(262) 694-1028 - mike -at- writestarr -dot- com - http://www.writestarr.com
President - Working Writers of Wisconsin http://www.workingwriters.org/
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