Re: in or on

["Frank Saucier [Tech Pub]" <frank_saucier -at- MENTORG -dot- COM>]

Cc: edunet -at- ZEUS -dot- DATASRV -dot- CO -dot- IL
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> The application I'm writing about has a tree browser that displays icons
> representing the different members of a school's organization. Which
> sounds better:

> Click the student icon displayed in the browser.

> or

> Click the student icon displayed on the browser.

> (Would you leave off the word icon? Would you use 'select' instead of
> 'click'?)

> Thanks for the help

> Chani Sacharen
> edunet -at- zeus -dot- datasrvv -dot- co -dot- il


Here's an answer I'm sure you didn't expect ---> It would depend.

If this was a step in a procedure and the actions of the previous step
indicated that a "browser is displayed", I would probably write:

      Select the student icon.

Then again ,"select" indicates an existing knowledge of how to "select" for a
particular type of software. For example clicking vs. double clicking. The docs
I have worked on typically have a section that discusses "selecting an icon".
If this were true, I would probably write:

     Select the strudent icon from the browser.

Knowing only what's in your message, my answer is:

     Click on the student icon displayed by the browser.


Frank


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|        FRANK SAUCIER          |                                    |
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