Re: Stylish Microsoft

[Jim Purcell <jimpur -at- MICROSOFT -dot- COM>]

Pamela Turpin observes:

> Regarding Microsoft's style recommendations that state:
>
> "'Click' or 'double-click' is preferred over 'choose' and 'select.'"
>
> The folks who write the Microsoft Computer Dictionary (2nd ed.) have a
> different idea. They
> define "Choose" as:
>
> "To pick a command or option from within a graphical interface....
> Although 'select' is often
> used instead of 'choose' to describe the same action, 'choose' is the
> preferred term because
> 'select' has specific connotations within computing."
>
> The Microsoft style guide used to prescribe "choose" for buttons, menu
> commands, and such like. The rationale, a holdover from DOS days, was
> that the keyboard was the primary means of doing things, so "click"
> was inappropriate for many users. The style guide we use now, the one
> published by Microsoft Press, has adapted to the modern world, in
> which everybody is presumed to have a mouse. The Microsoft Computer
> Dictionary is an older document and so reflects Microsoft oldspeak.
>
> Jim Purcell
> jimpur -at- microsoft -dot- com
> My opinions, not Microsoft's
>
>
>

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