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Subject:Re: To click on, or just to click? From:"Parks, Beverly" <ParksB -at- EMH1 -dot- HQISEC -dot- ARMY -dot- MIL> Date:Thu, 31 Jul 1997 10:30:08 -0700
Hi, Mark.
Here's three ways to think about it. And they don't all agree!
1. We click on (ack!) a lot of things that are on the screen: option
buttons, checkboxes, and list items, just to name a few. I stopped to
think how I would phrase it in other cases, say for option buttons.
Would I say "click on the Regular Hours option button" or "click the
Regular Hours option"?
I decided I like the second option. Then the next decision was whether I
wanted to remain consistent for each type of item that can be clicked
on. Yeah, I think so. So in the end, I would just click the line. (But
somehow that doesn't sound quite right, does it?)
2. Another way to look at it is to ask what else you can do with click.
Can you click off something? No. Can you click in something?
Possibly...but wouldn't that be the same as clicking on, where a screen
is concerned? If there is really only one type of click action (not
counting single and double clicks), then isn't "click on" being a bit
redundant or at least excessive?
3. And finally, an opposite viewpoint. If click is like "sit", then
"click on" would be the appropriate choice. You never tell someone to
"sit the chair"! You say "sit in the chair" or "sit on the stool".
Hmm......
>----------
>From: Mark L. Levinson[SMTP:mark -at- MEMCO -dot- CO -dot- IL]
>
>I'd like your up-to-the-minute opinions on whether it's preferable
>to tell the user to "click" a line in an on-screen list or to
>"click on" the line.
>
>
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