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Subject:Re: Grey, Gray, Ghosted, Unavailable From:oAnn Carter <crossroots -at- MINDSPRING -dot- COM> Date:Mon, 25 Aug 1997 20:24:48 -0400
At 10:39 AM 8/25/97 -0400, you wrote:
>When a menu item is not available (windows-like interface), what is the
>applicable terminology to use in documentation. I've seen greyed-out,
>ghosted, and so forth. What terminology are others using to indicate these
>items in menu choices?
>
We use "grayed" or "greyed" (depending on whether the audience is American
or British and someone cares) because it's easier than "disabled" for
non-technical users to figure out if they don't know the feature. We might
use "disabled" if the audience were developers because they are familiar
with the term. I did a job once for someone (the purported user expert on
staff) who insisted that I use "cursor focus." He agreed with the logic of
my objection but rather than change his decision, told me to write an
explanation of cursor focus.
Ann C.
>
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