Re: Not Selecting

["Martin, Chuck" <chuckm -at- EVOLVESOFTWARE -dot- COM>]

What does your company's style guide say? No company style guide? What
does the style guide say for the OS that the application is designed to
run on?

The Microsoft Manual of Style says to use "select" and clear" for your
"activate" and "deactivate." (Of course, it's referring to terminology
for Windows applications.)  "Activate" isn't accurate anyway (at least,
it shouldn't be) because nothing actually happens when the checkbox is
selected (other than the "x" appearing in the box). Rather, any action
that occurs based on the check box's status happens when a user clicks,
typically, "Apply" or "OK."

--
"You don't look American."
"Everyone looks American, because Americans are from everywhere."

- Doonesbury
Chuck Martin, Technical Writer
Evolve Software                  | Personal
chuckm -at- evolvesoftware -dot- com        | writer -at- grin -dot- net
www.evolvesoftware.com           | www.grin.net/~writer

> -----Original Message-----
> From: Connie Winch [SMTP:CEW -at- MACOLA -dot- COM]
>
> Karen Felker writes:
>
> In the matter of checkboxes, where you can click the feature once and
> a
> check appears; click it again and the check disappears-- I'm wondering
> how others describe the process of clicking a checkbox when you don't
> want the feature selected.
>
> I'm sure there are writers who feel perfectly comfortable saying:
> "Deselect the Flimflamming checkbox."
> The word Deselect is what bothers me. Is it becoming acceptable
> English
> or can someone suggest an alternative?
> --
> Karen Felker
> AKaren -at- earthlink -dot- net
>
> Karen,
>
> The way we do it is as follows:
>
> "To enable flimflamming, activate the Flimflamming checkbox."
> "To disable flimflamming, deactivate the Flimflamming checkbox."
>
> Connie E. Winch
> Technical Writer
> Macola, Inc.
> cew -at- macola -dot- com
>
> ~~
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