TechWhirl (TECHWR-L) is a resource for technical writing and technical communications professionals of all experience levels and in all industries to share their experiences and acquire information.
For two decades, technical communicators have turned to TechWhirl to ask and answer questions about the always-changing world of technical communications, such as tools, skills, career paths, methodologies, and emerging industries. The TechWhirl Archives and magazine, created for, by and about technical writers, offer a wealth of knowledge to everyone with an interest in any aspect of technical communications.
> -----Original Message-----
> From: Blankenship, Larry [SMTP:BLANKLAR -at- GATEWAY -dot- COM]
> Sent: Friday, April 10, 1998 8:47 AM
> To: TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU
> Subject: Describing menu navigation
>
> This is pretty fundamental, but I wanted to see if there really was a
> standard for describing menu navigation in Windows.
>
> What I'm referring to is how to describe the navigation of multiple
> levels of menus. For example, to get to the ATTN: autotext in Word
> 97,
> you would select Tools => Autotext => Attention Line => ATTN:
[Steve Arrants] I think you need to take the audience's
experience level into account. A new or naive user may not know what
you're talking about, so it might be best to say something like, "From
the Tools menu, choose Autotext and then select Attention Line..."
I don't like the use of arrows or similar when describing menus,
but its a standard at some companies.
> Is this the best way to show this? What have other people done?
[Steve Arrants] My rule of thumb is to first get your user
profile (who they are, what they're used to in terms of software and
documentation, etc.) and then write to that user.
>
> Larry Blankenship
> Systems Analyst
> Program Management Office
>