Re: Describing menu navigation

[Roger Mallett <roger -at- CSICAL -dot- COM>]

Bill,

Lighten up.  I believe Larry is referring to the Autotext feature found
buried under the "Insert" menu, not the "Tools" menu as mentioned.  If
I'm correct, your entire write up was effort wasted.

>----------
>From:  Bill Burns[SMTP:BillDB -at- ILE -dot- COM]
>Sent:  Friday, April 10, 1998 9:32 AM
>To:    TECHWR-L -at- LISTSERV -dot- OKSTATE -dot- EDU
>Subject:       Re: Describing menu navigation
>
>
>Larry writes:
>
>> 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:
>>
>I always try to consider how the language I use models the application
>for
>the user. The example here gives me the image of menu with two
>submenus,
>which isn't at all like the application, since the AutoCorrect calls a
>dialog box and the Attention Line is (in my best estimation) is a table
>cell. I would write the instruction more like this:
>
>        1. From the Tools menu, click AutoCorrect.
>        2. In the AutoCorrect dialog box, select Attention Line.
>        .......
>
>And so on. It's more verbose than the example you cite, but clarity and
>conciseness are both important. If you value conciseness over clarity,
>you
>may be short-changing your users.
>
>Bill Burns
>Eccentric Technology Consultant
>ILE Corp.
>billdb -at- ile -dot- com
>
>~~~
>Check out topic summaries at
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>
>