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Subject:Re: the in captions? From:Janice Gelb <janiceg -at- MARVIN -dot- ENG -dot- SUN -dot- COM> Date:Mon, 13 Jul 1998 16:16:31 -0700
Max Wyss wrote:
>
> It could be that - because English is not my native language - I interpret
> a bit too much into that issue. But to me,
>
> Figure 1: The File dialog
>
> and
>
> Figure 1: File dialog
>
> are not a hundred percent equivalent.
>
> For my translation work, the first version clearly refers to the File
> dialog which is described right now. The second version refers to any kind
> of File dialog. In other word, the first version is more specific. One can
> expect more contextual details from the first version than from the second
> one.
>
Keep in mind that we are talking about a figure caption, not about
running text that depends on context. The fact that the text is a
figure caption *is* the context. I don't see any way that "Figure 1.
File dialog" could refer to any other File dialog box than the one that
is illustrated in the figure.
And if there are various sorts of File dialog boxes, how does
the word "the" add any more information about which one is being
illustrated? You still need better descriptors in that case
(e.g., "Open File dialog box," "Save File dialog box").
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Janice Gelb | The only connection Sun has with this
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