Re: A question of Grammar

[Mark Baker <mbaker -at- OMNIMARK -dot- COM>]

Hill, Chris wrote

>I'm in the process of authoring What's This Help for an application.
>One field, labelled Address, is used to capture address details.  In
>terms of the Help text, which is appropriate,
>
>'Type the Address of the supplier into this box'
>
>or
>
>'Type the Address for the supplier into this box'.
>
>Your help would be appreciated.


Our help may be appreciated, but this sort of help message probably won't
be. From the interface you have described, the purpose of the text box
should be quite clear. The help you are proposing to give is therefore
unnecessary. Remember that help is part of the user interface, not a
commentary on it. You should be working with user interface designers to
make sure the use of the application requires as little "help" as possible,
not providing an exhaustive description of a GUI that is already an
effective communication vehicle.

A graphical user interface is a better and more immediate communication
vehicle than any document or help system can ever hope to be. It is only
because GUI's have a limited pallet that any other information products are
needed at all. Docs and help are secondary interface elements that we (like
our users) should turn to only when the primaries fail.

The correct answer to your question is neither of the above.

---
Mark Baker
Manager, Corporate Communications
OmniMark Technologies Corporation
1400 Blair Place
Gloucester, Ontario
Canada, K1J 9B8
Phone: 613-745-4242
Fax: 613-745-5560
Email mbaker -at- omnimark -dot- com
Web: http://www.omnimark.com

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