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.
Subject:Re: synonym for "rollback" From:Ben Kovitz <apteryx -at- CHISP -dot- NET> Date:Mon, 8 Mar 1999 12:31:37 -0700
Shawn Wilson wrote:
>Are the users familiar with MS-Office products? If so, I'd try "undo".
> Date: Sun, 7 Mar 1999 13:06:34 +0200
> From: Benzi Schreiber <benzi -at- HARMONYCOM -dot- COM>
> Subject: synonym for "rollback"
>
> Hi friends:
>
> The software has a rollback mechanism. In other words, if the
>process fails,
> all the steps that were performed are reversed, leaving us with the
>original
> state (the one we had before the process was invoked).
>
> However, the users of the document are not computer people. What can
>I use
> instead of "rolling back the process"?
I would recommend against commandeering a different jargon term to serve
the role of the original jargon term just because the former is more
familiar. Both "rollback" and "undo" have specific, subtly different
meanings in computers. Teaching users to blur "undo" to cover both
meanings would do the users a disservice. As always, know your speech
communities.