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Subject:RE: would you? From:"Katherine Enos (Macrosearch Inc) (Exchange)" <a-kateno -at- Exchange -dot- Microsoft -dot- com> To:TECHWR-L <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Fri, 19 Nov 1999 13:51:44 -0800
If the following is technically correct, you could try to write around
"files that have not been saved":
CopyWriter will prompt the user to save any edited files before the program
closes.
Or, for more concision:
CopyWriter prompts the user to save changed files before the program closes.
(I changed "edited" to "changed" here because I feel it communicates the
meaning more strongly.)
Or,
Before closing, Copywriter prompts the user to save changed files.
I wouldn't use "unsaved". While it is defined in Webster's, it's not defined
in the Microsoft Computer Dictionary (not to say that this is the only
relevant source, but I don't have time to check too many others and this
gives me some indication. "Unread", in contrast, is defined in this source).
I don't believe that it's standard in use in technical manuals and this
brings me to a more important reason: text usability. To say "unsaved"
requires my reader to make a greater conceptual leap than the more wordy
"files that have not been saved" will do.
-----Original Message-----
From: Kevin Feeman [mailto:Kevin -dot- Feeman -at- micromass -dot- com]
Sent: Friday, November 19, 1999 6:43 AM
To: TECHWR-L
Subject: would you?
In writing a manual, a colleague suggested using the word "unsaved" for
talking about files that have not been saved. Is unsaved really a word. It
seems a little funny to me. I looked it up, and the word is for being
"saved" as in Christianity.
I had the following:
CopyWriter will prompt the user to save any edited files that have not been
saved before the program closes.
She suggested:
CopyWriter will prompt the user to save any edited, unsaved files before the
program closes.
I just wanted to make sure that unsaved is proper in this context.
Thanks.
Kevin Feeman
Technical Publications Manager
MicroMass Communications Inc.
www.micromass.com <http://www.micromass.com/>
(919) 851-3182 Ext. 3105
kevin -dot- feeman -at- micromass -dot- com
