atw: Re: Terminology for wizards

 

        Sorry, I should have mentioned the edition. The quote was from the
Third Edition, Part 2 Usage Dictionary, under 'wizard' on page 374.
Couldn't find any mention of wizard pages anywhere else in the book. 

        As far as I know, the Third Edition was the last one published. I'm
hoping for a newer edition to cover the new Windows UI but have not
been able to ascertain whether there is one planned. Can anyone
enlighten me on this? 

        Cheers,
 Jennifer

 On Fri 10/07/09 1:46 PM , Howard Silcock howard.silcock@xxxxxxxxx
sent:
   Thank you to everyone who posted suggestions about this. I still
haven't made a final decision, but your advice will help me to do so. 
  I am torn between 'window' and 'page'. I was very interested in
Jennifer's post saying that the Microsoft Manual of Style for
Technical Publications recommends 'page'. I must be using a different
version, as I scanned through it and couldn't find anything relevant. 
 Howard 

  2009/7/10 Ronald Tierney 

        This is a pertinent question for me, as I’m documenting
wizards/assistants at the moment. There’s a recommendation in our
Style Guide that we use ‘page’ to describe the individual
windows/screens/steps of the wizard, but this is not yet set in stone:


        PAGES VS. WINDOWS 

         Assistants, wizards and installers are made up of pages (not
windows). You click Next to 

        go to the next page of the assistant, wizard or installer. 

        ‘Page’ makes sense if clicking next doesn’t open an entirely
new window, but just some content and selection options change (just
like a book remains physically the same, but the content changes from
page to page). If the pages were numbered, I’d be inclined to argue
for ‘step’ or ‘task’ (ours aren’t numbered). We also use
‘Assistant’, rather than wizard, as this is both the product text
term and is more descriptive than the enigmatic ‘wizard’.  

        Ron Tierney
 Technical Writer
 MYOB Australia
 E ronald.tierney@xxxxxxxx [2]
 P +613 9222 9992 ext 7545

 myob.com.au [3] 

        12 Wesley Court, Burwood East VIC 3151 

 

Links:
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[3] http://myob.com.au/

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