atw: Re: What do dialog boxes do?

I find the missing object in "the dialog box displays" slightly more
distracting than the passive voice in "the dialog is displayed" so I opt
for the latter. But it's not a huge problem either way.

As Brian said, the main reason for avoiding passive voice in tech docs and
procedures is that it often introduces ambiguity. In the case of a dialog
box it almost never matters what exactly caused it to display (Windows;
Java; the application; Gandalf the Grey), so the passive voice does no
harm. If use of the passive voice makes it unclear who does what ("When the
installation is finished the status should be updated") that's a different
story. The sentence should be rewritten to make it clear who updates the
status and under what circumstances.

Stuart

Janice said:
> Our style guide recommends against saying "a dialog box
> displays" for a different reason: "display" is often used
> as a noun in technical documentation so using it as a verb
> as well can cause confusion. We use what you favour: "a
> dialog box appears." We accept "a dialog is displayed" but
> prefer to avoid passive voice.

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