atw: Ellipses
- From: "Petra Liverani" <petsky@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: <austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Tue, 2 Dec 2003 10:56:09 +1100
Ilana,
If the programmers are not using them in the conventional way (and wouldn't
if you explained to them how they should be used) then I guess you're better
off without them. If the programmers were prepared to use them
conventionally would you think it's worth it to get them to? Especially when
I'm using a new system and am not sure what I'm doing the ellipsis makes me
feel safe that I'm not going to stuff anything up. But this safety factor
might not apply with your system.
Regards,
Petra
----- Original Message -----
From: "Ilana Cohney" <Ilana.Cohney@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
To: <austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Sent: Tuesday, December 02, 2003 9:53 AM
Subject: atw: Re: Ellipsis
> Petra,
> That's interesting because we do not seem to use the ellipses correctly at
> all. For example, we have an ellipses following the Save and New buttons
> which certainly do not open another sub-function or dialog box. I wonder
if
> our programmers really know that this is its purpose , or have they been
> using it to indicate another word in the function, e.g. Save ... for Save
> Record. Our users certainly have no idea what it is for. I wonder if we
> would be better off without it.
> Ilana
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Petra Liverani" <petsky@xxxxxxxxxx>
> To: <austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
> Sent: Tuesday, December 02, 2003 9:43 AM
> Subject: atw: Ellipsis
>
>
> > > Anyway, does anyone know of the significance of using an elipses (
...)
> I
> > > have seen them at the end of menu items, tooltips, popup windows and
> > dialog
> > > boxes. There does not seem to be any consistency about its usage.
Some
> > > terms such as Save ... or New ... use it while others such as Sort
> don't.
> > > It seems to be especially popular by programers when naming popup
> windows
> > > and dialog boxes. I find that they do not add anything to the
> > documentation
> > > but added clutter. Did you include them when naming menu items and
> > windows
> > > or leave them out? Should we get rid of them altogether?
> >
> > Hi Ilana,
> >
> > The ellipsis indicates that clicking the item will take you to a dialog
> box.
> > No ellipsis indicates clicking the button will actually perform the
> > function. The ellipsis performs the function of letting you know that
> simply
> > clicking the item is not going to do anything and another step is
required
> > before a function is performed. If they're not sure what they're doing
it
> > can make the user feel safe that they won't perform a function by simply
> > clicking the button. I have worked on a system (Documentum) where the
> > ellipsis was not used like this and I found it a bit disconcerting but
> when
> > I mentioned it out to other people they hadn't noticed and it didn't
> bother
> > them.
> >
> > Regards,
> > Petra
> >
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