[austechwriter] Re: [old-austechwriter] Terminology - screen or window

  • From: Michael West <mbwest@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
  • To: austechwriter@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
  • Date: Mon, 21 Jul 2003 18:44:16 +1000


(Apologies if this is a duplicated message, but
I received a "bounce" message on the last attempt.)

 Alex asks:
> Is there a correct terminolgy for within the help topics (excluding
> hyperlinks to a new window) - screen or window?  


If you follow the guidelines supplied by
Microsoft and other authorities on GUI
terminology for technical documents and 
interface design, you will not use "screen"
for a window or a dialog or the contents 
thereof. The "screen" is a hardware 
component, not the GUI object.

From your description, it sounds as if the
content of a window is changing, and you are
looking for a way to refer to the contents at
a given stage in a procedure.

I'd suggest referring just to the contents rather
than focussing on the container. For example,
write "To display (or edit) contact info" or some 
similar construction that identifies what the 
information is *for* rather than what it is "in". 
The latter is, usually, of trivial importance.

Think of the concept of *real* versus artificial
tasks that is described in  _Developing Quality 
Technical Information: A Handbook for Writers 
and Editors_ by Gretchen Hargis (Editor) and 
others.

Expending time and page space describing 
the appearance of things the user can already see
is seldom giving good value. What am I doing right now? 
As a user of Outlook, my real task at the moment is 
not "to display the message creation window" -- rather, 
it is  "to compose a message." It is possible to write a 
perfectly clear and concise set of instructions for doing 
that without even mentioning the window or dialog 
that I need to do it in. 

-- 
Mike West
Melbourne

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