Re: Word-a-Day: button, command button, toggle button

[Shaun McCance <shaunm gnome org>]

On Wed, 2008-04-23 at 14:21 -0400, Curtis Hovey wrote:
> On Wed, 2008-04-23 at 11:52 -0500, Shaun McCance wrote:
> 
> ...
> 
> > button
> 
> ...
> 
> > Correct:
> > Click the 'Theme Details' button.
> > Click 'Close'.
> > 
> > Some buttons do not have labels.  For these buttons, use
> > either the tooltip or the accessible name as the label
> > when referring to the button.  If possible, insert the
> > icon after the label in parentheses.
> > 
> > Correct:
> > Click the 'Attach a file' (#) button on the toolbar.
> > 
> > The word "button" can also be used to refer to mechanical
> > buttons.  Use the verb "press" for mechanical buttons.
> > 
> > Correct:
> > Press the reset button on your computer.
> > Press the left mouse button.
> > 
> > Incorrect:
> > Click the left mouse button.
> 
> These examples touch upon a subject that has pained me for a decade now.
> What are the correct verbs to describe how to use a button? This may
> apply to a hyperlink too.
> 
> The 'click' is associated with the mouse, and we are avoiding the mouse
> in our documentation. 'Click' is also considered bad form when
> describing Web UI. I'm certain I have never 'clicked' a real button. I
> have 'pushed', 'pressed', 'sat upon', and 'kicked' buttons, but never
> 'clicked'
> 
> I use 'press' sometimes in documentation, but I attribute that to my
> heavy keyboard usage. Are we using 'clicked' in these examples to infer
> the use of the mouse?

Every style guide I know of says you click a button, even
though you press a mechanical button.  Sure, keyboard users
don't really click.  But we use mouse-centric terminalogy
all over the place: double click, right click, drag, etc.

I suppose we could use "activate" as a technology-neutral
verb, but that just strikes me as overly pedantic.  People
know (or will quickly learn) the word "click".  Keyboard
users, I think, are bright enough to know that, for them,
click means "tab tab tab space" or "use the accelerator".

Most instructions we give people assume the most common
way of performing an action, even though various other
methods  exist.

Plus, the computer industry pretty much made up the verb
"click", so there's no reason we can't just all agree
that it means whatever it needs to mean to be correct.

--
Shaun