Re: 'About' versus 'About...'

[John R Sheets <dusk smsi-roman com>]

sun wrote:

> Menu items that open dialogs which require additional user information
> shall indicate it with a "..." after the label; however, menu items that
> open dialogs which only display information shall not.

I don't like that distinction at all, sorry.  To me, the ellipses have
always meant that the menu selection has another level of
confirmation/clarification.  In literature, the ellipse means that something
is implied but omitted (but exists elsewhere!).  If you click a menu item
without the ellipse, the command executes.  Everything the user needs to
know about the command is stated.  However, if you click a command with an
ellipse, a dialog comes up, and the command will not execute until you
approve the dialog.  The "implied more" is revealed.

I think if we start making such fine distinctions as to the _intent_ of the
dialog (e.g. info-only About box), we will end up confusing the users even
more.  So I say '...' means a dialog.  Period.  Simple.  AFAIK, that is the
standard rule for the Windows menu UI (Mac?  Xerox?  I dunno).

> Further, all
> dialogs which require additional user information shall include a
> "Cancel" button which shall exit the dialog without making any changes
> to the application or document.

Yes, I agree to this.  That's the purpose of the ellipse.  It assures the
users that they will have an opportunity to bail out before the command is
executed.  Info-only dialogs (e.g. About) should have a single Close button.

John