Re: Tooltips, Labels, and the Dots

[John Sullivan <sullivan eazel com>]

on 5/27/00 8:55 AM, Karl Eichwalder at ke@gnu.franken.de wrote:

> John Sullivan <sullivan@eazel.com> writes:
> 
>> That should depend on the phrasing.
> 
> Okay.  How should one phrase tooltips?  I hear your answer: "Short" ;)
> 
>> If the tooltip is a complete sentence, it should end with a period. If
>> it is a noun phrase, it shouldn't. Perhaps you're arguing that all
>> tooltips and check boxes should contain complete sentences?
> 
> I'm not sure.  "Print preview" is okay.  So is "Undo the operation" --
> qualifies "Undo the operation" as a complete sentence?  (Examples from
> gnumeric.)
> 
> It sounds reasonable: Incomplete "sentences" (phrases) don't need dots.
> I'd like to add the a further rule: If an application has one long
> tooltip (= sentence with a dot) all tooltips -- even the short ones --
> should have dots (if conformity is a goal).

I would phrase that a little differently. All the tooltips for an
application should use the same style, whether that is noun phrases or
complete sentences. I haven't thought long enough about this to recommend
one or the other at this time. But in your gnumeric examples, "Print
preview" is a noun phrase (though "preview printing" is a complete sentence)
and "Undo the operation" is a complete sentence. These are inconsistent and
one or the other should be changed.

John