Hi
Once I learned that you shouln't use the word please in technical
documentation - that it was like asking the reader to do you favor.
Does this still hold true? Is it OK to have this message displayed on
the screen of our user interface?
We are updating the result list, please wait
Best
I say this from my North American English-speaker perspective...
I prefer to take the Strunk and White approach to omit needless words.
Please is needless.
As a user, I find the use of please patronizing.
Personally, I would reword the message to say Wait while the result
list is updated.
On Fri, Jun 26, 2009 at 4:30 AM, Andersen, Verner Engell
VEAverner.ander...@radiometer.dk wrote:
Once I learned that you shouln't use the word please in technical
documentation - that it was like asking the reader to do you favor.
I've just opened the Windows Help and Support Center (XP), did a
I don't think that I'd write that, but it doesn't bother me at all.
Better, I think, would be a message that says Results are being
updated... Ideally with a spinning cursor or hourglass or bar graph
line to show the progress.
Art Campbell
art.campb...@gmail.com
... In my
We've recently been reading some E.B. White books to our kids (Charlotte's Web
and The Trumpet of the Swan) and I note that White has no practical respect for
his own rules.
I avoid Please in instructional documentation. The reader knows what to
expect
-- you're telling him or her how to make
Hi
Once I learned that you shouln't use the word "please" in technical
documentation - that it was like asking the reader to do you favor.
Does this still hold true? Is it OK to have this message displayed on
the screen of our user interface?
"We are updating the result list, please wait"
Best
I say this from my North American English-speaker perspective...
I prefer to take the Strunk and White approach to "omit needless words".
Please is needless.
As a user, I find the use of "please" patronizing.
Personally, I would reword the message to say "Wait while the result
list is
On Fri, Jun 26, 2009 at 4:30 AM, Andersen, Verner Engell
VEA wrote:
> Once I learned that you shouln't use the word "please" in technical
> documentation - that it was like asking the reader to do you favor.
I've just opened the Windows Help and Support Center (XP), did a
search for "please", and
I don't think that I'd write that, but it doesn't bother me at all.
Better, I think, would be a message that says "Results are being
updated..." Ideally with a spinning cursor or hourglass or bar graph
line to show the progress.
Art Campbell
art.campbell at gmail.com
"... In my
We've recently been reading some E.B. White books to our kids (Charlotte's Web
and The Trumpet of the Swan) and I note that White has no practical respect for
his own rules.
I avoid "Please" in instructional documentation. The reader knows what to
expect
-- you're telling him or her how to
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