Hi Janet, I got my ideas about these terms from the OOo help documentation. They use Spreadsheet, Sheet and Context menu in place of Workbook, Worksheet and Shortcut (or pop-up) menu respectively. I would opt for those terms since then our work would harmonize with the Help system. We should avoid confusing the user when their main source of guidance will probably be OOo's Help.
For clarification on general computing terminology I usually go to the Wikipedia or Webopedia. When writing documentation I constantly find myself at a loss for a definition of something I understand (does that make sense?). Menu: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Menu_%28computing%29 Dialog (box): http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dialog_box Context menu: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Context_menu On Tue, 2005-01-25 at 10:26 -0600, Janet M. Swisher wrote: > Peter Kupfer wrote: > > > Rick Barnes wrote: > > > >> I'm looking over the "Getting started with Calc" chapter now. So, unless > >> I didn't get the memo it's still a: > >> > >> spreadsheet not a workbook > >> sheet not a worksheet > >> a context menu not a pop up (or shortcut) menu > >> > >> at least the version 1.9.71.1 help docs still say that... > >> > >> Correct? > >> > > > > I think I avoided the word spreadsheet versus workbook because I think > > of a single spreadsheet being one of the sheet in the document and I > > wanted to make a clear distinction between a single sheet and the > > whole document, and if I used the word spreadsheet I thought that was > > less clear. (Sorry for the run on sentence.) > > > > I think if the help says spreadsheet and sheet then we should probably > > conform to that. I think the workbook, worksheet terms are what excel > > uses, so I probably use that. > > > I personally prefer the terms workbook and worksheet, but what do > > others think. What will the rest of the Calc guide say? > > The Microsoft terms are "workbook" for an Excel document and "worksheet" > for a "tab" within that document. The Calc terms as used in the online > help appear to be spreadsheet and sheet. If you want to avoid the > ambiguity of the term "spreadsheet", you could use "Calc document" for > the document as a whole. > > > As for pop up versus context, I copied most of the chapter, and I > > didn't what it was called. I still can't tell what a menu versus a > > dialog is, so I don't know. :( > > Normally, we follow Sun's style guide (_Read Me First!_) for software > terminology and usage. However, I can't find anything in it regarding > context/pop-up/shortcut menus (Jean, please check me on this). The Apple > and Microsoft style guides both agree on "shortcut menu", so I vote for > that. > > (FYI, a menu is a (usually textual) list of application options or > commands; a dialog box is a window in which the user can provide > information or issue commands, typically containing OK and Cancel > buttons. Often, choosing a menu item opens a dialog box.) > > --Janet > > -- Regards, Rick Barnes www.nostabo.net ******************************************************************* PRIVILEGED - PRIVATE AND CONFIDENTIAL This electronic mail is solely for the use of the addressee and may contain information which is confidential or privileged. If you receive this electronic mail in error, please delete it from your system immediately and notify the sender by electronic mail or using any of the contact details noted herein. This e-mail sent via Evolution 2.0.3 running on a Linux 2.6.10 kernel.
