On 4/17/2011 6:23 PM, Gregory Pittman wrote:
> On 04/17/2011 07:46 PM, Barry McKenna wrote:
>>
>>
>> On 4/17/2011 3:34 PM, Marie and Paul Di Somma wrote:
>>> On 17 Apr 2011 15:16:24 -0700, Barry McKenna wrote:
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> "Actually, since there would often be more than one "object"
>>>
>>> in the "Document Structure" the name would be more
>>> appropriately
>>> "Document
>>> Objects Structure.""
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> I suggest "Document objects structure" is a noun string.
>>>
>>> Document structure I understand.
>>>
>>> Document Objects
>>>
>>> I understand.
>>>
>>> But "Document Objects Structure" makes no sense to me.
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> BTW, I come from a technical writing
>>>
>>> background.
>>
>> I see the issue of this program feature/menu item as
>> comprised of three
>> fundamental components:
>>
>> 1. A Document
>> 2. Components that are used to build the document, which I
>> have
>> suggested can be heuristically aided by the concept of
>> Objects which
>> have properties and methods.
>> 3. Accessing the program feature/menu item will result in
>> the display of
>> a dialog of the Structure of the Objects in the Document.
>>
> I think what Paul was referring to first of all is that this
> term is a sequence of 3 nouns, so grammatically it's a bit
> clumsy.
> Beyond that, throwing Objects in the middle seems
> unnecessary and misleading in its own way.
>
> Document Objects Structure would to me be referring to the
> structure of the objects, i.e., the content or properties of
> the objects, but really it would seem that Document
> Structure says enough, since the structure of a document is
> its pages, master pages, and the objects on them. The
> Outline function really is just a means to identify, select,
> and jump to various objects.
>
> The reason I used the word objects is that this is more
> inclusive than saying frames, since there are things like
> lines that are not inside a frame.
>
> Greg
Greg,
I know what Paul was referring to, which is why I commented
specifically on the issue of what is and what is not
excessive, with and without adjectives in the string.
We are culturally much more used to two-noun strings.
However, sometimes there are exceptions:
New York Times
Franklin Delano Roosevelt
I feel no need to press the point further, in terms of what
you prefer. "Document Structure" is a comfortable and
intelligible sounding phrase.
However, you might consider how useful it is as a
descriptive if there are already "About 612,000 results
(0.11 seconds)" as Google returns for the quoted phrase.
The phrase is predominantly used as a reference to the
internal structure of files, as in xml, html, tex, etc.
Here, you want it to refer to objects at at higher level.
Barry McKenna
