On Tue, 14 Feb 2012 09:28:30 +0400 Aleksey Midenkov <midenok@...> wrote: > On Tue, Feb 14, 2012 at 8:30 AM, Calvin Morrison <mutantturkey@...> wrote: > > On 13 February 2012 23:04, David C. Rankin > > <drankinatty@...> wrote: > >> On 02/08/2012 10:23 PM, Darrell Anderson wrote: > >>> The best I have conceived is "primary" and "secondary" buttons. Yet I realize some people might find those terms confusing too. > >> > >> Primary and secondary work. Click, depress? 'Select' is what the mouse does to > >> an object, not really what you do to the mouse.. From the technical writing > >> standpoint it is almost useful to have an intro or synopsis at the beginning. > >> Something along the lines of. > >> > >> The following reference will use the terms X, Y, Z to refer to the mouse buttons > >> which control axis-1, axis-2, ... On a typical right-hand mouse configuration > >> the left-button is primary, the right-button is secondary, etc.. > >> > >> What you will run up against are the non-technical terms frequently used in > >> mouse operations, i.e. click, shift-click, click & hold, click & drag, > >> right-click, etc.. There is just no easy off-the-shelf set of terms that > >> properly refer to that. > >> > >> Good luck Darrell, glad you're on it :) > >> > >> -- > >> David C. Rankin, J.D.,P.E. > >> > > > > My thoughts are this: > > > > Primary & Secondary instead of right/left ( people have different > > setups) and 3rd button as well. > > > > Click = physical action > > > > 'Right click' sounds much shorter than 'Click the secondary button' > and easier to read. 'Secondary click' sounds weird and misguiding. > Suppose, that left-handled people get accustomed to 'right click' term > long ago. > > 'Click & hold' sounds weird because to me 'click' means 'press & > release'. Most natural words: click, press (press & hold), release. > > I suppose, that good communicator is the one who is understood > lightly. That in fact does not mean dictionary strictness. In fact, > people that try to restrict their words to dictionary semantic are > hard to understand. That is because human language is a lot more than > just dictionary terms. And language makes dictionaries (which means > they always will be incomplete), but not dictionaries make the > language. Indeed. This is a case in which I think precision might get in the way of clarity. "Primary" and "secondary" mouse buttons may be obvious to us, but I'm not so sure about non-technical users, who can get confused when they encounter anything unusual. The best solution would probably be to use "select" or similar device-agnostic terms whenever possible, the usual "right/left-click" labels when necessary, and programmatically change the button labels in the documentation if the user has selected a different mouse configuration; absent the ability to switch labels on the fly, the best thing to do is probably to insert a note about what remapped mouse buttons will do to the instructions at the beginning of the documentation, and proceed with the inaccurate-but-familiar labels.