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.