Dear Richard,

I guess you might probably laugh at me on this one. I am now writing a user manual for the database that i developed. Do you know any kind of books or literature that could help me do this with relatively more ease? I am not sure whether to call a form a form or a window. Then which English equivalent would i use for a message box? How about a Control (?Field) e.g., a textbox or a ControlTipText? To us as designers, i think this is normal stuff. However, for the user, i am getting this wierd feeling that these terms might be difficult for them to understand (and that means i will have wasted my time to write the manual). Has anyone gone through this to share their experience?

Thank you,

MICAH

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Reply from Richard Rost:

In my books, I make sure to define the terms for the user so he understands what they are. Explain what you mean by a form, window, message box, etc. Then feel free to use them in your text - and you can always use definition sidebars if necessary (that's something my publisher turned me on to).