Another grep - Drop-down

OK, which is used in the help -- drop-down, drop-down list, drop-down menu, ?

Hi Barbara,

OK, which is used in the help -- drop-down, drop-down list, drop-down
menu, ?

- drop-down alone is not used
- drop-down menu is used twice
- drop-down icon is used once
- drop-down list(s) is used several times.

Kind regards
Sophie

Thanks, Sophie! Hmm -- is there another term used instead? "Several" doesn't seem like enough to cover this, as often as such things are used. "Selection list" or "selection menu" maybe? Or "combo box" as it's called in the form control toolbar? A quick check showed that at least sometimes, there is no term used at all, just directions to "select the ..." without mentioning the control type. So maybe that should be preferred?

Hi :slight_smile:

Drop-down list is the usual form known out there but it is quite generic.
People outside of LibreOffice do shorten it to "drop-down" fairly often but
"drop-down list" is probably better for formal documentation, especially since
it is already more widely used.

"Selection list", "selection menu" & "combo box" tend to be slightly more
specific and are trying to make it sound more posh and high-class. All these
terms are less likely to be understood and "combo-box" is definitely tooo geeky
for most people. However, they are legitimate as specific types of drop-downs
so please lets not change them just to be consistent because that will probably
detract from the perceived quality of our documentation.

I will try to get back to the documentation i edited yesterday to make
"drop-down"s into "drop-down list"s.

Thanks for the feedback, thoughts and stats
Many regards from
Tom :slight_smile:

Hi Tom, Barbara, *,

Hi :slight_smile:

Drop-down list is the usual form known out there but it is quite generic.
People outside of LibreOffice do shorten it to "drop-down" fairly often but
"drop-down list" is probably better for formal documentation, especially
since
it is already more widely used.

I agree with you. "Drop down list" is a well known term and should be used
in the documentation.

"Selection list", "selection menu" & "combo box" tend to be slightly more
specific and are trying to make it sound more posh and high-class. All
these
terms are less likely to be understood and "combo-box" is definitely tooo
geeky
for most people. However, they are legitimate as specific types of
drop-downs
so please lets not change them just to be consistent because that will
probably
detract from the perceived quality of our documentation.

I think, I have heard the term "combo box" only in the context of database
related stuff. But since I'm not a base user, I don't have any experience
there.

Sigrid

Hi Barbara,

Hi Barbara,

OK, which is used in the help -- drop-down, drop-down list, drop-down
menu, ?

- drop-down alone is not used
- drop-down menu is used twice
- drop-down icon is used once
- drop-down list(s) is used several times.

Kind regards
Sophie

Thanks, Sophie! Hmm -- is there another term used instead? "Several"
doesn't seem like enough to cover this, as often as such things are
used.

Yes, I was also surprised by the "not so many" occurrences of the term (may 6 or 7).

  "Selection list" or "selection menu" maybe? Or "combo box" as it's

called in the form control toolbar? A quick check showed that at least
sometimes, there is no term used at all, just directions to "select the
..." without mentioning the control type. So maybe that should be
preferred?

- selection list is appearing 14 times
- selection menu is not used
- combo box is really dedicated to Form or Basic use.

Kind regards
Sophie

Wow, that is an interesting result! So is "selection list" used more often than
"drop-down list"? or is there not much difference between the numbers?

Combo-box being used in Base and other form-building sounds exactly right. It
is slightly specialised when using it in those contexts so a different name
wouldn't suit the context or might make things a bit less clear.

Regards from
Tom :slight_smile:

Hi :slight_smile:

Ok, i have spotted the numbers
drop-down list = 6 or 7
selection list = 14

I still think we should aim to use "Drop-down list" because it makes more
intuitive sense to people that have not heard either term before. However, i
still think there is no need to change whichever of those 2 is used in each
place.

Someone said there is a glossary or is that not quite built yet? Could i help
build it? Is there an easy link to it, if it exists?

Regards from
Tom :slight_smile:

Given the very small numbers of any of these phrases, my guess is that the whole idea of naming the control type is mostly being avoided. My personal choice would be to say something like "select xxx from the yyy list," where yyy is the name of the option. I agree it's not worth changing existing uses of "drop-down list" or "selection list" when they're there, though.