Pedantic linguistic niggle

Please post all questions and comments regarding Help & Manual 7 here.

Moderators: Alexander Halser, Tim Green

Post Reply
Tim Frost
Posts: 319
Joined: Mon Nov 22, 2004 11:45 pm

Pedantic linguistic niggle

Unread post by Tim Frost »

Currently, the first sentence in '_oldiewarning.html' reads, "Your Internet Explorer web browser is out of date and cannot display the web page you are visiting correctly because it is not compatible with modern Web standards". Hopefully none of your users would ever see this, but believe me, some of their readers do!

Because of the large gap between the noun "browser" and "it", and because the closer noun "page" takes precedence, this reads to me as if the web page is not compatible with modern standards, exactly the reverse of your intention. There is also the minor inelegance of the misplacement of the word "correctly"; and finally, when displayed in an e-Book, it is not immediately clear to a non-technical reader that there is a 'web page' involved.

I humbly recommend the alterations I have made: "Your Internet Explorer web browser is out of date. This browser version is not compatible with modern Web standards so cannot display correctly the page you are visiting."
Simon Dismore
Posts: 454
Joined: Thu Nov 16, 2006 1:29 pm
Location: London, UK

Re: Pedantic linguistic niggle

Unread post by Simon Dismore »

You know you can rewrite this yourself? Make a copy of the skin, generate the webhelp, edit _oldiewarning.html and overwrite the as-shipped version in the skin's baggage.
as-shipped-oldiewarnig.pnng
I'd modify it more than you suggested. Grammar apart, the as-shipped language seems rather accusatory, especially in settings where the user ("you") didn't choose the browser, and the patterned background is a bit IE6-ish :wink:. How about something like...
modified-oldiewarning.png
Or you could be more entertaining, e.g. like Ronnie Stretch. Either way, it's a good idea to add <meta name="robots" content="noindex,nofollow"> to the <head>. Otherwise your oldiewarning gets indexed by search engines, like Darren's.
You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.
Tim Frost
Posts: 319
Joined: Mon Nov 22, 2004 11:45 pm

Re: Pedantic linguistic niggle

Unread post by Tim Frost »

Yes, I have already modified the text in the skin I use. As you say, there is ample opportunity for improvment in many ways! Your version is better than mine for a website, but it does not work for an e-book. However I just realized that I already have a different skin for the e-book, so I can handle that by using a different message explaining that we tried to use the worn-out old IE the user has on his machine, even for an e-book.

Also I need to drop the text about installing alternative browsers, which will not help with an e-book. The standard oldiewarning is actually wrong to suggest them.
Tim Frost
Posts: 319
Joined: Mon Nov 22, 2004 11:45 pm

Re: Pedantic linguistic niggle

Unread post by Tim Frost »

Now that I have done some more editing and testing, this is not really just a niggle any more! I think that oldiewarning needs to be revisited, especially if others are like me and just assume it says something useful. Yes, I know it is madness to continue to use XP and soon, 2003; and it is not really a job for EC Software to explain this. But our end-users are always right, and need to be given sensible advice, which they will probably not get from the current text.

First, the link to upgrade the IE browser no longer leads anywhere very useful, and on XP in IE6 (where it is likely to get used) it just gets an error page.

Next, EWriter actually works on IE8 for now (although the specifications in the manual imply it will need IE9). IE8 should be the latest version supported on XP but I found that you cannot download IE8 for XP from Microsoft any more. And it is not good advice still to imply, as oldiewarning does now, that you can upgrade to the latest browser version and thus enable 'secure browsing'.

Finally, it seems that the same text will get installed by default for both web and EWriter output, at least with skins, and it is unhelpful to direct ebook users to other browsers if they have an unsupported IE version.

I have now customized the separate texts we will use for web help and ebook, to provide application-specific directions for our customers who are still tied to XP, and directions to our web help instead. But if I had not done this, our users might have been annoyed if they had gone to the trouble of installing a different browser to fix their ebook display.
User avatar
Tim Green
Site Admin
Posts: 23156
Joined: Mon Jun 24, 2002 9:11 am
Location: Bruehl, Germany
Contact:

Re: Pedantic linguistic niggle

Unread post by Tim Green »

Hi Tim,

I'm going to update the text in the next version and look into some modifications for EWriter, but I'm not going to remove it.
But our end-users are always right,
No, they're not. I don't subscribe to that myth. They're only right when they're right. When they're wrong, they're just as wrong as anyone else. 8)
Regards,
Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

Private support:
Please do not email or PM me with private support requests -- post to the forum directly.
User avatar
Martin Wynne
Posts: 2656
Joined: Mon May 12, 2003 3:21 pm
Location: West of the Severn, UK

Re: Pedantic linguistic niggle

Unread post by Martin Wynne »

But our end-users are always right,
No, they're not. I don't subscribe to that myth. They're only right when they're right. When they're wrong, they're just as wrong as anyone else. 8)
+1
Tim Frost
Posts: 319
Joined: Mon Nov 22, 2004 11:45 pm

Re: Pedantic linguistic niggle

Unread post by Tim Frost »

I did not suggest or need removal; just attention to a few things!

It was late: I meant to say that our end-users are making the right decision for their own world-view. If they believe that continuing to run XP or IE8 outweighs the risks, we will warn them, but I would like to avoid giving them icons to click that do not work, or do not provide the solution claimed.
Post Reply