Terminology for right-click, context menus

• Nov 15, 2022 - 12:40

Does musescore documentation have a preferred style for "left click" and "right click"? It hasn't come up much in the pages I've edited so far, but is required for "Frames".

I use a left handed mouse and a graphics pad, so for me a right click is a left click or a high click, or the keyboard "context" key.

A quick review of the internet informs me that right clickers are in such a vast majority that to call a right click anything but a right click would just confuse the world.

I am further informed that Macintosh mouses now have more than one button (at last! I might get one), and they call them "primary" and "secondary". Also, I'm told touch screens require a "long tap" to bring up the context menu (just checked it works - never used it!)

Anyway has this been considered before? Does everyone in every language understand that a right click is a right click, even when it's not?

I guess it's always clear if you add the reason for the click, be it left or right - something like "Right click on the border of the frame to bring up the context menu..."


Comments

Right click is fairly universally understood and Mac users are generally speaking used to translating that automatically to fit their system.

The somewhat universal terms are just "click" for left/primary and "secondary click" for right/long click/tap and are those I've come across the most in technical documentation.

Indeed, just plain "click" and "right-click" (hyphenated) are the preferred terms, used very commonly throughout the computing world so they should be generally understood. A handful of Mac users might not be familiar with them yet, but we shouldn't be going out of our way to explain this everywhere the phrase is used.
Ideally, in some early chapter there would be a general statement like "any time you see the phrase right-click, mentally substitute the appropriate gesture for your device - often Ctrl+click or two finger-tap, etc."

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