When to add "..." to the end of buttons?

Question

I've noticed that many Microsoft applications will name some buttons with "..." at the end. These buttons always seem to open up a new dialog. There are some buttons, however, that don't have "...", but do open up new dialog.

For example, in Windows XP, when I open a folder's "Properties" dialog from Windows Explorer, there is an "Advanced..." button under the "General" tab. This button, as expected, opens a new dialog. There is also an "Advanced" button under the "Security" tab. This button also opens a new dialog, but this button doesn't end with "...".

To me, this seems inconsistent, but maybe I'm misinterpreting the meaning. Is there any written guidance for using "..." on buttons?

Answer 1

You're right, it is inconsistent.

My rule is that the ... means "more."

or more specifically, it means, "I'm not going to take any action yet; I'm going to open a dialog first, and let you, the user, decide where to go next."

The dialog will always include a cancel button.

Answer 2

Yes, the guideance in the Windows Interface Guidelines for Software Designs clearly states that a button or menu item which opens a new dialog should have ellipses "..." appended to it.

It's worth noting that Microsoft products routinely ignore the Microsoft Interface Guidelines.

Answer 3

Microsoft's official guidelines are that

"Sometimes a command button takes an ellipsis [ … ]at the end of its label. If the action is deferred (for instance, if an interim dialog box appears as a result), then the label takes an ellipsis. If the action occurs immediately, no ellipsis is needed."

Of course, Microsoft are not ones for using their own guidelines. Viz. the Ribbon, the Media player interface, etc.

Answer 4

I looked this up on Apple's Human Interface Guidelines.

They say that it:

When it appears in the name of a button or a menu item, an ellipsis character(…) indicates to the user that additional information is required before the associated operation can be performed. Specifically, it prepares the user to expect the appearance of a window or dialog in which to make selections or enter information before the command executes. Because users expect instant action from buttons and menu items (as described in “Buttons” and “Menu Behavior”), it's especially important to prepare them for this alternate behavior by appropriately displaying the ellipsis character.

Answer 5

I got ready to quote Microsoft's guidelines for when to use ellipses, but by time time I got here, others had already quoted Microsoft's guidelines, giving answers different than the one I was going to give.

Apparently Microsoft has changed their guidelines, and they don't exactly follow them consistently themselves.

Anyway, the current Microsoft guidelines, as far as I know, are the Windows User Experience Interaction Guidelines (PDF version available here). Regarding ellipses in particular, their guideline is to use ellipses only when the command needs additional information to complete, not merely when the command opens another window. (In part, then, ellipses mean that the command is "safe" to click because it won't immediately do anything.)

So About et al don't need ellipses because they don't need any extra information. Print gets ellipses, because it won't print until you click OK. At least some versions of Microsoft's guidelines explicitly state that Preferences / Options should not have ellipses, because successful execution of the Preferences command only means to show the Preferences dialog, not to necessarily do anything. (This last one seems a bit arbitrary to me.)