What's your feeling about those two?
A:
There is no difference in meaning between the two. "Hit the enter key" sounds a bit more formal, while "hit enter" sound more colloquial. In a spec, I would expect "hit the enter key," but in the end, I dont think there is much between the two.
akf
2009-10-17 14:44:06
+11
A:
I'd say "Press the enter key", since saying "hit" will get a certain type of user needing to replace their keyboards fairly frequently.
Paul Tomblin
2009-10-17 14:45:57
A:
I don't see a difference between the two, but depending on the context would choose which to use. If you're writing documentation or directions telling somebody what to do. I think I would choose a more written out version. Or like Paul suggested, "press the enter key" might be more appropriate.
Anthony Shaw
2009-10-17 14:47:42
+2
A:
To a non-technical user, "hit enter" is meaningless. You might as well say "slap leave" or "punch ascend" for all the good it will do them.
Also note that the Enter key is typically the one on the numeric keypad, while the one on the alphabetic section is Return - although that is not always the case (especially on laptops which do not have dedicated numeric keypads). If you tel the user to use Enter, make sure that pressing Numeric-keypad Enter actually works!
If you expect less technical users to use your program, a variation on "Press the Enter or Return key to continue" might be a more user friendly wording.
But if you know your audience is tecchy, then "hit enter" is perfectly adequate.
Jason Williams
2009-10-17 15:16:28
A Return key? What's that? -- I haven't seen the Enter key labeled Return in years.
MiseryIndex
2009-10-17 15:37:18
Indeed, it's commonly marked with just the bendy arrow glyph, and/or with Enter/Return. Strictly speaking it is the Return key (c.f. Win32 virtual key VK_RETURN) and the one in the numeric keypad is Enter (c.f. VK_ENTER)
Jason Williams
2009-10-17 17:28:13
(My point was that "Hit Enter" is a bad instruction if the Enter key on the numeric keypad doesn't actually apply the action, as on many keyboards the Return key just has an arrow glyph, so many users have a tendency to press the "wrong" key)
Jason Williams
2009-10-17 17:32:03
+1 for the nice examples, although Return is really dated (on modern US keyboard anyway).
pst
2009-10-21 07:21:29
+6
A:
Microsoft Manual of Style Third Edition shows the example "Type your password, and then press Enter." No "key" at the end, and they put key names in bold. (p.254)
Sun's Read Me First! style guide says the same (p.60-61) but they don't put Enter in bold.
IBM's 2009 style guide has the same convention as Sun. (p.154)
Apple's 2008 style guide uses "Enter key". (p.66)
Jon Konrath
2009-10-19 17:09:56