228163 - "help" menu in the menu bar should be "?"

Status: RESOLVED FIXED

(Firefox :: Toolbars and Customization, defect)

Description

[Pierre Chanial]

I noticed that during my excursion in the Windows world

Comment 1

[Pierre Chanial]

fixed.

Comment 2

[Jon Henry]

Um, are you sure about this? I cannot think of a single windows application 
that uses "?" in place of "Help" as the menu text. Some dialogs have a button 
next to the close box that uses "?" as its icon, but I am not familiar with any 
other use of the question mark as help text.

Comment 3

[Michael O.]

The "?" button in Windows is used for dialogs that have context-sensitive Help
tooltips -- you click on the "?" to change your cursor into a Help cursor, and
then click on the item you want to see the tooltip for.

I'm using Windows 98, and I cannot find any program on my computer that has a
"?" menu on the menu bar. Every program with a Help menu uses the word "Help".

Comment 4

[Pierre Chanial]

I am not talking about dialogs, but the help menu in the menubar.
At least on WinMe, IE6.0 and Word display "?" for the help menu in the menubar.

If it has changed for WinXP, then let me know, I'll back out my changes.

Comment 5

[Pierre Chanial]

ok, the "?" only appears in the french version of IE and not in the english one.
I'll update my fix.

Comment 6

[Pierre Chanial]

for a screenshot:

http://www.wittnn.com/francais/images/NewTechTutorial/NTT_Mod2/Topic2/ntt_mod2t2a.gif

Comment 7

[Jon Henry]

Attachment: English version of IE6.0

For your reference, here is Internet Explorer in the US English version of XP.
I think this is a task for localizers rather than the default build.

Comment 8

[Pierre Chanial]

I found another screenshot on XP:
http://www.microsoft.com/france/internet/ressources/dossiers/windowsxp/images/winxp-ie6-01.gif

Comment 9

[amano]

Most standard Microsoft Apps have the "?" instead of "help" - eg Word and
Editor. The Internet Explorer seems to be biased. The german internet explorer
shows a "?" , too! So just leave it at "?" in Firebird.

Comment 10

[Pierre Chanial]

Jon Henry: calm down, see my last message, I've already found out that the US
localization uses "help". I'll revert the changes for the en-US localization.
However, french localizers do need two seperate entities for the "help" button
because the default "help" button is not the same in linux and windows.

Comment 11

[Pierre Chanial]

Bernd: now, I am confused... about which one we should use.
For the french and german localization, it's a no brainer, localizers should use
"?". for the en-US, I'll defer to Ben.

Would it be possible to have a list of windows (en-US) apps that use "?" and "Help"?

Comment 12

[Jon Henry]

I did not mean to appear upset or anything, I just wanted to make sure we were
on the same page since I had never heard of this before :).  Bernd, are you
talking about German or English versions of Microsoft apps, and in which
languange version of the OS? I am using PowerPoint and Word XP at work right now
and they both display "Help".

Comment 13

[amano]

Strange, all other non Microsoft stuff seems to use "Help". All Microsoft stuff
says "?". I wouldn't have noticed before. Strange.

Comment 14

[amano]

I use the German Windows and the German Office. All apps that come bundled with
Windows and Office use "?", all others on my machine use "Help".

Comment 15

[Pierre Chanial]

Jon: no pb. If Word and Power Point use Help, let's use "Help" for the en-US
localization, thanks!

Comment 16

[amano]

I just checked all my german apps installed! Even if localized they use the
german "Hilfe", the localized Thunderbird uses "Hilfe", too. As I said, only
apps that are bundled with German Windows or German Office show the "?", ALL
other show "Help" or "Hilfe".

Maybe our browser should really stick to "Help".

Comment 17

[Pierre Chanial]

I reverted the changes for the en-US version. Now, it's "Help" again.
It's up to the localizer to decide what to do.

Comment 18

[Bill Gianopoulos [:WG9s]]

The EN-US versions of ALL applications mentioned in the bug use Help.  None of
them use a '?'.

Comment 19

[Benoit]

Could this be done for Thunderbird as well ?

For now we are using "?" in Firebird and "Aide" in Thunderbird for the French
translations (all platforms), which is somewhat ridiculous if you ask me :)