Writing for International Audience

Ideally, software and its documentation will be localised (translated) into the languages used in the target markets. However, in many cases, it's not cost-effective do this. Even if the target markets are the English-speaking countries, there are differences between the way English is used in the USA, Britain and Australia for example, and it's easy to cause confusion. This article examines a few issues.

Most readers will have no problem whether they see "dialog box" or "dialogue box" (assuming that they know what one is in the first place!). However, is "12/1/1999" the 12th January or 1st December? If your software is for an international market, then it makes sense to avoid ambiguities caused by differences in language usage.

Then consider readers who are not native English speakers. Many verbs in English consist of two or three words. Often, they can be separated by a noun. These phrasal and prepositional verbs (which typically are of Anglo-Saxon origin) can sometimes be a problem for people whose first language is not English; equivalent verbs which are often derived from Latin and Greek roots are often more easily understood. Here are a few examples of problematic verbs and their alternatives:

Don't use: bring up (a menu)
Use: obtain

Dont' use: end up with (a result)
Use: results in

Don't Use: fill out (a form)
Use: complete

Don't Use: put off (a decision)
Use:delay

Don't Use: turn up (the volume)
Use: increase

There is a counter-argument that says non-technical users (who are native English speakers) may feel more comfortable with words of Anglo-Saxon origin, because they are the words of everyday speech.

Finally (and not seriously!), if users break their keyboards after you've instructed them to "hit the Enter key" when you mean "press", who is to blame?

http://www.techscribe.co.uk/techw/international_english.htm