Issue 84980 - [EN] Grammatical error in Find & Replace dialog: "Fewer Options" instead of "Less Options"
Summary: [EN] Grammatical error in Find & Replace dialog: "Fewer Options" instead of "...
Status: CLOSED FIXED
Alias: None
Product: General
Classification: Code
Component: ui (show other issues)
Version: OOo 2.3.1
Hardware: All All
: P4 Trivial (vote)
Target Milestone: OOo 3.1
Assignee: michael.ruess
QA Contact: issues@framework
URL:
Keywords:
: 95097 (view as issue list)
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2008-01-04 04:54 UTC by jenf
Modified: 2009-04-01 00:49 UTC (History)
1 user (show)

See Also:
Issue Type: DEFECT
Latest Confirmation in: ---
Developer Difficulty: ---

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Description jenf 2008-01-04 04:54:35 UTC 
The Find & Replace dialog in OpenOffice contains a substantial grammatical
error: When the user clicks "More Options", the button's label is replaced with
"Less Options". This is not correct - it should be "Fewer Options". See
http://www.llrx.com/columns/grammar2.htm for the grammatical rule in effect.
Comment 1 michael.ruess 2008-01-04 08:54:28 UTC 
Reassigned to SBA.
Comment 2 stefan.baltzer 2008-04-09 16:35:06 UTC 
SBA: From the URL above:
<QUOTE>
" Rule: Use fewer to describe countable things. Use less to describe uncountable
quantities, collective amounts, and degree. These terms are not interchangeable.
If you can substitute much as the modifier, then use less; if you can substitute
many, use fewer."
</QUOTE>
=> Issue Confirmed. However, this is Prio P4 as the functionality is still
"clear" and the intuitive use of that button is not harmed. 
SBA->FL: Please proceed. Note that this difference does not exist in all
languages (maybe ONLY in English?). For example, in DE, PT_BR and FR the current
strings are OK.

Adjusted summary. reassigned to FL.
Comment 3 frank.loehmann 2008-04-09 17:06:21 UTC 
"More >>" and "<< Less" is used for decades in UI. I think this is an issue for
Elizabeth. I will forward it to her if she is back.
Comment 4 djreedps 2008-05-05 19:20:37 UTC 
"More >>" or "<< Less" by themselves are grammatically correct since they don't
describe a specific target.  The target, for example, could be "Detail".  In
that case, "Less Detail" would make sense, but "Fewer Detail" would not.  If you
don't specify the target, then either "<< Less" or "<< Fewer" would be
grammatically OK, but "<< Less" without a target noun seems more commonly used
than "<< Fewer".

Nevertheless, when it says "<< Less Options", that is always grammatically
incorrect in the English language.

Granted that this issue is low priority since it doesn't affect functionality. 
However, I noticed the same grammatical error the bug originator did.  I am
running OpenOffice 2.4 on Sabayon Linux using US English.
Comment 5 frank.loehmann 2008-10-27 12:43:06 UTC 
Please have a look on this one. Thank you! Frank
Comment 6 e.matthis 2008-10-29 06:39:29 UTC 
liz->OS
It is as jenf says: Please change the string in the Find & Replace dialog from
"Less Options" to "Fewer Options".
Thx!
Comment 7 e.matthis 2008-10-29 06:44:09 UTC 
UFI says target 3.1
Comment 8 Oliver Specht 2008-10-30 14:36:36 UTC 
Fixed in cws os121 in 
svx/source/dialog/srchdlg.src
Comment 9 Oliver Specht 2008-11-13 13:22:16 UTC 
Reassigned for verification
Comment 10 michael.ruess 2008-11-24 16:35:05 UTC 
Verified in CWS os121.
Comment 11 Uwe Fischer 2009-02-13 09:03:29 UTC 
*** Issue 95097 has been marked as a duplicate of this issue. ***
Comment 12 natalia_hitekschool 2009-04-01 00:49:16 UTC 
Verified on Ooo310m7 - can be closed