This is more a matter of usage and common sense than anything, but I'm faced with the following problem. I have a dropdown with things like greater, equal, between, and then a field where numbers can be entered. So it basically looks like this:
[dropdown ^] [__number_field__]
The idea is that you select the appropriate option from the dropdown, enter a number in the field next to it, and then the associated search would look for things that have that a value eg. greater than 5, as in this example:
[greater ^] [__5__]
The options in the dropdown are:
- equal
- not equal
- greater
- greater or equal
- less
- less or equal
- between
- is empty
Technically, when we use these in full sentences, we use them with "to" added after each equal, and "than" added after each "greater/less" – and of course we use "and" between the two values mentioned in the "between" case.
But is it ok, in a form, to use these without the to/than/and? To me it looks weird and off (possibly because I read things in my inside voice when I read – which I know is a bad habit – and it sounds weird and off), but is it perhaps common usage to skip the preposition?
Best Answer
This is probably a UX or GD question, but here goes...
No, it's not comon usage, and there's really no need to unless space is at such a premium that "greater than or equal to" won't fit (in which case you might consider "at least" for that one, and "at most" for "less than or equal to").
[ Microsoft Excel 2003 Conditional Formatting dialog ]
As you say, these are read as sentences: "Cell value 1 is greater than or equal to value" and truncating it offers no benefit and actively harms readability.