yeah, but you are smart guy, and you are not afraid of technology.

i have taught the total computer illiterate.. and spent a full hour teaching people how to use a mouse (and to click on a link)

you'd think that positioning a mouse and clicking a key would be pretty simple stuff.. but trust me, one class (the worst) we spent a full three hours just mastering this skill.

these were not (in general) stupid people, (most were retired), the classes were given in branches of the library, and barely advertized. these people had the inteligence to go to the library, read the announcement, sign up and show up (at the appointed time) now, Cap, i suspect you have worked with people who have advanced degrees who sometimes have trouble just showing up on time...i know i have.

but these users were so frightened by computers, i did everything i could to help them relate computer activites to every day skills. (one woman mentioned she was a dress maker, and i reminded her how normal it is to look down the length of what is being sewn, and how she used her foot pedal to control speed.. i likened the mouse movement to that, and she 'got it' right away..

i think i would use the word paint.. its understandable.. and since highlighters are really modern tools (they were just becoming available when i was in HS--for anyone older than me, "highlighting the text" might not be immediately understandable. it might not be something they have ever done.

but paint? most everyone has painted something at some point in our lives.

Depends on the audience. With of troy's newbie seniors class, it doesn't really matter what you call the action (select > highlight > paint). Most of your time will be taken up, as she states, by trying to teach the action itself. It's seems best to use a consistent and standard vocabulary so the students can integrate into the general computer population. Anyway, this is how I feel after nearly two decades of tech writing and IT / tech comm meetings, but my views have been tainted by all those meetings and their futile, feeble agendas. Oh, the time we spent on select, choose, click (on), double-click, deselect, etc., and don't get me started on the punctuation of bulleted lists ...

You WENT to those meetings?

oh, I'll admit that painting is *clever.

in teaching, of course, we use the word "select" extensively: select, then open; select, then delete; select, then copy; etc. and how, exactly, does one select something?

with the mouse, you depress (click) and hold the left mouse button, and drag the mouse, causing the text background you drag across to turn blue and the corresponding text to turn white. this (you explain) is just like using a highlighter on a book or newspaper. you might even demonstrate this with the typical yellow marker.

I suggest that "painting" is a poor analogy, as paint would cover everything -- text and background. the last thing you prolly want to do in teaching technical things to non-technical folks is confuse things by brushing with broad strokes.

paint is used in formating.. (fomate painter in MS products..even has a paint brush as the icon.

yes, and Paint is also a primitive drawing application from MS, which we use to introduce graphics aps (as opposed to word processing aps).

You WENT to those meetings?

Part of the job description.