I’ve noticed that many Microsoft applications will name some buttons with “…” at the end. These buttons always seem to open up a new dialog. There are some buttons, however, that don’t have “…”, but do open up new dialog.
For example, in Windows XP, when I open a folder’s “Properties” dialog from Windows Explorer, there is an “Advanced…” button under the “General” tab. This button, as expected, opens a new dialog. There is also an “Advanced” button under the “Security” tab. This button also opens a new dialog, but this button doesn’t end with “…”.
To me, this seems inconsistent, but maybe I’m misinterpreting the meaning. Is there any written guidance for using “…” on buttons?
I got ready to quote Microsoft’s guidelines for when to use ellipses, but by time time I got here, others had already quoted Microsoft’s guidelines, giving answers different than the one I was going to give.
Apparently Microsoft has changed their guidelines, and they don’t exactly follow them consistently themselves.
Anyway, the current Microsoft guidelines, as far as I know, are the Windows User Experience Interaction Guidelines (PDF version available here). Regarding ellipses in particular, their guideline is to use ellipses only when the command needs additional information to complete, not merely when the command opens another window. (In part, then, ellipses mean that the command is “safe” to click because it won’t immediately do anything.)
So About et al don’t need ellipses because they don’t need any extra information. Print gets ellipses, because it won’t print until you click OK. At least some versions of Microsoft’s guidelines explicitly state that Preferences / Options should not have ellipses, because successful execution of the Preferences command only means to show the Preferences dialog, not to necessarily do anything. (This last one seems a bit arbitrary to me.)