What is the difference between "options" and "settings"? [closed]

Solution 1:

Options refers to things you may choose;you may select one over another. So, the options you chose are "preferences".

Settings mostly implies the "context" that the options you chose are in and is more like configuration. E.g;

Color is "setting"; red, green, blue e.t.c are options.
Font is "setting"; Arial, Times New roman are options.
Settings: color, font

Solution 2:

I believe you're over-thinking this, and you're prompting your users to do the same. To illustrate my point, consider the mess that Microsoft puts in Visual Studio.

For those who may not know, Visual Studio is the software used to create software for Windows. It is a very complicated application by necessity, but one would think it would be the exemplar of what Windows software should be. It should not violate Microsoft's own advice to developers, i.e.,

Options dialog boxes

• Don't separate options from customization. That is, don't have both an Options command and a Customize command. Users are often confused by this separation. Instead, access customization through options.

(Microsoft Corp., Windows User Experience Interaction Guidelines.)

That said, I submit that a consensus has formed that in the Windows ecosystem, user options/preferences/settings are options, and in the Apple ecosystem, they are preferences. Cf.

Preferences

Preferences are user-defined settings that your app remembers from session to session. Users expect to be able to customize the appearance and behavior of your app in preferences. For example, in Finder preferences, users can customize the contents of Finder windows and the behavior of File > New Finder Window, among other things.

(Apple Inc., Mac OS X Human Interface Guidelines.)

The bottom line here: Think of your user, just as all writers must think of their wished-for world of readers. I don't care if you call the particular thing a setting, a preference, an option, or a dooblegunk. Just be consistent. Don't make me remember that my color things are dooblegunks and toolbar button things are gobblebuddies. If it's a display color, a filter, the order of my toolbar buttons, whether the application remembers its window position, where it stores its files, whether it starts with my computer, or any other thing that relates your application to me, my computer, and how I use it, just give one name to whatever you decide to call such things, and give me one interface (or at least a set of closely-grouped, similarly- and descriptively-named interfaces) to access them.

META

Some will read this answer and the underlying question as being off-topic. I challenge them, before they vote to close it, to explain that this is not among the severest of challenges that any writer faces, that is, to explain that this discussion does not crystallize to, "You have one place to say, 'If you want to change how this piece of software displays its information and operations to you, there is a place to do it, and it is right here. Oh, and by the by, you get one word and one quarter-inch picture to communicate that thought to a world of readers.'"

Solution 3:

When it comes to software? I'd say something like this.

• The menu item that is sometimes under File, sometimes under Options, sometimes under Tools and (in Apple) under the program menu; the one that brings you to the dialog box for configuring your program:

  • is labeled many things, including 'Settings', 'Preferences', 'Options', and 'Configure...'
  • Apple consistently uses 'Preferences', and prescribes the same for programs that run under OS X and iOS. Gnome uses 'Preferences', too, I believe. I haven't got an English-language Windows at hand.

• When talking about the group of things that menu item lets you inspect and change:

  • I've seen 'settings', 'preferences', 'options', 'configuration', and 'configuration options'. (And 'config file', but I'm not sure that that counts. ^_^)
  • Just pick one, and be moderately consistent. Above all, let your language be mostly-consistent with how you label the menu item. :-)
  • "You can change this in your preferences."
  • "You can changes this in the preferences menu."

• Individual items that you can set to something are usually referred to by name, or called 'option', or 'setting'.

  • "Set 'Minutes between autosaves' to 3."
  • "Find the 'Input language' option and set it to 'Koeterwaals'."
  • "Find the setting that says 'English' and set it to 'French'."
  • And any recombinations of the above three examples. Again: just pick something and be mostly consistent.

• If you're talking about an item and what it's been set to, I usually hear people call it a 'setting' or 'preference'.

  • "Maybe it's a strange setting somewhere?" (Not 'preference')
  • "Did you check your cookies settings?"