2019: "The ellipsis character (…) means a dialog or separate window will open and prompt the user for additional information or to make a choice." https://dev

2019: "The ellipsis character (…) means a dialog or separate window will open and prompt the user for additional information or to make a choice." https://developer.apple.com/design/human-interface-guidelines/macos/menus/menu-anatomy/ https://developer.apple.com/design/human-interface-guideline... 2005: "An ellipsis character (…) after a menu item indicates to the user that additional information is required to complete a command. http://www.idemployee.id.tue.nl/g.w.m.rauterberg/lecturenotes/APPLE-Guidelines-2005.pdf http://www.idemployee.id.tue.nl/g.w.m.rauterberg/lecturenote... 1995: "The ellipsis character (…) after a menu item means that the command needs more information from the user before the operation executes." http://interface.free.fr/Archives/Apple_HIGuidelines.pdf http://interface.free.fr/Archives/Apple_HIGuidelines.pdf 1987: I couldn't quickly find a PDF I could link to (on archive.org it's "currently on loan"), but AFAICT it says essentially the same thing. So the guidelines are super consistent. How strictly they've been followed is a more difficult question. Here's a screenshot of GS/OS (to which the 80s version of the HIG is supposed to apply) where they got it wrong: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_GS/OS#/media/File:AppleIIGSOS.png https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apple_GS/OS#/media/File:AppleI... Ditto on Macintosh System 1: https://archive.org/details/mac_Paint_2 https://archive.org/details/mac_Paint_2