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What is the difference between Insert and Enter?

If I have a form to fill in, which legend is better?

Insert your data

or

Enter your data

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  • Both are correct. This ngram shows that "enter your data" is more common.
    – Nico
    Commented Apr 10, 2014 at 9:48
  • @Nico both are correct, certainly! But when it's about filling the form, entering data is preferable I think. To be (even) precise, fill out the form simply means you have to fill it with some data - you enter (talks more about the completion of the process... maybe because we have the 'ENTER' key on our keyboard) or insert! GATA explicitly defined 'process' -that's what I liked about this answer. :)
    – Maulik V
    Commented Apr 10, 2014 at 10:51
  • I thought I would share this finding. There are uses of "enter/insert your name" as far back as the 19th century.
    – Nico
    Commented Apr 10, 2014 at 13:57

4 Answers 4

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You can insert a paragraph, text, a phrase or a clause but it doesn't imply the writing process but "Enter" conveys that sense. So I would choose "Enter". Also, the term data entry makes it further clear!

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  • Yeah, I thought to improve it a bit so that to complete this answer and also upvote it ;)
    – Maulik V
    Commented Apr 10, 2014 at 9:36
  • Grata on first answer.
    – Inquist
    Commented Apr 10, 2014 at 16:08
  • How does enter convey writing?
    – Lambie
    Commented May 6, 2019 at 23:50
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Insertion and Entry are clearly synonyms in my opinion. Although for the data context, "insert" differs "enter" because insert is conventionally used when you add data with an specific location aspect, e.g. Insert punctuation between sentences or insert a space between paragraphs. While enter can also be used for this, its more often used for a generic description. In other words, without the location aspect, e.g. Enter your contact information.

Saying "enter quotes around your name" still sounds ok to me, but for some reason "insert quotes around your name" sounds better.

Mostly opinion based question

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If you are filling in a form, the best choice is:

enter your information, not data. Your information then becomes data for the organization that is collecting it.

insert is used in existing text or words where you add something more.

  • To insert a sentence or word in a text
  • To insert a letter in a word

insert means to place text or letters between two existing things.

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In my opinion, "Enter Your Data" is correct because "Insert" is used for database process.

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    Just because there were two options given, eliminating one does not imply the other is correct. You should still explain why an option is correct or incorrect. Also, insert is used for many purposes other than "database process".
    – Em.
    Commented Aug 26, 2016 at 6:07

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