PUBLISHED BY Microsoft Press A Division of Microsoft Corporation One Microsoft Way Redmond, Washington 98052-6399 Copyright © 2004 by Microsoft Corporation All rights reserved. No part of the contents of this book may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means without the written permission of the publisher. Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Microsoft Manual of Style for Technical Publications / Microsoft Corporation Editorial Style Board.--3rd ed. p. cm. Includes index. ISBN 0-7356-1746-5 1. Technical writing--Handbooks, manuals, etc. 2. Microsoft Corporation. I. Microsoft Corporation. Editorial Style Board. T11.M467 2003 808'.066005--dc22 2003065115 Printed and bound in the United States of America. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 QWT 8 7 6 5 4 3 Distributed in Canada by H.B. Fenn and Company Ltd. A CIP catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library. Microsoft Press books are available through booksellers and distributors worldwide. For further information about international editions, contact your local Microsoft Corporation office or contact Microsoft Press International directly at fax (425) 936-7329. Visit our Web site at www.microsoft.com/learning/. Send comments to [email protected]. Active Directory, ActiveX, DirectDraw, DirectX, Encarta, FrontPage, Home Essentials, IntelliMouse, JScript, Microsoft, Microsoft Press, MS-DOS, MSDN, MSN, Natural, Outlook, PowerPoint, Slate, Verdana, Visio, Visual Basic, Visual FoxPro, Visual Studio, Windows, Windows Media, Windows NT, Windows Server, and Xbox are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Microsoft Corporation in the United States and/or other countries. Other product and company names mentioned herein may be the trademarks of their respective owners. The example companies, organizations, products, domain names, e-mail addresses, logos, people, places, and events depicted herein are fictitious. 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Acquisitions Editor: Alex Blanton Project Editor: Kristine Haugseth and Sandra Haynes Technical Editor: Jim Purcell Indexer: Kari Kells Body Part No. X10-08622 Contents Acknowledgments . xvii Introduction to the Third Edition . .xix How to use this manual . .xix Other reference materials . xx About the CD. .xxi Support Information . .xxi General Topics 1: Documenting the User Interface Screen Terminology . 3 Mouse Terminology. 17 Dialog Boxes and Property Sheets. 6 Messages . 20 Unnamed Buttons . 13 Key Names . 22 Menus and Commands. 13 Command Syntax . 26 Control Panel . 16 File Names and Extensions . 27 2: Content Formatting and Layout Art, Captions, and Callouts. 29 Lists . 48 Cross-References . 33 Marginal Notes . 51 Document Conventions . 36 Page Breaks . 52 Headings and Subheadings . 42 Tables . 53 Line Breaks . 45 Notes and Tips . 57 3: Global Content Global Art . 60 Foreign Words and Phrases . 67 Examples and Scenarios . 61 Time and Place . 67 Global Syntax . 61 Names and Contact Information. 68 Word Choice. 62 Fonts . 69 Technical Terms . 65 Web, Software, and HTML Issues . 70 Jargon. 66 Additional Globalization Resources . 71 4: Content for Software Developers Reference Documentation . 73 Coding Style . 78 Code Comments . 75 Logical Operators. 80 Code Formatting Conventions. 76 COM, ActiveX, and OLE Terminology . 80 iii Contents 5: Web Content Titles of Web Pages . 87 HTML Tag, Element, and Attribute Styling . 89 Descriptions of Web Pages . 88 XML Tag, Element, and Attribute Styling. 90 6: Indexing and Attributing Indexing . 93 Keywords and Online Index Entries. 101 7: Tone and Rhetoric Tone and the Reader . 105 Anthropomorphism. 111 Bias-Free Communication. 106 Humor . 112 Parallelism . 109 8: Accessible Content Accessibility Appendix . 113 Accessible Graphics and Design . 115 Accessible Web Pages . 113 Acceptable Terminology . 116 Accessible Writing . 114 Additional Resources. 116 9: Common Style Problems Procedures. 117 Time Zones . 141 Dates . 124 URLs, Addresses. 142 Capitalization . 125 Company with Product Names . 144 Measurements and Units of Measure . 128 Version Identifiers . 144 Numbers . 131 Readme Files and Release Notes . 146 Protocols . 137 Bibliographies. 150 Names of Special Characters . 137 Titles of Publications . 152 Telephone Numbers . 139 10: Grammatical Elements Verbs and Verb Forms. 157 Prepositions . 168 Person . 164 Prefixes . 169 Noun Plurals. 166 Dangling and Misplaced Modifiers . 170 Possessives . 167 11: Punctuation Formatting Punctuation . 171 Quotation Marks . 176 Periods . 172 Parentheses . 177 Commas. 173 Hyphens, Hyphenation . 177 Apostrophes . 174 Dashes . 179 Colons . 174 Ellipses. 181 Semicolons . 175 Slash Marks. 182 12: List of Acronyms and Abbreviations iv Contents Usage Dictionary A -able, -ible. 199 alphanumeric . 207 abort. 199 alt text . 207 above . 200 A.M., P.M.. 207 accelerator key . 200 among vs. between. 207 access . 200 ampersand (&). 208 accessible. 201 and/or . 208 access key . 201 and so on. 208 accessory . 201 antialiasing . 209 access privileges . 202 antivirus. 209 access rights . 202 appears, displays . 209 accounts receivable . 202 appendix, appendixes, appendices . ..