Check with your content managers, writers, program managers, and product marketers or planners to determine whether the new acronym or abbreviation is necessary.

Check the Acronyms and other abbreviations table to see whether the acronym is listed.

Search the web, including Microsoft.com (http://www.microsoft.com/en-us/default.aspx) or MSN (http://www.msn.com/), for the acronym. You may find that it’s in common use, either as you define it, or as the abbreviation for a different term. Also try some of the acronym search engines such as The Internet Acronym Server (http://acronyms.silmaril.ie/cgi-bin/uncgi/acronyms) or Acronym Finder (http://www.acronymfinder.com/).