Do not use to refer to the kind of document sent through a fax machine. Use fax instead. Use facsimile only to refer to an exact reproduction of something else. See also fax.
In content for a general audience, use only to refer to disks and other hardware. Use stop responding to refer to programs or the operating system.
It is all right to use fail in content for a technical audience when necessary to describe an error condition. For example, E_FAIL is a common return value in COM programs, and it is logical to say that a function that returns E_FAIL has failed to do something or other.
Do not use crash in content for a general audience unless you have no other choice. In content for a technical audience, crash may be the best word in certain circumstances, but avoid whenever possible. See also crash.
Microsoft style
Backing up your files safeguards them against loss if your hard disk fails.
In general, use all uppercase to refer to a return value in content for software developers. If you are writing about a specific programming language, follow the capitalization used in that language.
Do not use. Use leftmost or rightmost instead. See also Chapter 4.
Accessibility considerations
Do not use directional terms (left, right, up, down) as the only clue to location unless you have no other choice. Individuals with cognitive impairments may have difficulty interpreting them, as may blind users relying on screen-reading software. A directional term is all right to use if another indication of location, such as in the Save As dialog box, on the Standard toolbar, or in the title bar, is also included. Directional terms are also all right to use when a sighted user with dyslexia can clearly see a change in the interface as the result of an action, such as a change in the right pane when an option in the left pane is clicked.
Do not use. Use shortcut key instead. See also Key names, (Chapter 5).
Reference in Internet Explorer to a webpage or site the user may want to return to. Favorites can be added to the menu. Corresponds to “bookmark” in other browsers. Use lowercase when referring to a “favorite website” and uppercase when referring to the Favorites menu. See also bookmark.
Microsoft style
You can add a favorite website to the Favorites menu.
You can display your list of favorites at any time by clicking the Favorites menu.
Abbreviation for facsimile. All right to use as an adjective (“fax machine,” “fax transmission”), as a noun (“your fax arrived”), or as a verb (“fax a copy of the order”). Do not use FAX.
Use to refer to new product functionality that is first distributed outside the context of a product release, and that is usually included in the next full product release. Do not confuse with service pack or update. See also out-of-band release terminology (Chapter 6), service pack, update.
Do not use to refer to a text-entry box. Refer to the box by its label. If you must use a descriptor, use box instead of field.
Field is all right to use to refer to Word field codes, in a database context, and in other technically accurate contexts.
Capitalize when identifying numbered art. In general reference to a figure, use lowercase. See also Art, captions, and callouts (Chapter 7).
Microsoft style
Figure 5.2 compares the response times of the two versions.
As the figure shows, computer prices continue to decline.
All right to use generically to refer to documents and programs, as well as to units of storage or file management. However, be more specific if possible in referring to a type of file. For example, say “the Word document,” “your worksheet,” and “the WordPad program.”
Two words both as an adjective and as a noun when referring to the name of a file. Do not hyphenate.
Usually one word when referring to a programming term such as the FileName property. See also File names and extensions (Chapter 6).
Microsoft style
You can set the FileName property before opening a dialog box to set an initial file name.
Not Microsoft style
You can set the File Name property before opening a dialog box to set an initial filename.
Use instead of file extension. See also File names and extensions (Chapter 6).
Microsoft applications use find and replace as standard names for search and replace features. Do not use the phrase search and replace.
Use find and replace as separate verbs, not as a single verb phrase. Do not use find and replace or find-and-replace as a noun. Do not use phrases such as “search your document.” Use “search through your document” instead.
Microsoft style
Find the word “gem” and replace it with “diamond.”
Search through your document, and replace “cat” with “dog.”
Not Microsoft style
Do a find and replace.
Find and replace the word “gem” with the word “diamond.”
Do not use the term global in reference to finding and replacing unless absolutely necessary. This term may not be clear to all users.
Microsoft style
Click Replace All to find all occurrences of the word “gem” and replace them with “diamond.”
Replace all instances of the word “gem” with “diamond.”
Use find characters and replacement characters to specify what the user types into a find or replace box.
Do not hyphenate. Refers to a security solution that segregates one portion of a network from another portion, and that allows only authorized network traffic to pass through according to traffic filtering rules. Provide a definition if your audience might be unfamiliar with the term. For more information, see the Microsoft Malware Encyclopedia. See also security.
Use to refer to the contact gesture of quickly moving one or more fingers to skip through content on the screen, such as images or text. Do not use scroll to describe this gesture unless a user can use a traditional control on an input device, such as a wheel button or the strip on the Microsoft Arc Touch Mouse. See also scroll.
Microsoft style
To view more pictures, flick right and left. (Windows Phone)
To move the picture to the right, flick it. (Surface)
Flick through your contacts. (Arc Touch Mouse, Surface, Windows Phone)
Scroll through the images with your finger until you find the one that you want to edit.
In content for a general audience, do not use flush, flush to, flush left, or flush right to describe text alignment. Use even, left-aligned, or right-aligned, as appropriate, instead.
In content for a technical audience, flush is all right to use to refer to such things as a function that “flushes the buffer.”
In content about Windows, use folder to refer to a container for files and for other folders. If the context is MS–DOS, use directory. Folders are represented on the interface by a folder icon. It is all right to use directory to mean folder in content for software developers if necessary to match the application programming interface.
Note
Not all folders represent a container for files and for other folders. For example, the Printers and Control Panel programs are also folders. Describe the nature of the folder, if necessary.
When instructing a user to click a folder, use bold formatting for the folder name. See also directory.
Microsoft style
You can find the file on your hard disk in C:WindowsSystemColor.
You can find the file on X:WindowsSystemColor.
You can find the file in the Color folder.
The system files are in the System subdirectory in the Windows directory.
Click the Windows folder.
Use following to introduce art, a table, or, in some cases, a list. See also above, below.
Microsoft style
The following table compares the different rates.
To install the program, do the following:
If following is the last word before what it introduces, follow it with a colon.
Use font, not typeface, for the name of a typeface design such as Times New Roman or Bookman. Use font style, not type style, to refer to the formatting, such as bold, italic, or small caps, and font size, not type size, for the point size, such as 12 point or 14 point.
When referring to bold formatting, use bold, not bolded, boldface, or boldfaced. When referring to italic formatting, use italic, not italics or italicized.
Microsoft style
The Bold option makes selected characters bold or removes the bold formatting if the characters are already bold.
Not Microsoft style
Select the Bold option button to bold the characters.
For information about when to use various font styles, see Document conventions (Chapter 6).
Do not use. The word is slang derived from an obscene phrase meaning “fouled up beyond all recognition.” Use another placeholder or variable name instead. For example, use Example.exe or MyFile.doc.
In content related to word-processing and publishing programs, use instead of bottom running head or running foot when discussing page layout. However, running foot is all right to use as a synonym in keyword lists and indexes.
Use format to refer to the overall layout or pattern of a document. Use formatting to refer to particulars of character formatting, paragraph formatting, and other types of formatting.
Use this term only in content for software developers or web developers. A frames page is a webpage that is divided into independently scrollable regions called frames. The HTML document that describes the frame layout in a frames page is called the frameset document.
Use frames page to describe the page itself, but do not use this term in content for a general audience. In general discussions, use frames whenever possible.
Do not use. Use display name instead to refer to a person’s name as it appears in an address or email list.
Use from to indicate a specific place or time as a starting point. For example, say “Paste the text from the Clipboard” or “From the time you set the clock, the alarm is active.”
If you are documenting both mouse and keyboard procedures, use from to indicate a menu from which a user chooses a command. For example, say “From the File menu, choose Open.”
However, use on to indicate the starting place for clicking a command or option: “On the File menu, click Open.”
The adjective different is usually followed by from. Use from when the next element of the sentence is a noun or pronoun.
The result of the first calculation is different from the result of the second.
Not Microsoft style
The result of the first calculation is different than the result of the second.
In content for a general audience, do not use as a synonym for the desktop interface to a database or server. Use the name of the program, or use interface, program, or another specific and accurate term instead. These terms are all right to use in content for a technical audience.
A technology used in hotfixes that replaces the currently installed files with new files. See patching.
A general term for a subroutine. In some languages, a function explicitly returns a value, which not all subroutines do.
Do not use function to mean application programming interface (API). Additionally, do not use API to mean function. The API is the set of classes, interfaces, functions, structures, and other programming elements that software developers use to write programs that interact with a product, technology, or operating system.