A gallery is a collection of pictures, charts, or other graphics that the user can select from. Use the verb click or select for the items in a gallery.
Microsoft style
Select an option from the gallery.
Click the picture that you want to select.
All right to use in content for a technical audience. Garbage collection refers to the automatic recovery of heap memory or to the automatic deletion of objects that the run-time environment determines are no longer being used. The garbage collector is the component of a run-time environment that performs garbage collection.
One word. Refers to software or a computer running software that enables two different networks to communicate.
Abbreviation for gigabyte. Use the abbreviation only as a measurement with numerals. Spell out gigabyte on first mention. See also gigabyte.
Abbreviation for gigahertz. Use the abbreviation only as a measurement with numerals. Do not use the abbreviation in text without a numeral. Spell out gigahertz on first mention. See also gigahertz.
One gigabyte is equal to 1,073,741,824 bytes, or 1,024 megabytes.
Abbreviate as GB, not G, G byte, or Gbyte. On first mention, spell out and use the abbreviation in parentheses. Insert a space between the numeral and GB, or hyphenate if the measure is used as an adjective. See also Measurements and units of measure (Chapter 7).
Microsoft style
1 gigabyte (GB) of data
10-GB hard disk
When used as a noun in measurements, add of to form a prepositional phrase.
Microsoft style
You will need to free 1 GB of hard disk space.
A gigahertz is a unit of frequency equal to 1 billion cycles per second.
Spell out on first mention and use the abbreviation GHz in parentheses. Do not use the abbreviation in text without a numeral. Insert a space between GHz and the numeral, or hyphenate if the measure is used as an adjective. See also Chapter 11.
Microsoft style
a frequency of 11.9300 gigahertz (GHz)
11.9300-GHz communications
Do not use to mean specified, particular, or fixed.
Microsoft style
Look in the specified folder.
Use the Find command to search for all occurrences of a specific word.
The meeting is always at a particular time.
Not Microsoft style
Look in the given folder.
Use the Find command to search for all occurrences of a given word.
The meeting is always at a given time.
In content for a technical audience, global refers to memory that is accessible to more than one process, to a variable whose value can be accessed and modified by any statement in a program (called a global variable), and to similar elements that pertain to an entire program.
Do not use global as a technical term in content for a general audience, especially in describing the process of replacing one text string with another throughout a document. Instead, describe the action being taken.
It is, of course, all right to use global to mean worldwide. See also find and replace.
Microsoft style
A cascading style sheet establishes global design formats.
Use the Find and Replace commands to find all occurrences of specific text and replace it with different text.
Do not use to refer generically to a graphic or pictorial image on a button, on an icon, or in a message box. Use symbol instead. All right to use in a technical discussion of fonts and characters. See also icon, symbol.
As a noun, use graphic to refer to a picture, display, chart, and other visual representations.
Use graphics to refer in general to creating pictures, displays, charts, and other visual representations using computers. An example is “graphics software.”
Use graphical as the adjectival form of the noun graphic. Use graphic as an adjective only to mean “vivid” or “realistic” or in the phrase “graphic arts.”
Noun
To import a graphic from another file, click Picture.
Adjective
Select the graphics file you want to open.
The image is graphic and accurate.
A tutorial offers the basics in graphic design.
The graphical user interface simulates a coliseum.
Do not use to refer to commands or options. Use unavailable or dimmed instead. If you need to describe the appearance of check boxes with portions of a larger selection that are already selected, use shaded, not grayed. See also dimmed, shaded, unavailable.
Microsoft style
In the Effects group box, names of selected options may appear shaded.
The Print command on the File menu is unavailable.
Do not use either term to designate system requirements or versions of a program. See also higher, later.
Microsoft style
To run SyncToy 2.1, your computer must be running Windows 7, Windows Vista, or Windows XP.
To run Windows 7, your computer must have a 1 gigahertz (GHz) or faster 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor.
Not Microsoft style
To run SyncToy 2.1, your computer must be running Windows XP or greater.
To run Windows 7, your computer must have a 1 gigahertz (GHz) or better 32-bit (x86) or 64-bit (x64) processor.
One word, both as an adjective and as a noun.
Microsoft style
No gridline is displayed if the GridLineStyle property is set to DataGridLineStyle.
When the DataList control is displayed in a table, you can use the GridLines property to specify a gridline style.
Not Microsoft style
No grid line is displayed if the GridLineStyle property is set to DataGridLineStyle.
When the DataList control is displayed in a table, you can use the GridLines property to specify a grid line style.
Although these words can be synonyms, use newsgroup to refer specifically to an Internet discussion group focusing on a particular topic to differentiate it from other generic groups. Newsgroup is one word.
Two words, both as an adjective and as a noun.
A group box is a rectangle drawn around a set of related controls in a dialog box. For example, in the Print dialog box of WordPad, page range options are grouped in the Page Range group box. A group box is only a visual aid; it provides no functionality.
Do not use group box in content for a general audience. It is generally unnecessary to include the name of the group box in a procedure unless a dialog box contains more than one option with the same name. In that case, use under with the group box name. For example, you can say “Under Effects, select Hidden.”
It is all right to use group box in content for a technical audience.