In-house style: Difference between revisions

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(→‎Commonly used names and terms: "JavaScript Console")
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* '''Common terms.''' Use these terms as listed here (sans quotes). Note the capital letters.
* '''Common terms.''' Use these terms as listed here (sans quotes). Note the capital letters.
** ''Good:'' "bookmark(s)", "cache", "Bookmarks Toolbar", "Javascript", "Location Bar", "Search Bar", "Status Bar"
** ''Good:'' "bookmark(s)", "cache", "Bookmarks Toolbar", "Javascript" (but "JavaScript Console"), "Location Bar", "Search Bar", "Status Bar"
** ''Bad:'' "favorites", "Temporary Internet Files", "Links Toolbar", "JavaScript", "address bar", "search box", "statusbar".
** ''Bad:'' "favorites", "Temporary Internet Files", "Links Toolbar", "JavaScript", "address bar", "search box", "statusbar".



Revision as of 22:33, 27 February 2005

This is just going to be a list of stylistic writing suggestions that can make this entire KB more consistent in writing for now, in an informal bullet form. Feel free to add or delete any changes, since I border on grammar nazi. --hao2lian

Discuss these conventions on the discussion page! --Mozcerize

Pages

  • Stop using the category format (such as "Firefox : FAQs : Topic") when naming new pages, since it's been in the Rules for a while now. Change to general topic names like "Help old ladies across the street" with an optional "(Firefox)" at the end if it only applies to Firefox, etc.
  • Use the imperative in the topic title. By this, I mean use "Help old ladies" instead of "Helping old ladies" or "Helped old ladies" or "Have helped old ladies".
  • If the article applies to Mozilla Suite and Firefox/Thunderbird, create it and edit it for Mozilla Suite and Firefox/Thunderbird. A lot of articles written talk exclusively about Firefox or Thunderbird, yet they often apply to Mozilla Suite too. This is a shame, because Mozilla Suite is in need of more people creating resources for it and converting old content to it.

Commonly used names and terms

  • Application names. Use "Firefox", "Thunderbird", "Mozilla Suite" as the application names in articles' titles and text. Don't use "Mozilla Firefox", "Mozilla Thunderbird", "Mozilla" (meaning the Suite), just "Suite" or "Seamonkey".
    • Layout issues should use "Gecko" as the application name.
  • OS names.
    • Windows. Use "Windows" when referring to the whole family of Microsoft Windows operation systems. For specific versions use: "Windows 95", "Windows 98", "Windows ME", "Windows NT", "Windows 2000", "Windows XP", "Windows XP SP2". When combining names, use forward slashes, e.g.: "Windows 2000/XP".
    • Linux. Use "Linux" when referring to *nix-like systems. Do not use "GNU/Linux" or any other name. If you absolutely need to use a name of a particular distribution, note your choice (along with the link to the article) in Talk:In-House Style.
    • Mac OS. Use Mac OS X, not "Mac OSX", "MacOS X" or any other name.
  • Common terms. Use these terms as listed here (sans quotes). Note the capital letters.
    • Good: "bookmark(s)", "cache", "Bookmarks Toolbar", "Javascript" (but "JavaScript Console"), "Location Bar", "Search Bar", "Status Bar"
    • Bad: "favorites", "Temporary Internet Files", "Links Toolbar", "JavaScript", "address bar", "search box", "statusbar".

Punctuation

  • Use "arrows" to denote menu order (e.g. "Tools -> Options"), and place a space either side of the arrow to facilitate line breaks.
  • Put menu hierarchy, keyboard shortcuts, and file names into quotation marks (e.g. "Tools -> Options", "Ctrl+PageDown", "compreg.dat").
  • Just a personal pet peeve: use the dash and hyphen correctly [1] [2]. [When using dashes and hyphens, you should not include white space around them. For example, use “9–16” and “Firefox—and Mozilla—can be used” which are achieved using “9–16” and “Firefox—and”. --Mozcerize]
  • When discussing keyboard and mouse actions: left-click, right-click etc. are hyphenated and uncapitalized; Shift, Ctrl, Alt etc. have their first letter capitalized (and only their first letter); key combinations are written using "+" so that "hold down Ctrl and press 'D'" should be written "Ctrl+D".

Style

  • Use bolding and italics only when absolutely necessary.
  • Don't start too many small, idiosyncratic paragraphs. If paragraphs are a couple of sentences that last about two lines, try and see if you can combine them into one paragraph.