An abbreviation saves time and space, but it is important for the reader to know what it stands for.

When possible, give the complete term first and follow it with the shorter term in parentheses. Once the complete term and the abbreviation are given, you can use the abbreviation through the rest of the document.

• The National Association of Church Business Administration (NACBA) meets yearly.

For terms that are well known (example: IQ), it is not necessary to use the complete term.

Precede the acronym or abbreviation with the correct article (a or an) depending on the usual pronunciation of the acronym.

• For a North Carolina State University professor, use "an NCSU professor".

• For a study by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, use "a NATO study".

To make acronyms plural, add a lowercase s. Do not use an apostrophe.

• DVDs, JPEGs, PNGs

Do not abbreviate the names of academic institutions.

• University of South Carolina, not USC.

Customer-facing materials use simple solid bullets at the first level, open hole bullets at level two. (Bulleted lists are also referred to as unordered lists in DITA XML).

Begin each item with a capital letter, whether it is a sentence or a fragment. Do not use periods unless an item itself forms a complete sentence. If a single item requires a period, use periods for all items on the list.

Before you start, gather this information:

When adding figure or table captions, use initial capitalization on the first word in a caption.

For window titles in a caption, match capitalization in the user interface. Do not capitalize the word window.

Use initial capitalization for every word in a topic or printable title (except for prepositions, articles, and conjunctions). See [NO TITLE FOUND].

For all other headings, such as table titles and column headings, use initial capitalization only on the first word.

Use initial capitalization for the first word in each list item whether the item is a complete sentence or not.

Capitalize a specific window class or type name that displays in the UI. Match capitalization in the user interface. Do not capitalize words such as field, tab, pane, button, list box, and window.

• On the Groups tab, select an attribute that describes the group.

Do not capitalize window classes or window types when referred to in a non-specific sense.

• confirmation message displays.

Contractions meet our voice and tone standards.

Always use the appropriate trademark symbol with product names on their first mention in the topic. Subsequent mentions do not require a trademark. For ACST trademarks, refer to the Product Marketing Guide. For other companies, check their websites for trademark information.

• The exception to this rule is when the product is mentioned for the first time in a heading. In this case, do not include the trademark in the heading but use it the next time the product name is mentioned.

• When referencing company or product names with punctuation or decorative elements, such as Guess? or E*TRADE, omit the punctuation and replace decorative elements with a hyphen for readability.

Do not use double negatives.

Wrong: You won't find no better solution than Realm software for seamless database management.

Right: You will not find a better solution than Realm software for seamless database management.

Replace with present tense when possible.

Problem: Click Add Minister, and the Minister dialog box will display.

Solution: Click Add Minister, and the Minister dialog box displays.

Use plurals or specific descriptions to avoid he, she, he or she, s/he, and it. See the example below.

Problem: The programmer writes code. He then compiles it.

Solution: The programmer writes code and then compiles it.

(or) Programmers write code. Then they compile it.

Do not use initial capitalization except for proper names.

Use singular for nouns.

Collapse similar entries with secondary entries

Problem: planting bulbs planting shrubs planting trees

Solution: planting bulbs, shrubs, trees

There are some cases where italic type may be acceptable to use for emphasis. However,

• Do not use italic type for UI elements.

• Do not overuse italic type.

In using only as a modifier, it should be placed directly before the word or clause to be modified.

Avoid noun strings. If you have one, hyphenate the words that are used as adjectives to aid comprehension. See also Hyphen.

Use active voice to convey your message clearly and concisely, avoiding the unnecessary complexity of passive voice. Active voice makes it clear who is performing the action.

Passive: Tax forms were electronically filed by our office.

Active: Our office filed tax forms electronically.

Avoid split infinitives, but do not mutilate your sentence to remove a split infinitive.

Problem: To immediately navigate to the main menu, click Return.

Solution: To navigate immediately to the main menu, click Return.

Use a colon (without space before or after) to separate hours from minutes.

• Example: 4:35

For time "on the hour," zeros aren't needed to denote minutes...

• Example: The time range is between 8 AM and 5:30 PM

...unless AM or PM is omitted.

• Example: The store closes everyday at 6:00.

Don't use AM or PM unless figures are used.

• Problem: The meeting was this AM.

• Solution: The meeting was this morning.

User input should be wrapped in the element <userinput>input text here</userinput>. Do not use quotation marks.

When not using DITA XML tools, use Courier font to highlight what the user needs to type. Do not use quotation marks.

Example: To start the IOT server, type the following command:

Always seek to simplify your sentence structure.