Welcome
Maintaining brand, voice and tone, quality, and consistency in customer-facing materials is everyone's responsibility.
This guide details company standards for ACS Technologies technical documentation, instructional materials, reference information, user interfaces, multi-media, and other after-market content. The goal is to define the preferred and recommended writing guidelines for situations in which several correct options may exist.
Writers, content designers, and editors should thoroughly review the guide to become familiar with standards, and subsequently refer to it in their role as mentor or content-creator.
- Anyone who creates content should conform their writing to these guidelines. Friendly copy-editing and advice for non-professional writers is always available. No scary, red ink here.
Developers and UX designers should follow these guidelines for user-facing text.
Editorial Resources Used at ACST
The ACST Style Guide is the primary reference for writers, but it is not exhaustive with regard to punctuation, usage, or grammar. For questions not covered by the ACST Style guide, content creators should refer to the following:
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For grammar, style and usage rules, consult The Gregg Reference Manual: A Manual of Style, Grammar, Usage, and Formatting, 10th ed., by William A Sabin. McGraw-Hill, New York, 2004. All writers should have a copy in their possession. If you do not own a copy, contact one of our writers. Online subscriptions that can be shared are also available through McGraw-Hill's website.
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For spelling and synonyms, consult Merriam-Webster.
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For UI controls (button, drop-down lists, etc) that are not listed in this guide, if time permits, consult the #acst_content_community in Slack or create a ticket here. Otherwise, consult the relevant software style guide:
How To Submit Feedback
To submit feedback or to request an addition or revision to this guide, enter a JIRA ticket here. If you do not have access to JIRA, email uxcontent@acst.com.
Please include a brief explanation. Thank you!
Changes to the Guide
New and revised changes to the ACST Style Guide are recorded here.
| Date | Name of Article | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 3/4/24 | Adding Publishing to PDF Guide | Published |
| 9/20/24 | Created the article Portal Error Messages. so that the team can reference the type of error messages customers and employees may encounter and know how to audit/requestion updates. | Published |
| 9/24/24 | 1- Updated &reorganized the Welcome page, 2 - Updated the email address on How To Submit Feedback, 3- | Published |
| 9/30/24 | Added pricing guidelines and created a new section for specific content types. | Published |
| Date | Name of Article | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 3/6/23 | Content Model Section | Published |
| Date | Name of Article | Change |
|---|---|---|
| 11.29.22 | Welcome | Revision, Title change |
| 11.30.22 | Editorial resources updated | Revision, updated |
| 12.1.22 | Terminology article | Title changed to Word Choice, conceptual content added |
| 12.1.22 | ACST Terminology Alignment | New article |
| 12.1.22 | Changes to the Guide | New article |