Editorial Stylesheet

STYLESHEET

Abbreviations

  • Spell out US state names when not used as contact information. When abbreviating, use standard two-letter postal abbreviations for states and Canadian provinces.
  • US and UK are used for United States and United Kingdom in adjective form (US users, UK users).
  • GmbH and NW are used without periods.
  • Inc. and Ltd. are used with periods.
  • Most abbreviations are avoided (for example: Corporation, Suite, Street, Avenue).

Acronyms

  • Use full phrase or full name of product or company in initial use (follow with acronym in parentheses). Spell out in all uses where there is possibility of confusion.

Dashes

  • Put a space on either side of a long (em) dash.

Footnotes

  • We do not use footnotes or bibliographies on our pages. Quote or cite material in the body of the text using Associated Press style.

Italics

  • Titles of books, movies, games and magazines are italicized; titles of software are not.
  • Words in languages other than English (and using the Roman alphabet) are italicized in standard text.
  • Software commands, Java strings and Java classes are in italics.

Punctuation

  • To avoid confusion, we now use the Oxford comma.
  • Semicolons in a series or list: use semicolon before “and” or “or.”
  • Otherwise, ollow Associated Press style.

Percent

  • Use % symbol.

Parentheses

  • Avoid where possible. Use dash or create a separate sentence if you can.

Spacing of Paragraphs

  • Do not use tabs or extra spaces at the beginning of a new paragraph.

Spacing of Text

  • Use one space between sentences.

Spellings

  • Use US rather than British spellings (localization not localisation)

Typographic Conventions

  • Use Courier font if available to indicate software code, HTML or XML tags and so on.

Web Addresses

  • Omit the http:// except where the remaining URL would not begin with www.

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