Overarching style guidance
We want this wiki to be useful to readers and authors as well. So these are guidelines only, but meant to offer guidance to all contributors.
If you want to try out the wiki text, feel free to use our Sandbox page.
Write clearly and succinctly while providing the most accurate explanations possible.
Use active voice and present tense.
For guidelines not covered in this style guide, refer to Read Me First! A Style Guide for the Computer Industry. For software documentation, it's a good standard to use. If you can't find the answer here or in the Read Me First! style guide, refer to the Chicago Manual of Style (book or online).
Capitalization
For the title of a page, use title-style capitalization, which means that the first, last, and all other meaningful words are capitalized.
To name a page, you can use CamelCase if it increases readability of the URL.
For headings within a page, use sentence-style capitalization, capitalizing only the first word and proper names.
Do not capitalize internet, email, or web.
Capitalize the first word in all list items, whether the list item is punctuated or not.
Use the displayed capitalization for all user interface elements and keyboard key names, such as Shift, Ctrl, and Alt.
Punctuation
Include appropriate punctuation, such as commas and periods, inside quotation marks unless the quotation marks are part of syntax that the user must type.
Use serial commas in a list, meaning that a list with three or more items has a comma preceding the last item in the list.
Avoid the use of the ampersand (&); use "and" instead.
When list items form a complete sentence, use a period (or other terminating punctuation) at the end of each list item. When unordered (bulleted) list items do not form complete sentences, do not use punctuation at the end of each list item.
Links
When it works well in context, match the link text with the page title that you are linking to.
Headings
For the first heading of any edited page, use an H2 style with two equal signs (==).
Use sentence-style capitalization for all headings, regardless of level.