Information Technology Services

Technical Writing Standards

• Use bold type when referring to names of menus, menu options, dialog boxes, buttons, and other named items in the user interface.
  
  Example: Click on the File pull-down menu, and select Save.
  
  
• Use italics to indicate a placeholder for information that a user should supply, as well as for book titles.
• File name extensions should be in all lowercase.
• Acronyms, abbreviations, and key names (e.g., ALT, CTRL) should be in all uppercase.
• Use monospace type to represent code samples, examples of screen text, or text that you would type at a command prompt.
• Use CAPITAL LETTERS to indicate the names of keys and key sequences and to indicate HTML element names.
  
  Example: Press ENTER to create a new line.
  
  

• Use a plus sign (+) to indicate that you must press those keys at the same time. Use a comma (,) to indicate that the keys must be pressed one after another.
  
  Example: Press CTRL+S to save the document.
  
  
• Internet, Web, and email addresses should be written in lowercase, unless the address is case sensitive. In printed media, these types of addresses should be in italics and NOT underlined.
• Internet, World Wide Web, and their shortened forms are treated as proper nouns and capitalized in all instances.
  
  Example: the Web, the Net, WWW