Documentation Style Guide

This page gives writing style guidelines for the United Manufacturing Hub documentation. These are guidelines, not rules. Use your best judgment, and feel free to propose changes to this document in a pull request.

For additional information on creating new content for the United Manufacturing Hub documentation, read the Documentation Content Guide.

Language

The United Manufacturing Hub documentation has not been translated yet. But if you want to help with that, you can check out the localization page.

Documentation formatting standards

Use upper camel case for Kubernetes objects

When you refer specifically to interacting with a Kubernetes object, use UpperCamelCase, also known as Pascal case.

When you are generally discussing a Kubernetes object, use sentence-style capitalization.

The following examples focus on capitalization. For more information about formatting Kubernetes object names, review the related guidance on Code Style.

Use angle brackets for placeholders

Use angle brackets for placeholders. Tell the reader what a placeholder represents, for example:

Display information about a pod:

kubectl describe pod <pod-name> -n <namespace>

Use bold for user interface elements

Use italics to define or introduce new terms

Use code style for filenames, directories, and paths

Use the international standard for punctuation inside quotes

Inline code formatting

Use code style for inline code, commands, and API objects

For inline code in an HTML document, use the <code> tag. In a Markdown document, use the backtick (`).

The website supports syntax highlighting for code samples, but specifying a language is optional. Syntax highlighting in the code block should conform to the contrast guidelines.

Use code style for object field names and namespaces

Use code style for command tools and component names

Starting a sentence with a component tool or component name

Use a general descriptor over a component name

Use normal style for string and integer field values

For field values of type string or integer, use normal style without quotation marks.

Code snippet formatting

Don’t include the command prompt

Separate commands from output

Verify that the pod is running on your chosen node:

kubectl get pods --output=wide

The output is similar to this:

NAME     READY     STATUS    RESTARTS   AGE    IP           NODE
nginx    1/1       Running   0          13s    10.200.0.4   worker0

Versioning United Manufacturing Hub examples

Code examples and configuration examples that include version information should be consistent with the accompanying text.

If the information is version specific, the United Manufacturing Hub version needs to be defined in the prerequisites section of the Task template or the Tutorial template. Once the page is saved, the prerequisites section is shown as Before you begin.

To specify the United Manufacturing Hub version for a task or tutorial page, include minimum-version in the front matter of the page.

If the example YAML is in a standalone file, find and review the topics that include it as a reference. Verify that any topics using the standalone YAML have the appropriate version information defined. If a stand-alone YAML file is not referenced from any topics, consider deleting it instead of updating it.

For example, if you are writing a tutorial that is relevant to United Manufacturing Hub version 0.9.11, the front-matter of your markdown file should look something like:

---
title: <your tutorial title here>
minimum-version: 0.9.11
---

In code and configuration examples, do not include comments about alternative versions. Be careful to not include incorrect statements in your examples as comments, such as:

apiVersion: v1 # earlier versions use...
kind: Pod
...

United Manufacturing Hub word list

A list of UMH-specific terms and words to be used consistently across the site.

Shortcodes

Hugo Shortcodes help create different rhetorical appeal levels.

There are multiple custom shortcodes that can be used in the United Manufacturing Hub documentation. Refer to the shortcode guide for more information.

Markdown elements

Line breaks

Use a single newline to separate block-level content like headings, lists, images, code blocks, and others. The exception is second-level headings, where it should be two newlines. Second-level headings follow the first-level (or the title) without any preceding paragraphs or texts. A two line spacing helps visualize the overall structure of content in a code editor better.

Headings and titles

People accessing this documentation may use a screen reader or other assistive technology (AT). Screen readers are linear output devices, they output items on a page one at a time. If there is a lot of content on a page, you can use headings to give the page an internal structure. A good page structure helps all readers to easily navigate the page or filter topics of interest.

Paragraphs

Links

Lists

Group items in a list that are related to each other and need to appear in a specific order or to indicate a correlation between multiple items. When a screen reader comes across a list—whether it is an ordered or unordered list—it will be announced to the user that there is a group of list items. The user can then use the arrow keys to move up and down between the various items in the list. Website navigation links can also be marked up as list items; after all they are nothing but a group of related links.

• End each item in a list with a period if one or more items in the list are complete sentences. For the sake of consistency, normally either all items or none should be complete sentences.

  Ordered lists that are part of an incomplete introductory sentence can be in lowercase and punctuated as if each item was a part of the introductory sentence.

• Use the number one (1.) for ordered lists.

• Use (+), (*), or (-) for unordered lists.

• Leave a blank line after each list.

• Indent nested lists with four spaces (for example, ⋅⋅⋅⋅).

• List items may consist of multiple paragraphs. Each subsequent paragraph in a list item must be indented by either four spaces or one tab.

Tables

The semantic purpose of a data table is to present tabular data. Sighted users can quickly scan the table but a screen reader goes through line by line. A table caption is used to create a descriptive title for a data table. Assistive technologies (AT) use the HTML table caption element to identify the table contents to the user within the page structure.

• Add table captions using Hugo shortcodes for tables.

Content best practices

This section contains suggested best practices for clear, concise, and consistent content.

Use present tense

Exception: Use future or past tense if it is required to convey the correct meaning.

Use active voice

Exception: Use passive voice if active voice leads to an awkward construction.

Use simple and direct language

Use simple and direct language. Avoid using unnecessary phrases, such as saying “please.”

Address the reader as “you”

Avoid Latin phrases

Prefer English terms over Latin abbreviations.

Exception: Use “etc.” for et cetera.

Patterns to avoid

Avoid using “we”

Using “we” in a sentence can be confusing, because the reader might not know whether they’re part of the “we” you’re describing.

Avoid jargon and idioms

Some readers speak English as a second language. Avoid jargon and idioms to help them understand better.

Avoid statements about the future

Avoid making promises or giving hints about the future. If you need to talk about an alpha feature, put the text under a heading that identifies it as alpha information.

An exception to this rule is documentation about announced deprecations targeting removal in future versions.

Avoid statements that will soon be out of date

Avoid words like “currently” and “new.” A feature that is new today might not be considered new in a few months.

Avoid words that assume a specific level of understanding

Avoid words such as “just”, “simply”, “easy”, “easily”, or “simple”. These words do not add value.

What’s next

• Learn about writing a new topic.
• Learn about using page templates.
• Learn about creating a pull request.