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  • Rackspace Style Guide
  • Quickstart
  • Writing guidelines
    • Use active voice
    • Use present tense
    • Write to the user by using second person and imperative mood
    • Write clear and concise sentences and paragraphs
      • Use a consistent sentence structure
      • Restrict sentence length
      • Use only, but all of, the necessary words
      • Create short paragraphs
    • Use effective verbs
      • Use action-oriented verbs
      • Avoid nouns built from verbs
      • Use the simplest tense
      • Use helping verbs accurately
      • Use single-word verbs
      • Don't use verbs as nouns or adjectives
      • Don't use nonverbs as verbs
      • Use transitive verbs transitively, not intransitively
      • Don't humanize inanimate objects
    • Clarify gerunds and participles
    • Use that, which, and such as correctly
    • Use pronouns carefully
      • It
      • This
      • There
      • That
    • Use gender-neutral pronouns
    • Use positive statements
    • Use correct punctuation
    • Use interjections with care
  • Style guidelines
    • Abbreviations
      • Abbreviations of byte and bit
      • Common abbreviations
    • Capitalization
      • Capitalize proper nouns and adjectives
      • Capitalize most abbreviations
      • Capitalization in job titles
      • Capitalize team names
      • Capitalize UI labels as shown on the UI
      • Capitalize the names of product components as appropriate
      • Don't capitalize common nouns
      • Don't use all capitals for emphasis
      • Reference to other capitalization guidelines
    • Citations
    • Cloud account information
    • Code examples
      • Create a VM running a Docker host
      • Run the application
      • Remove the containers already using the port
      • Troubleshooting
    • Contractions
    • Copyrights
    • Dates
    • Email addresses
    • File types
    • Glossaries
      • Glossary terms
      • Glossary definitions
      • Cross-references to glossary terms
      • Guidelines for a comprehensive glossary
    • IP addresses
    • Keyboard keys
    • Links and cross-references
    • Lists
      • Introductory text
      • List items
    • Messages
    • Names
    • Notes and other notation types
    • Numbers
      • Numbers versus words
      • Commas in numbers
      • Ranges of numbers
      • Unspecified, generic, and unknown numbers
    • Parameters
    • Placeholder (variable) text
    • Plurals
    • Prepositions
    • Product names and version numbers
    • Punctuation
      • Ampersands
      • Colons
      • Commas
      • Dashes
      • Ellipses
      • Exclamation points
      • Hyphens
      • Parentheses
      • Periods
      • Quotation marks
      • Semicolons
      • Slashes
    • Symbols
    • Tables
      • Introductory text for tables
      • Table titles
      • Column headers
      • Table text
      • Table footnotes
      • Attribute or parameter tables in API documents
      • Examples
    • Tasks
      • Task titles
      • Task introductions
      • Prerequisites
      • Procedures
      • Steps
      • Results, verification, examples, and troubleshooting
      • Direction to the next action
      • Related topics
    • Telephone numbers
    • Text formatting
    • Time
      • 24-hour clock
      • 12-hour clock
    • Titles and headings
      • Capitalization
      • Style and structure
      • Text following titles and headings
      • Tables of contents
    • Trademarks
      • Examples of Rackspace trademarks
      • Examples of third-party trademarks
      • Links to company trademark pages
      • Trademark usage guidelines
    • URLs and domain names
    • Voice and tone
      • Voice and tone attributes
      • Best practices
  • Markup guidelines
    • ReStructured Text (RST)
    • MarkDown (MD)
  • Terminology guidelines
    • General terminology guidelines
      • Use consistent terminology
      • Use short, familiar words and phrases
      • Use consistent references to time, space, and versions
      • Avoid obscure non-English words and abbreviations
    • Terminology for a global audience
      • Don't use idioms or colloquialisms
      • Avoid metaphorical terms
      • Don't use humor
      • Use jargon carefully
      • Use culture-neutral language and examples
      • Use culture-neutral graphics
    • Alphabetical list of terms
    • Concise terms
    • Third-party names and trademarks
  • Screenshot and diagram guidelines
    • Screenshot guidelines and process
      • When to use screenshots
      • Screenshot alternatives
      • Before you create a screenshot
      • Screenshots in procedures
      • Screenshot checklist
    • Diagram guidelines
      • When to use diagrams
      • Before you create a diagram
      • Diagram checklist
  • Control panel and portal standards
  • How-To article guidelines
    • Use sentence-style capitalization for titles and headings
    • Use active voice
    • Use present tense
    • Write to the user by using second person and imperative mood
    • Write clear and consistent step text
    • Use consistent text formatting
    • Clarify pronouns such as it, this, there, and that
    • Clarify gerunds and participles
    • Write clear and consistent code examples
    • Use consistent terminology
    • When and when not to suggest contacting Support
  • Blog guidelines
    • Things to consider before writing a blog
    • Blog writing suggestions
    • Voice and tone
    • Write to the user by using second person and imperative mood
  • Error message guidelines
    • General guidelines
    • Message guidelines and examples
    • Message types
  • Release notes guidelines
    • Structure
    • Formatting
    • Wording
    • Editing existing release notes
  • User interface guidelines
  • Style guide revision history
    • July 18, 2019
    • March 12, 2019
    • March 6, 2019
    • March 1, 2019
    • February 22, 2019
    • February 6, 2019
    • January 21, 2019
    • January 4, 2019
    • November 5, 2018
    • November 2, 2018
    • September 25, 2018 (End of Q3 release)
    • June 29, 2018 (End of Q2 release)
    • May 8, 2018
    • April 16, 2018
    • June 19, 2017
    • April 28, 2017
    • November 10, 2016
    • July 27, 2016

Screenshot and diagram guidelines#

At Rackspace, we strive to provide a Fanatical Experience™ for our customers through exceptional documentation. Images are an essential part of helpful, clear, and concise content. Follow the standards in this section when creating images for your documents.

  • Screenshot guidelines and process
  • Diagram guidelines

Note

These guidelines conform to all of the rules outlined in the rest of the style guide.

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