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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
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    • 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
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      • 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

Use short, familiar words and phrases#

Use short, familiar words and phrases to convey an idea clearly. Such words and phrases are more conversational, save space, are easier to scan, and are often easier for non-native English speakers to understand. Use a longer word or phrase only if necessary to convey a particular meaning.

If a word has variant spellings that are equally acceptable (such as canceled and cancelled), use the shorter spelling.

Use Avoid
Now we test on Python 2.7.x, but we plan to support Python 3.3.x. At the current time we test on Python 2.7.x, but in the future we will fully support Python 3.3.x.
This guide is designed to get you started with the service and to answer your questions about the service. This guide is designed to get you up and running with the service and to answer any questions that you may have about the service.
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