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Apple Publications Style Guide

1. Le option o em 5 e Escape Forward Delete and Function It s OK to abbreviate the key names Escape Forward Delete and Function the Fn key on a laptop computer Esc Fwd Del Fn Spell out the key names on first use Don t abbreviate any other key names except when space is very tight in table heads for example ox See also specific key names keyboard equivalent Don t use use keyboard shortcut keyboard focus The location where your actions take effect when you use the keyboard When using VoiceOver the keyboard focus can be different from where the VoiceOver cursor is focused keyboard icon Not script symbol or script icon Refers to the small icon associated with each keyboard layout These icons are used in the Input menu and the Input Menu pane of International preferences Keyboard menu Classic Not Script menu In Mac OS X the equivalent menu is the Input menu keyboard shortcut Use instead of keyboard equivalent See also key keys keychain Keychain Access A keychain stores certificates and passwords for servers Internet resources and applications Users create keychains by using the Keychain Access application Note capitalization Chapter 1 Style and Usage 87 88 key down adj Note hyphenation Keynote The presentation application included in iWork Note capitalization keypad One word Use keypad or numeric keypad not numeric keyboard keypress One word keyst
2. Titles for other products For Read Me files that contain information other than before you install information for example those that provide the only documentation for a product such as a firmware update downloaded from the web you can use the name About Product Name for example About Firmware Update 4 1 2 If a Read Me file is included within the installer for an application the actual filename may be Read Me rtf or whatever name for which the installer is designed to look Chapter 1 Style and Usage read only memory See ROM read write adj Note slash as in read write memory real time n real time adj Note hyphenation of adjective Don t use realtime Correct You can edit multicamera footage in real time Correct You can group unrelated clips together for real time montage editing Incorrect Many transitions can play back in real time recommend Avoid passive or first person constructions that use recommend reword in terms of the user or product In more formal contexts such as a warning tag recommend is acceptable Avoid Apple recommends Correct Restart your computer Incorrect Apple recommends that you restart your computer Correct You can use this product with Mac OS X v10 3 but for the best performance you should upgrade to Mac OS X v10 4 or later Incorrect You can use this product with Mac OS X v10 3 but Mac OS X v10 4 or later is recommended Redundant Array of Independent Disk
3. Chapter1 Style and Usage 161 162 web Short for World Wide Web You go to visit or view pages on the web Note the treatment of terms beginning with web webcam webcast webcasting weblog webmail webmaster webpage website web authoring web browser web camera web publishing web server See also Internet addresses World Wide Web web addresses See Internet addresses URL webpage Weblog Server Software included with Mac OS X Server Note capitalization Don t precede with the WebObjects Application server software Note capitalization webpage One word A self contained document that can be viewed on a website A single website can contain many webpages You connect to or go to a page you are then at that page Text graphics and links however are on the page Don t use website and webpage interchangeably See also homepage Internet addresses website website Refers to a collection of webpages stored in a particular location A website may be organized into several parts sections or areas each of which may contain more than one page Use part section or area to refer to such an entity Use page to refer to a single webpage Use website to refer to the entire collection You can browse visit or go to a website but don t use such phrases as point your browser at the website and surf the website See also homepage webpage Welcome to Mac OS message Classic Not box or screen well behaved
4. Correct A device that plugs into an electrical outlet Incorrect A self powered device Correct A device that gets its power from another USB device Incorrect A bus powered device button Buttons always initiate an action when clicked or pressed You click an onscreen button you press a mechanical button Click the Save As PDF button Press the Reset button e Types of buttons The following screen shot shows two kinds of onscreen buttons standard buttons and radio buttons Button 1 Radio Button 1 Radio Button 2 Button 2 y e Button names Write the names of buttons exactly as they appear onscreen If the button s name uses sentence style capitalization enclose the name in quotation marks Click Cancel Click the Position on screen button e Button descriptions In a dialog the default button has color and pulses but avoid characterizing the button as blue call it the default button Buttons have color or don t have color don t refer to buttons as clear Chapter 1 Style and Usage Unlabeled buttons If a button does not have a label and there is no established name for the button consult your editor to determine what to call it Capitalize the name of the button A Click the Lock button Q Click the Search button Click the Rotate button e Buttons and icons If an element in the user interface looks like a button appears three dimensional and acts like a butto
5. Server documentation Give the user permission to write to the disk See also burn Chapter 1 Style and Usage WWDC Abbreviation for Worldwide Developers Conference Note spelling WWW Don t use as an abbreviation for World Wide Web Use web instead X x Follow these guidelines when you use the letter x to stand for something else e Screen resolutions Use a lowercase x in screen resolutions 1024 x 768 Note the space before and after the x e As a placeholder variable When you use x as a placeholder for replaceable numbers the x is lowercase and in regular text 02xx The x s represent a range of memory addresses Don t use x s as placeholders in numbers representing microprocessors Correct 68000 family microprocessor Incorrect 68xxx microprocessor e Fora range of version numbers Except in developer documentation don t use x to express a range of software version numbers as in 10 x use a specific number or range of numbers e To designate speed For the speed of disc drives use a lowercase x for example 24x speed Note that there is no space between the numeral and the x See also dimensions version Xcode A suite of development tools included with Mac OS X Note capitalization Xgrid Computational clustering technology Note capitalization XON XOFF Refers to the handshake All caps Xsan The storage area network SAN file system for Mac OS X and Mac OS X Server Note capitalization Xse
6. Avoid You can access the Internet with your iBook Preferable You can connect to the Internet with your iBook Chapter 1 Style and Usage 10 ACGI Abbreviation for Asynchronous Common Gateway Interface Note capitalization spell out on first occurrence acronyms See abbreviations and acronyms action A component of an Automator workflow A workflow is an entire task Each action is a specific part of the task such as opening a new message in Mail Note lowercase action description In Automator the description of the selected workflow action Note lowercase Action pop up menu A pop up menu labeled with a gear and a down arrow in the Finder and in applications such as Mail Note capitalization E2 New Finder Window N New Folder TEN New Smart Folder XN New Burn Folder Get Info 3 Find 36F activate deactivate Avoid instead use turn on turn off active Use to refer to the application or window currently being used Preferred to in front See also front frontmost in front Chapter 1 Style and Usage adapter Not adaptor except in WebObjects documents adaptor appears in the WebObjects software e Types Types of adapters include the following ADC to DVI adapter DVI to ADC adapter DVI to VGA adapter mini DVI to VGA adapter AC adapter or power adapter S video to composite adapter e Capitalization Capitalize names of adapters that are sold separately ADC to DVI Adapter DVI to
7. Keep lines together Search for iTunes and Music Store e Smart quotation marks Most applications have an option called smart quotation marks which automatically generates curly quotation marks and apostrophes as you type Check your department s guidelines for how to handle quotation marks in HTML R racism racist language See fair language rackmount Refers to hardware that can be mounted in a rack such as Xserve and Xserve RAID Related terms include rackmountable rackmounted and rack optimized Use rackmounted only for equipment that is already installed in a rack radio button Refers to an onscreen button like the ones shown here Use radio button only in developer documentation use button in user documentation Radio Button 1 O Radio Button 2 You click a button to select or deselect an option you can use the complete phrase click to select or just select You don t check or uncheck a button Compare checkbox Chapter1 Style and Usage 127 128 radio frequency interference See RFI radio frequency RF modulator Note hyphenation Use RF modulator only after spelling out on first occurrence Don t abbreviate as RFM RAID Acronym for Redundant Array of Independent Disks a storage method in which data is distributed among two or more hard disk drives to improve performance and reliability Storage methods are called evels RAID level 0 RAID level 1 RAID level 0 1 and so on OK to shorte
8. bidirectional adj Use to refer to a script system in which text is generally flush right and most characters are written from right to left but some text is written from left to right as well Arabic and Hebrew are the only bidirectional script systems in widespread use Compare mixed directional bit Don t use when you mean pixel or dot bitmap n v bitmapped adj bitmapping n One word in all forms You can use either bitmap font or bitmapped font but be consistent bit rate Two words bit s Abbreviation for bits per second Spell out on first occurrence bits per second See bit s black and white adj black and white pred adj Note hyphenation You can change a color picture to a black and white picture With iPhoto you can change a picture to black and white For displays monochrome is usually more appropriate because it encompasses amber and black green and black and so on blank character Don t use use space character blinking Use to describe the insertion point Don t use flashing for this purpose blog n v Short for weblog A blog is a webpage that serves as a person s publicly accessible personal journal Blue appearance Note capitalization An appearance available in Mac OS X Bluetooth Note capitalization Don t use Bluetooth as a noun Correct If your computer did not come with an internal Bluetooth module you can have one installed by an Apple Authorized Service Provider Cor
9. eye map imbed Don t use use embed iMovie HD An application for creating movies included in iLife Note capitalization Don t use iMovie when you mean a movie Correct You can open an existing iMovie HD project Incorrect You can open an existing iMovie Important Use an Important notice to alert the reader to significant potential trouble spots that don t cause bodily injury damage or loss of data Those situations require a Warning notice Use Important notices and other notices sparingly they lose effectiveness if they appear too often Avoid using an Important notice immediately before or after a Note or Warning notice or immediately after a text head See also Note Warning Incorporated Inc Spell out or abbreviate according to the particular corporation s preference indeterminate progress bar In developer documentation the progress bar that has a spinning striped cylinder In user documentation use progress indicator and describe what it looks like Developer documentation Use an indeterminate progress bar when the duration of a process can t be determined User documentation A progress indicator a spinning striped cylinder lets you know that a process is taking place Chapter 1 Style and Usage 79 80 index For information about indexing see Chapter 6 How to Develop an Index on page 189 and your department guidelines indexes Not indices unless you mean mathematical indices indic
10. uncheck Don t use use deselect under Don t use to describe an operating system environment Use in or with in Mac OS X not under Mac OS X underlining Don t use See also italics quotation marks unhighlight v Don t use Use deselect for the action of clicking to remove highlighting unhighlighted adj Don t use use not highlighted Compare unselected Unicode A 16 bit character encoding standard developed by the Unicode Consortium used for representing characters as integers Uniform Resource Locator See URL Chapter 1 Style and Usage unit Don t use to refer to a hardware product Use a different noun as appropriate Correct Take apart the computer Incorrect Take apart the unit Universal Access A pane in System Preferences that provides options for those who have difficulty using the computer Note capitalization Universal Disk Format See UDF Universal Serial Bus See USB UNIX All caps there is no spelled out version Mac OS X can be described as a UNIX based operating system don t call it a UNIX operating system It s OK to use UNIX in other contexts that don t imply that Mac OS X is a UNIX operating system UFS is a UNIX file system This model for interrupt handling does not conform to the standard UNIX model Other terms may be appropriate depending on the context Possible alternatives include Darwin With the Terminal application you can enter Darwin system commands and BSD See also
11. words as words Italicize a word when it is used as a word In text that is read only on the screen use quotation marks instead of italics Use an apostrophe and an s to form the plural but don t italicize the apostrophe or the s He had too many and s in the sentence word wrap Not wraparound or word wraparound In documentation written for new users however you may want to mention the term wraparound or include it in your glossary because users may see it elsewhere work Close up the following words beginning with work workflow workforce workgroup workplace workshop workspace workstation workflow A series of actions that together perform a specific task in Automator One word note lowercase workspace Don t use as a synonym for desktop or Finder workstation n adj Don t use when you mean desktop computer OK to use when you discuss network administration Worldwide Developers Conference See WWDC World Wide Web Note capitalization After first occurrence use web Don t abbreviate as WWW See also Internet addresses web wraparound n Don t use use word wrap See also word wrap write Avoid as a verb in user documentation use copy or burn In developer or server documentation the following are acceptable write to a disk write to disk write on a disk Don t use write a disk User documentation Copy the files to your hard disk Developer documentation The application needs to write to the hard disk
12. Incorrect Avoid placing the Base Station near sources of interference AirPort Card AirPort Extreme Card Note capitalization Use lowercase for card if you don t use the full product name alert n adj Refers generically to a signal either visual a dialog or auditory a beep that calls the user s attention to an unusual situation Visual alerts such as the one shown here provide messages about error conditions or warn users about potentially hazardous situations or actions Do you want to save changes to this document zs vA before closing j If you don t save your changes will be lost Don t Save Cancel Save In user documentation you can use alert sound or alert message to describe generic alerts You hear a sound called the alert sound when the computer needs your attention An alert message appears if a problem occurs during the installation In specific situations however avoid the word alert if you can simply describe what the user sees or hears A message appears when the installation is finished A message asks you to insert Install Disc 2 alias Note lowercase Use for with alias not of or to The alias for the selected file is on the desktop You can also use file alias or folder alias In developer documentation the object that the alias represents is called its target In user documentation the object is called the original item Don t use aliased alignment Use instead of just
13. See also GB s gender stereotypes See fair language General Controls panel Classic Note capitalization and spelling Not General control panel or General Controls control panel The homologue in Mac OS X is General preferences See also control panel GHz n adj Abbreviation for gigahertz Spell out on first occurrence e Noun In the noun form use a space between the numeral and the abbreviation at a rate of 3 GHz e Adjective Don t hyphenate the adjective form a 3 GHz processor GIF Acronym for Graphics Interchange Format a bitmapped graphics file format that includes data compression Note capitalization Pronounced with a hard g See also file formats gigabit See Gbit Chapter 1 Style and Usage 69 70 Gigabit Ethernet 1000Base T Note capitalization A standard that allows data transmission rates of up to 1 gigabit per second 1000 megabits per second See also Ethernet Fast Ethernet Fiber Gigabit Ethernet gigabits per second See Gbit s Gbps gigabyte See GB gigabytes per second See GB s GB sec gigaflops One billion floating point operations per second One word note lowercase gigahertz See GHz glossary The writer and editor determine whether a document needs a glossary See Chapter 5 How to Write a Glossary on page 183 for guidelines on preparing a glossary glyph In discussions of font technology use when necessary to refer to the distinct visual representation of a character th
14. let Avoid using et when you can restructure the sentence so that the reader is the subject Acceptable The Sort command lets you sort items in your document Preferable You use the Sort command to sort items in your document Or You sort items in your document with the Sort command See also allow disable disabled enable enabled letters as letters Italicize a letter when it is used as a letter in documents designed to be read only onscreen use quotation marks e Plural Avoid using the plural if you must use an apostrophe and an s to form the plural but don t italicize the apostrophe or the s 05 p s S5 e Fonts When you discuss fonts and character formation using italics for letters as letters may be misleading for example when you discuss a particular character in plain style In such cases use quotation marks The letter a can be converted to a e Key names Don t italicize a letter when you use it as the name of a key Press Command Q level 2 cache level 3 cache Note lowercase Can be abbreviated as L2 cache or L3 cache Don t use secondary cache or second level cache when you mean L2 cache See also backside cache like suffix Close up words ending with like unless the word is a proper name or a compound term or the resulting word is difficult to read businesslike Ethernet like typewriter like limited warranty Note lowercase line Not necessarily the same as statement One line m
15. May be used as an adjective to describe a default setting iPhoto provides several book designs with preset fonts and page layouts In some applications preset may be used as a noun to describe a group of related default settings You can choose a preset in the iTunes equalizer to optimize the sound for a specific kind of music See also default press Use to describe the act of pressing and quickly releasing keys on the keyboard and mechanical buttons and switches Don t use click hit push tap or type Don t use press for onscreen items use click Correct Press the Return key Correct Press the power button Incorrect Press a Dock icon until a menu appears Don t use press when you mean hold down unless the sentence makes it clear that the user needs to press continuously Correct Position the pointer over a Dock icon and then hold down the mouse button until a menu appears Correct Position the pointer over a Dock icon and then press the mouse button until a menu appears Incorrect Position the pointer over a Dock icon and then press the mouse button to see a menu It s not clear that the user needs to keep pressing to see the menu Don t say press and drag simply say drag See also click enter hold down tap type Preview The Mac OS X application used to view PDF files and to preview a document before printing Note capitalization print v Not print out printed circuit board Note hyphenatio
16. PCI X peripheral slot Don t use use expansion slot personal digital assistant See PDA Phase Alternating Line See PAL Phillips screw Phillips screwdriver Note capitalization and spelling Not Phillips head screw or Phillips head screwdriver phone numbers See telephone numbers phone port Don t use use modem port Photo Booth An application for taking still photos with iSight and enhancing them with effects Note capitalization piggyback board Don t use use expansion board Chapter 1 Style and Usage 115 116 pin In user documentation avoid referring to connectors by the number of pins because the actual number of pins may not match the designation Describe the connector by its size and shape its icon or in another way appropriate to the context In developer documentation use a numeral and a hyphen before pin 9 pin 11 pin 25 pin 50 pin Exception to the rule that numbers ten and smaller are spelled out except when used as numerals per se pinout n One word pixel Short for picture element Not synonymous with bit Use dot to describe a single pixel play back v playback n adj Note that the verb is two words player Don t use the with the full name of a product whose name includes Player unless the product name is used as an adjective modifying a noun Correct Use QuickTime Player to view the movie Correct Open the QuickTime Player application Incorrect Open the QuickTime Player play
17. a set of video clips In this context it s OK to use media and multimedia as singular terms Media is played but not stored by the client software Multimedia sent over the Internet is encoded and compressed for transmission Media Browser The window for choosing music movies and photos in iLife iWork and other applications Note capitalization Media Eject key Note capitalization megabit See Mbit megabits per second See Mbit s Mbps megabyte See MB megabytes per second See MB s MB sec megahertz See MHz memory Don t refer to the hard disk as memory it s hard disk space disk space or storage space Related terms include physical memory and virtual memory Types of memory include the following Double Data Rate synchronous dynamic random access memory DDR SDRAM dynamic random access memory dynamic RAM or DRAM flash memory random access memory RAM read only memory ROM static random access memory SRAM synchronous dynamic random access memory SDRAM video random access memory VRAM See also flash memory memory address memory location OK to use just address or location for brevity Don t use commas in addresses even in numbers of five digits or more menu bar Two words Note lowercase menu names Note capitalization Edit menu File menu and so on Chapter 1 Style and Usage menus Anything that can be chosen in a menu is a menu item some menu items are also menu commands o
18. available at web apple com areas trademarkinformation internally www apple com legal trademark appletmlist html externally Third party trademarks Certain third party trademarks also must receive a credit line on the copyright page See the Special and Licensed Trademarks and or Copyrights section of the most recent Apple trademark list which is available internally at the websites shown above See also trademarks general trademarks usage cord Use only to describe a power cord or a phone cord Compare cable Corporation Corp Spell out or abbreviate according to the particular corporation s preference corrupted Avoid if possible Use damaged instead Chapter 1 Style and Usage 41 42 CPU Abbreviation for central processing unit Avoid in user documentation use processor to refer to the chip and use computer or system to refer to the computer itself See also computer processor system CR Abbreviation for carriage return Spell out on first occurrence Use only when you refer specifically to ASCII character 0D or its equivalent Explain the term carriage return if your audience includes first time computer users Use return character when you write about for example searches for return characters Use Return key for the key you press crash Don t use use quits unexpectedly does not respond or stops responding If you must use this word put it in quotation marks and reassure the reader that the term
19. computer is sleeping or the computer is asleep slider The object you drag to set a value on a continuum a range of values The whole control is called the slider control slideshow One word slot A long thin socket on the main logic board where peripheral cards are inserted Don t use connector to refer to a slot Use lowercase for s ot when it is followed by a number that is Arabic s ot 1 slot 2 Compare connector jack port socket slot loading adj Not s ot load See also tray loading Small Computer System Interface See SCSI small outline dual inline memory module See SO DIMM Smart Album Smart Folder Smart Group Smart Mailbox Smart Playlist Smart items are updated automatically based on search criteria the user selects Note capitalization Smart Albums in Aperture Smart Folders in the Finder Smart Groups in Address Book Smart Mailboxes in Mail Smart Playlists in iTunes smart card Note lowercase SMTP Abbreviation for Simple Mail Transfer Protocol Note capitalization of spelled out version spell out on first occurrence SnapBack A Safari feature Note capitalization Use SnapBack as an adjective don t use as a verb Correct SnapBack button SnapBack page SnapBack technology Incorrect You can SnapBack to a previously visited page so called adj Don t italicize or use quotation marks around terms following so called socket Use to refer to a receptacle with holes that receives a plug or oth
20. grounded outlet Not grounding type outlet grow box Don t use use resize control H half duplex adj Note hyphenation half height adj Note hyphenation Not half high halt Refers to what happens when the operation of a program stops Compare exit interrupt quit stop handshake handshaking One word See also XON XOFF hang Don t use as a description of the computer s behavior in response to a system error use a phrase such as not responding Correct If the computer does not respond to input from the keyboard or mouse a system error may have occurred Incorrect If the computer hangs a system error has probably occurred See also freeze happy Macintosh Classic Refers to the startup icon Use quotation marks Not happy Mac hard disk n adj Use hard disk to refer to a disk and its contents or to the icon you see on the desktop or in a Finder window Use hard disk drive or hard drive to refer to the mechanism that holds and accesses the disk Don t use hard drive when you mean hard disk Correct Install the administration software on the server s hard disk Incorrect Install the administration software on the server s hard drive Correct You can install a second hard disk drive in the expansion bay hard drive Use hard drive or hard disk drive to refer to the mechanism that holds and accesses a hard disk HD n adj Abbreviation for high definition Spell out on first occurrence Don t hyphena
21. on page 175 power button The button on the computer marked with the icon Note lowercase See also power switch power cord Not power cable Chapter 1 Style and Usage 119 120 power down n adj power down v OK in developer documentation Don t use in user documentation use switch off turn off or shut down Power Mac A desktop computer for professionals Not PowerMac Use an article with the names Wireless networking is easy with the Power Mac The Power Mac G5 reinvents business computing The previous lines were the Power Mac G4 and Power Macintosh G3 You can use Power Mac to refer to these computers generally To refer to a specific model use the appropriate name Power Mac G4 Power Macintosh G3 Power Macintosh 9600 300 For a list of model names see Chapter 3 Apple Products on page 175 Power Manager The part of the Mac OS that manages the power use of various hardware components such as disk drives displays and fans For the integrated circuit that is part of the power management system use Power Manager IC in generic references Use the name of the IC in a specific computer when appropriate For example in Power Mac G4 computers the Power Manager IC is the PMU99 power off v Don t use especially in user documentation use shut down switch off or turn off power on v Don t use especially in user documentation use switch on or turn on power on light Note hyphenation use low
22. than a few items In such cases the hierarchy can easily become confusing See also lists bulleted lists multicolumn lists numbered lists bulleted Use a bulleted list when you want to stress the parallelism of a number of options elements rules or instructions that need not be presented or performed in a particular order e Introductory punctuation Precede all lists with colons whether the sentence before the colon is a complete thought or a partial thought exception to The Chicago Manual of Style See also colons e Capitalization All list items start with a capital letter unless the word is a product name that begins with a lowercase letter or in developer documentation is a computer literal that begins with a lowercase letter e Punctuation within a list List items that are fragments or that complete the thought started by the main clause have no period list items that are complete sentences have a period e Parallelism Within a single list all bulleted items should be parallel e A regular sentence broken into a list This type of list emphasizes the parts of a series The syntax of the sentence is unbroken Using Sherlock you can e Find movie times and locations e Look for specific text on the web e Check stock prices Chapter1 Style and Usage 91 92 e A simple list The main clause is an independent clause and each bulleted item is a sentence fragment The kernel environment has five major component
23. Cinema Tools 3 0 1 e Earlier or later Use earlier or later rather than lower or higher or newer or older This application requires Mac OS X version 10 4 or later e Abbreviating the word version When you abbreviate a version of Mac OS X use v closed up without a period following Mac OS x Mac OS X version 10 4 v10 4 On subsequent occurrences it s OK to use Mac OS X v0 4 e The letter x Except in developer documentation don t use x to mean any number as in 10 x use a specific number or range of numbers See also Mac OS X versus Not vs Rewrite to avoid using versus when possible via OK to use to mean by means of especially in relatively technical documentation Sometimes over through or by using may be more accurate and more easily understood Queue names shared via LPR or SMB You can use shared printers over the network Printers connected to your network via Ethernet Printers connected to your network using Ethernet video Note the treatment of these terms beginning with video videocassette videoconference videodisc videophone videotape video camera video capture card video editing video game video port Don t use a hyphen in compound adjectives that include video video editing program video cable Don t use to describe a cable connecting a display or monitor to a computer use display cable for Apple displays or monitor cable for non Apple displays OK to use for a cable that connect
24. Computers that use Microsoft Windows can be called Windows based computers Windows computers Windows based PCs or Windows PCs See also PC MIDI Acronym for Musical Instrument Digital Interface Spell out on first occurrence note capitalization of spelled out version million instructions per second See MIPS MIME Acronym for Multipurpose Internet Mail Extension commonly used to distinguish an email format from plain text format It s not necessary to spell out on first occurrence Use as an adjective a MIME file MIME format mini prefix Hyphenate before a word beginning with a vowel or a proper noun close up before a word beginning with a consonant mini application minicircular connector mini DVI mini VGA minitower minicircular connector Use 8 pin minicircular connector on first occurrence except in user documentation thereafter minicircular connector is fine Don t use minicircular 8 connector See also connector mini DIN Don t use See DIN minimize button The middle button of the three window controls at the left of the title bar You click this button to put a window in the Dock minimize the window Chapter 1 Style and Usage minimized OK for describing a window in the Dock Windows in the Dock are minimized See also maximize minus sign Not minus symbol Use an en dash generated by pressing Option hyphen for a minus sign except in code font where a hyphen is used MIPS Acronym for million i
25. Darwin UNIX File System See UFS unmount v Use to refer to making a volume unavailable In Disk Utility select the volume you want to unmount and click Unmount in the toolbar Use this function to unmount one or more server volumes Don t use unmount as an intransitive verb Correct Unmount the volume Incorrect The volume unmounts In documentation for new users enclose in quotation marks on first occurrence and make sure the meaning is clear If you unmount one volume in the Finder you make it and all other volumes on the same disk unavailable See also mount mounted Chapter 1 Style and Usage 155 156 unmounted adj Use to refer to a volume that is not available Disk Utility lists both mounted and unmounted volumes In documentation for new users enclose in quotation marks on first occurrence and make sure the meaning is clear If a volume is unmounted it is unavailable See also mount mounted unselected adj Use to describe something that is not selected Not deselected or dehighlighted Compare deselect unhighlighted Up Arrow key When you refer to more than one of the arrow keys arrow is lowercase as in the arrow keys upgradable Not upgradeable upload One word Reword if possible but OK to use when you refer to copying files to a server uppercase n adj One word no hyphen When used in conjunction with lowercase as a noun or to modify a noun use uppercase
26. This Guide Standard Editorial Resources Conventions Used in This Guide Style and Usage Units of Measure Prefixes for Units of Measure Names and Unit Symbols for Units of Measure Apple Products Desktop Computers Portable Computers Servers Displays Keyboards and Mouse Devices Storage Devices Software and Technologies Audio Music and Video Products Wireless Networking Products Technical Notation General Considerations Code Syntax Descriptions Code Font in Text Metasymbols in Text How to Write a Glossary Audience Considerations Content Guidelines Matters of Form Assembling the Glossary Chapter 6 Chapter 7 189 189 189 189 190 190 190 191 191 191 193 193 193 194 194 195 196 196 How to Develop an Index Choosing the Number of Levels Main Entries Subentries Wording Commands Cross References Order of Entries Style of Entries Checking the Spelling International Style Basic Rules Currency Dates and Times Decimals Languages Telephone Numbers Units of Measure Contents About This Guide Preface The Apple Publications Style Guide provides editorial guidelines for text in Apple instructional publications technical documentation reference information training programs and the software user interface Writers editors and developers can use this document as a guide to writing style usage and Apple product terminology Writers and editors should thoroughly revi
27. Use in Mac OS X to describe the primary account or accounts that can create other accounts set access privileges install software and make systemwide settings Use lowercase for admin except when you refer to a specific label in the user interface For clarity use the full form in phrases like administrator account and administrator password but avoid administrator user in favor of the less awkward but more casual admin user Correct Log in as an admin user to install software Correct Log in with an administrator account to install software Incorrect Log in with an administrator s account to install software An administrator computer is a computer with Mac OS X or Mac OS X Server that you use to manage remote servers See also administrator standard user System Administrator AFP Abbreviation for Apple Filing Protocol Note capitalization spell out on first occurrence afterward Not afterwards Chapter 1 Style and Usage AGP Abbreviation for Accelerated Graphics Port An industry standard graphics technology Computers have AGP 2X AGP 4X AGP 8X or AGP 8X Pro support Don t use variations such as AGP 4x 4X AGP or 4x AGP AirPort Base Station AirPort Express Base Station AirPort Extreme Base Station Note capitalization Use lowercase for base station if you don t use the full product name Correct The AirPort Extreme Base Station is an Apple product Correct Avoid placing the base station near sources of interference
28. Users pane of Accounts preferences See also end user end user user group Not users group or user s group user name Two words Note the treatment of these similar terms device name filename host name pathname volume name user s guide user s manual The terms user manual instructor guide and student guide are alternate forms used by some Apple groups consult your department s style guidelines See also manual V V 90 V 92 Note capitalization International Telecommunications Union ITU modem serial protocols Don t use V 90 or V 92 when you mean 56K modem unless you re referring specifically to the V 90 or V 92 protocol See also 56K modem value slider A special type of slider used in some applications that includes the numerical value of the parameter in the control Dragging the middle area where the number is works the same as an ordinary slider dragging to the right increases the value and dragging to the left decreases the value 4 100 Velocity Engine Note capitalization Chapter 1 Style and Usage 157 158 version Use lowercase for version when you refer to versions of software as in iPhoto version 4 For applications it s OK to leave out version Use Keynote 2 to create your slideshow e Version numbers for software To include the version number use the form ApplicationName 3 not 3 0 unless a more specific reference is required such as ApplicationName 3 0 1 Cinema Tools 3
29. a leader line connects the callout to what it identifies within the figure e Simplicity Use callouts freely when they are really necessary but keep in mind that too many callouts can be distracting to the reader Keep callouts brief both for clarity and for an uncluttered look e Capitalization and punctuation Use sentence style capitalization Use a period for a complete sentence and no ending punctuation for a sentence fragment It s OK to have a mixture of complete sentences and phrases in one illustration can may Use can to express the capacity to do something use may to express permission You can log in to your account from another computer You may borrow my iPod if you return it tomorrow Cancel button In a dialog the button the user clicks when he or she doesn t want to proceed with a particular action Note capitalization canceled canceling Not cancelled cancelling capability If possible avoid capability when you discuss features of software or hardware Reword in terms of what the user can do with the feature Correct With iPhoto you can create slideshows Incorrect iPhoto has the capability to create slideshows capitalization Three styles of capitalization are available all caps title style and sentence style e All caps THIS LINE PROVIDES AN EXAMPLE OF ALL CAPS Don t use all caps for emphasis e Title style capitalization This Line Provides an Example of Title Style Capitalization e Sentence sty
30. and lowercase both words spelled out in that order upside down adj Note hyphenation upward Not upwards URL Abbreviation for Uniform Resource Locator which is another term for an Internet address URL is pronounced you are ell and should be preceded by a not an In most user documentation use Internet address or address not URL If you use URL spell it out on first use An Internet address is sometimes called a URL short for Uniform Resource Locator See also Internet addresses U S Note periods Exception to the rule that abbreviations don t include periods Use the abbreviation as an adjective only as a noun spell out United States except in trademark notices See also America American USB Abbreviation for Universal Serial Bus Spell out on first occurrence Avoid as a noun Usenet Note capitalization Chapter 1 Style and Usage user If the audience of your document consists of users avoid this term Instead address the reader as you Correct You can burn your own music CDs Incorrect Users can make movies with effects transitions and a soundtrack When the audience consists of developers or administrators use user to refer to end users and you to address the developer or administrator You may need to prevent users from accidentally making changes You can give users access to the server User is also appropriate in the context of Mac OS X users for example when you discuss the
31. by clicking it User try screen You try it Click the icon paste Don t capitalize unless you re referring to the Paste command by name You paste something using the Paste command you don t Paste it pasteboard Don t use in user documentation when you mean Clipboard OK to use in developer documentation that discusses the NSPasteboard class but point out that users view the contents of the pasteboard in the Clipboard pathname One word Note the differing treatments of these similar terms device name filename host name user name volume name Chapter 1 Style and Usage 113 114 pathnames Use slashes to specify a path to a location in the file system e Absolute path In UNIX and Mac OS X a leading slash indicates an absolute path starting at the root folder Open the Grab application located in Applications Utilities Your files are saved in Users username Documents Relative path With no leading slash the path is a relative path that is relative to some location other than the root folder typically the user s home folder Make sure the file is in Library Application Support Terminating slash You can use or choose not to use a terminating slash to indicate that the final element of the path is a folder rather than a file but be consistent within a document Open the Grab application located in Applications Utilities Home folder To specify a pathname that includes the user s home folder you c
32. candidates for division into parts are documents that describe two or more separate products or two or more mutually exclusive programs on the same disk or documents so long that division into parts is necessary to make the organization clearer to the reader e Part titles Documents are divided into parts when each part deals with a distinct topic Part titles indicate that difference in subject matter e Part numbers Roman numerals are usually used for part numbers but your department s design style may specify Arabic numerals e Chapter numbering In a document with parts chapter numbering continues uninterrupted from part to part e Cross references In references to specific parts of a document italicize the document title but not the word Part the part number or the part title Enclose the part title in quotation marks For more information see the Final Cut Pro 5 User Manual Volume Ill Part Audio Mixing See also volume document passive voice Avoid when possible and use active voice Passive voice is sometimes appropriate and necessary when using the active voice would require highly convoluted sentence structure or excessive anthropomorphism for example but rewrite to avoid passive voice if you can In tutorials a passive construction might be appropriate to avoid miscuing the reader that is when you describe an action that the user is not supposed to try yet Explanation screen An icon is selected
33. crash does not imply damage to hardware or software creator types Use code font for creator type names which must consist of exactly four characters one of which may be a space inside straight single code font quotation marks ttxt MPS crosshair One word Refers to this pointer cross references Follow these guidelines for cross references e To chapter titles Use title style capitalization and enclose the title but not the word Chapter or the chapter number in quotation marks See Chapter 2 The Cinema Tools Interface Some departments may include page numbers in cross references to chapter titles consult your department s style guidelines See Chapter 3 Setting Up Your Computer on page 24 Apple Product Documentation and User Publications use this style See Kernel Architecture page 40 Technical Publications uses this style e To document titles Use title style capitalization and italics don t use quotation marks Don t capitalize or italicize phrases like user s guide unless they are part of the title as it appears on the cover of the document Don t include trademark symbols See Getting Started with Your PowerBook See your PowerBook user s guide When you refer to a volume number don t italicize the word Volume or the volume subtitle if there is one See the Final Cut Pro 5 User Manual Volume IlI Editing for more information Chapter 1 Style and Usage e To sectio
34. e Trademark status On the copyright page distinguish between registered and unregistered trademarks and service marks Final Cut Pro is a trademark of Apple Computer Inc registered in the U S and other countries Registered AppleCare is a service mark of Apple Computer Inc registered in the U S and other countries Registered Finder is a trademark of Apple Computer Inc Unregistered AppleWorld is a service mark of Apple Computer Inc Unregistered e Adjectives Trademarks are correctly used as adjectives modifying nouns Don t use a trademark as a noun on first use in text Thereafter you can occasionally use the noun form but use the adjective form frequently throughout the text Correct first mention Congratulations on the purchase of your new iMac computer Incorrect first mention Congratulations on the purchase of your new iMac Acceptable later reference Use both hands to lift your iMac e Plural form Don t use a trademarked name in the plural form Correct If you have more than one Macintosh computer Incorrect If you have several Macintoshes 152 Chapter 1 Style and Usage e Possessive form Don t use a trademarked name in the possessive form Correct Learn more about iBook features Incorrect Learn more about iBook s features e Third party trademarks For third party trademarks follow the usage guidelines posted by the third party company Transmission Control Protocol Interne
35. enabled and disabled when you describe buttons menu items and the like See also allow enable enabled let disc Use disc when you refer to a compact disc videodisc optical disc or other laser technology disc For magnetic media use disk In ongoing references to compact discs disc is preferable to CD or CD ROM See also CD DVD disclosure triangle A button that reveals or hides options when clicked not the detail button Chapter 1 Style and Usage 49 50 disc titles Use title style capitalization and italics for the full title of a disc The word CD or DVD may not be part of the title Follow the usage on the official label The is usually not part of the title Mac OS X Install Disc 1 Disc is part of the title Insert the Final Cut Pro 5 DVD into your computer s DVD drive DVD and the are not part of the title Use lowercase when you refer to a disc by less than its full title and for discs with generic titles Insert the system software disc into the CD ROM drive Install the software from the installation disc disk Use disk if the medium is magnetic Use disc when you refer to a compact disc videodisc optical disc or other laser technology disc Don t use drive or hard drive a mechanism that holds and accesses a disk when you mean disk Correct The files are stored on the disk Incorrect The files are stored on the drive e Disk versus volume In user documentation use disk instead of volume to r
36. general term DVD depending on the context Don t use DVD R DVD RW or any of the other DVD terms as a noun the term must modify another word such as drive or disc For the plural don t use DVD Rs DVD RWs and so on instead use DVD R discs DVD RW discs and so on or simply DVDs Use disc not disk to refer to DVD media DVD ROM drive Not DVD player in reference to a device that s built into or connected to the computer and reads DVD discs DVD player is OK when you refer to a device connected to a television DVD Studio Pro A professional level DVD authoring application Note capitalization DVI Abbreviation for Digital Visual Interface not Digital Video Interface Note capitalization of spelled out version DVR Abbreviation for digital video recorder Note lowercase dynamic random access memory See DRAM Chapter 1 Style and Usage 55 56 E e Short for electronic Hyphenate terms using the short form e commerce e learning An exception is email Capitalize in titles as follows The Growth of E Commerce earlier later Use to refer to versions of software don t use lower and higher or newer and older Whenever possible avoid using earlier and later to refer to other parts of a document Use specific cross references when you can Sometimes a general reference to another topic is appropriate In such cases it s OK to use earlier and later Earlier in the tutorial you learned to change fill color An explana
37. in text designed to be read only onscreen onsite adj adv One word Exception to American Heritage onto on to Use on to when on is part of the verb Correct Lift the printer onto the table Incorrect Lift the printer on to the desk Correct Hang on to the handles See also into in to open Users open icons folders documents and applications See also close opening display Not splash screen opening display startup display and startup screen are all OK open source n adj Note lowercase no hyphen Open Transport Note capitalization operating system n operating system adj Note hyphenation of adjective See also Mac OS Option key Note capitalization Use the following form to indicate a combined Option key and mouse action Option click Option drag Option click is equivalent to press the Option key and click See also Alt key Chapter 1 Style and Usage 111 112 option names For options and other onscreen elements of two or more words whose names are capitalized using sentence style use quotation marks in text to avoid misreading Select the checkbox labeled Keep lines together original Macintosh character set Note lowercase Not traditional character set or Apple character set Current Macintosh models use the Standard Roman character set outline font Not outlined font output n adj Avoid as a verb use write to display on print on or print to outside Not outside of o
38. install disc Installer installer Capitalize when you refer to a specific program but not when you refer to installers in general The iWork Installer application asks you to specify where to install the software You can install some applications by dragging them to your Applications folder other applications require an installer instant message instant messaging See IM Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers See IEEE insure See ensure insure integrated circuit See IC interapplication communication See IAC interface card Refers to a type of peripheral card that implements an interface to other devices Integrated Services Digital Network See ISDN internal disk drive Use either internal disk drive or built in disk drive internet Short for internetwork refers to any large network made up of a number of smaller networks Compare Internet intranet Internet Refers to the worldwide network made up of interconnected networks that use the TCP IP networking protocol When used as a noun always preceded by the Don t use Internet and World Wide Web or web interchangeably the web is just one part of the Internet Compare internet intranet Chapter1 Style and Usage 81 82 Internet addresses An Internet address can specify an address on the World Wide Web WWW or on other Internet sites such as File Transfer Protocol FTP and Telnet sites The part of the address before the colon called the scheme indicate
39. is reasonable in choosing a unit symbol The Apple Keyboard has a 1 m cable The iBook computer weighs 3 kg Warning The Xserve RAID weighs 27 kg 60 Ib Use care when lifting it The iBook computer has a 1 2 gigahertz or 1 33 gigahertz processor The iMac G5 computer has a 1 8 GHz or 2 GHz processor Chapter 7 International Style
40. numbers in their smallest form to make them easier to read A kilobyte is 1024 bytes Apple sold 300 000 iMac computers in the first quarter Apple sold 3 7 million iMac computers in 2 years Languages Language names are represented by a two character code e International Authority International Organization for Standardization ISO e Standard ISO 639 1 e Usage Languages are represented by a two character code in a table column or row that clearly indicates that the code represents a language de German en English es Spanish fr French it Italian ja Japanese nl Dutch mul Multiple languages In some cases you may need to append an extension to the code to represent a particular Apple localization en na North American English en z International English zh s Simplified Chinese zh t Traditional Chinese Chapter 7 International Style 195 196 Telephone Numbers Telephone numbers begin with the plus sign and are followed by a space the country code city code and number Freephone toll free numbers are expressed in the local style Always give a toll number if one is available e International Authority International Telecommunications Union ITU e Standard ITU T E 123 1988 e Rationale The plus sign represents any number or numbers a caller must dial to get a line like 9 The caller then dials the remaining digits Freephone numbers are usually impossible to di
41. of text graphics and other elements such as footers on a page format v When you refer to disks format and initialize mean the same thing form feed n form feed adj Note hyphenation of adjective Fortran Note capitalization forward compatibility Not future compatibility or upward compatibility forward compatible adj Note hyphenation Forward Delete key See Fwd Del key fps Abbreviation for frames per second Note lowercase spell out on first occurrence Include a space between the number and fps 24 fps fractions In user documentation spell out fractions whose denominator is 10 or lower in running text except in specification lists technical appendixes or tables For spelled out forms hyphenate the fractions one tenth one fifth three fourths This application uses one fifth of available memory The other application uses only 1 20 of available memory When you express a noninteger greater than 1 in fractional form use a mixed numeral rather than an improper fraction Correct 1 1 6 Incorrect 7 6 Chapter 1 Style and Usage frames per second See fps free Don t use to refer to available random access memory RAM or storage space use available freeze Use to refer to the behavior of a pointer on the screen Avoid using freeze as a noun or to refer to something the computer does Instead use a phrase such as not responding Correct If the pointer freezes on the screen or the computer stops
42. of users e Checkboxes See checkbox e Item names Although it s usually clearest to include both the name of the interface item and what type of item it is such as a checkbox or radio button you can also refer to the item as an option or give only the name of the item to save space Select the option Show displays in menu bar Select Left Bottom or Right to position the Dock on your screen e Menu items Use choose for menu items including those in pop up and shortcut menus See also choose click menus Compare deselect highlight unselected selection rectangle The rectangular outline that appears when you drag across items on the screen to select them Often you can simply say drag to select Drag a selection rectangle around the clips you want to edit into your sequence Drag to select the clips you want to edit into your sequence self powered See bus powered self powered self test n adj Note hyphenation Don t use as a verb sentence style capitalization Capitalize only the first letter of the first word proper nouns and proper adjectives See also capitalization sentence style Compare capitalization title style server A computer or device or the software on it that is on a network and manages the network s resources Types of servers include the following application server database server file server HTTP server mail server network server print server streaming server web server Cha
43. own and use it consistently Develop a method of spacing around punctuation and use it consistently It s often best to use standard spacing one space between a punctuation mark and the next character e Where not to use In user documentation don t use code font for the following e Part or chapter titles e Text headings e Cross references to parts chapters or sections e Entries in the table of contents e Internet or web addresses e Figure captions or callouts e Names of files folders or directories e System or alert messages If you quote a system or alert message exactly as it appears on the screen use body font in quotation marks If you paraphrase a message use body font without quotation marks If your source clip is not as long as the duration between the sequence In and Out points you ll see an Insufficient content for edit message When a message appears asking if you want to clear the keyboard layout click Yes See also Chapter 4 Technical Notation on page 181 code names Use exactly the same form for a product s code name throughout a document If the name is sometimes misspelled or otherwise treated inconsistently a global search and replace operation is not possible In final documentation don t refer to a product by its code name unless marketing specifically decides to associate the code name with the product cold start n v cold start adj Not coldstart Chapter 1 Style and U
44. responding to the mouse or keyboard follow these instructions Incorrect If the computer freezes follow these instructions Incorrect If you experience a freeze follow these instructions frequently asked questions See FAQ front frontmost The active window is the front or frontmost window See also active in front Front Row The full screen interface for playing music photo slideshows videos and DVDs Note capitalization FTP Abbreviation for File Transfer Protocol Note capitalization of spelled out version Avoid as a verb use transfer files instead The UNIX command ftp is all lowercase In the term anonymous FTP the a is lowercase Correct You use FTP software to transfer files from a remote computer to your hard disk Correct You use the tp command to transfer files from a remote computer to your hard disk Incorrect You can FTP files from a remote computer to your hard disk full duplex adj Note hyphenation full height adj Note hyphenation Not full high functionality Avoid Use function feature or another appropriate term such as behavior performance speed capacity reliability Function key See Fn key function keys The keys on a keyboard labeled F1 F2 F3 and so on Note that function is lowercase Chapter 1 Style and Usage 67 68 future tense Whenever possible use present not future tense Don t switch unnecessarily from present to future tense when present tense is sufficient
45. saved Kinds of registers and bits are different categories e Ranges of numbers Use an en dash between numbers that represent the endpoints of a continuous range bits 3 17 Use the full span for continuing numbers Correct 2005 2006 Incorrect 2005 06 Chapter 1 Style and Usage Units of measure Use numerals for units of measure inches feet seconds no matter how small the number is For a list of units of measure see Chapter 2 Units of Measure on page 167 Connectors Don t spell out the numerals preceding connectors 8 pin minicircular connector 9 pin connector e Starting a sentence Rephrase to avoid starting a sentence with a number If you must start a sentence with a number spell out the number e Approximation Always spell out numbers to express an approximation e Larger smaller When you refer to the size of numbers use larger and smaller not higher and lower e Software version numbers When you refer to software version numbers use later and earlier For example refer to Mac OS X version 10 4 or later See also version e Commas in numbers Use a comma to set off numbers of five digits or more Express the number in its smallest form If your editor has asked you to follow international style see Decimals in Chapter 7 International Style on page 193 1024 65 536 3 7 million Don t use a comma in memory addresses or numbers representing microprocessors SFFFF FFFF 680
46. style means that you write simply and that you express yourself using standard international conventions These are the rules e Write in simple structures Don t use idiomatic or colloquial expressions Avoid shortcuts symbols and abbreviations that could easily be spelled out Express data using the standard international conventions outlined in this appendix You should vary from these standards only when there is a truly compelling advantage in using a proprietary or customary style Currency Currency amounts are expressed with the appropriate International Organization for Standardization ISO currency code International Authority International Organization for Standardization ISO Standard ISO 4217 1990 Rationale Currency codes are specific to a currency and cannot be confused or misinterpreted by the reader Currency symbols such as the dollar sign are not unique and are easily misread Usage Write the amount followed by a space and the currency code in capitals The computer is priced at 1199 USD The computer costs 1980 EUR 193 194 Currency Code Canadian dollar CAD euro EUR pound sterling GBP yen JPY U S dollar USD Dates and Times Dates are expressed as year month day and are separated by a hyphen Times are expressed on a 24 hour clock International Authority International Organization for Standardization ISO Standard ISO 8601 1988 Rationale Date and time formats a
47. the appendix for specifications References to untitled sections In cross references to sections that never take a title glossary index table of contents and so on don t capitalize the name of the section e What to capitalize Follow these rules when you use title style capitalization Capitalize every word except e Articles a an the e Coordinating conjunctions and but or nor for yet and so e The word to in infinitives How to Start Your Printer e The word as regardless of the part of speech e Prepositions of four letters or fewer at by for from in into of off on onto out over to up and with except when the word is part of a verb phrase or is used as another part of speech such as an adverb adjective noun or verb Starting Up the Computer Logging In to the Server Getting Started with Your PowerBook Chapter 1 Style and Usage 29 30 Capitalize e The first and last word regardless of the part of speech For New Mac OS X Users What the Finder Is For e The second word in a hyphenated compound Correct High Level Events 32 Bit Addressing Incorrect High level Events 32 bit Addressing Exceptions Built in Plug in e The words Are If Is It Than That and This Caps Lock key Not Shift Lock Note capitalization Carbon application An application written and compiled using the Carbon specification Universal Interfaces 3 3 2 or later Don t use Carbonized instead use something like a
48. time users it s helpful to show the connection between the ordinary meaning of the word and its new technical meaning For example here s a definition for open open To make available You open files or documents so that you can work with them You can t read a file or make changes to it until the file is open In the desktop interface opening a document causes a window with the contents of that document to come into view You can then perform further actions in the window when it s active The initial definition of open to make available is one of the meanings given the verb in The American Heritage Dictionary It provides the reader with a conceptual link Chapter 5 How to Write a Glossary Matters of Form These guidelines describe how to format and structure glossary entries Design The appearance of glossary entries depends on the document design See your department s design documentation for specs and sample pages Format of an Entry The term to be defined is usually in boldface Don t capitalize the term unless it is a proper noun such as Finder The definition in plain text starts with a capital letter and ends with a period The first clause of the definition can be a sentence fragment Other parallel phrases in the definition may also be sentence fragments otherwise use complete sentences Alphabetization Alphabetize entries letter by letter up to a punctuation mark spaces don t count For example g
49. to express a sequence of steps or events e Conditional constructions Use present tense for conditional constructions such as the following Correct If the nowait parameter is true play from the disk stops immediately and program control returns to the caller Incorrect If the nowait parameter is true play from the disk will stop immediately and program control will return to the caller e Future events Future tense is sometimes appropriate for example when a product described is not yet available The configuration of the slot connector will change whenever a newer more powerful microprocessor is used in the Macintosh family Interapplication communication will play an increasingly important role in system software Fwd Del key Abbreviation for Forward Delete A key on the Apple Keyboard that deletes the character to the right of the insertion point The key is labeled del and it also has a right pointing arrow outline with an x in it Spell out on first occurrence Keyboards on portable Macintosh computers don t have this key On Windows keyboards the equivalent key is the Delete key and the key that is equivalent to the Macintosh Delete key is the Backspace key Compare Delete key G G3 G4 G5 These terms can be used to refer to the PowerPC G3 G4 or G5 processor respectively or to computers containing the PowerPC G3 G4 or G5 processor The full name is preferred but it s OK to use terms such as G5 processor G5
50. to pressing keys on the keyboard Compare press type v Enter key Note capitalization Chapter 1 Style and Usage Enterprise Objects enterprise objects Capitalize when you refer to the technology use lowercase when you refer to objects entitled Don t use use titled named or called EOF Abbreviation for end of file Note hyphenation of spelled out version Spell out on first occurrence equal sign Not equals sign equals sign or equal symbol Escape key See Esc key Esc key Include the word Escape in parentheses on first occurrence First occurrence Press the Esc Escape key Thereafter Press Esc When you describe escape sequences don t use a hyphen between names of keys because the user presses and releases the keys separately Esc 4 Esc F et al Don t use except where called for in a bibliography use and others See also abbreviations and acronyms etc Don t use use and so forth or and so on See also abbreviations and acronyms Ethernet One word Note capitalization Refers to one type of cable system used to link computers and peripheral devices OK to use Ethernet network or simply Ethernet depending on the context See also AppleTalk Fast Ethernet Gigabit Ethernet exit You exit from leave or quit a program You never exit a program Compare halt interrupt quit stop expansion bay The space inside a computer where hardware modules such as optical drives can be inserted and removed OK
51. to use drive bay if the bay in question takes only storage devices expansion board Not daughter board or piggyback board expansion slot Not peripheral slot or accessory slot You can also use s ot without the qualifier expansion Use lowercase even in specific references slot 1 slot 6 Chapter1 Style and Usage 59 60 Expos The Mac OS X feature that arranges windows on the desktop so that all the windows are visible at once Note accent and capitalization Extended Binary Coded Decimal Interchange Code See EBCDIC Extensions Manager Classic Note capitalization Not Extension Manager external display Use only to refer to displays connected to portable computers or to computers with a built in display For modular computers or unknown configurations use additional display You can also use external monitor See also display monitor F F1 F2 F3 Function keys on a keyboard Capitalize the F and use plain not italic style and Arabic numerals No space between letter and numeral face Don t use use font or font family whichever is appropriate fair language Avoid cultural biases and stereotypes which may offend some users of Apple products Be aware of the variety of people who are potential Apple customers and write consciously to include them e Names In examples include a variety of ethnicities and use both female and male given names Given name examples Anton Avram Gabrielle Jim Luisa Mei Sanjiv
52. unless the unit appears at the end of a sentence e Mixing names and symbols Don t mix unit names and symbols kilogram mz2 or unit symbols and abbreviations J sec Don t mix a prefix name with a unit symbol kiloHz or a prefix symbol with a unit name khertz Prefixes for Units of Measure Factor Prefix Symbol or abbreviation 1024 yotta 1021 zetta Z 1018 exa E 1015 peta P 1012 tera T 109 giga G 106 mega M 103 kilo k 102 hecto h 101 deka da 10 1 deci d 10 2 centi c 10 3 milli m 10 6 micro H 10 9 nano n 10 12 pico p 10 15 femto f 10 18 atto a 10 21 zepto Z 10 24 yocto y Chapter 2 Units of Measure Names and Unit Symbols for Units of Measure In the following table when a unit symbol includes a nonalphanumeric character the keystrokes that generate the character are included in brackets after the unit symbol or abbreviation Unit symbol or abbreviation Quantity ampere A electric current ampere hour Ah rate of delivery of electricity ampere second See coulomb amperes per meter A m magnetic field strength amperes per square meter A m2 current density amperes per volt See siemens angstrom 10 10 meters A Option Shift A optical wavelength attoampere 10 18 amperes aA electric current baud signal events per second Bd speed of data transmission bel 10 decibels B
53. verb except in reference to what the system does when it displays an actual prompt character on the screen The prompt reminds you to do something The system then prompts you for information with a prompt character The prompt character is sometimes a bracket pronunciation If the pronunciation of an acronym is not self evident provide a pronunciation key Use all caps for the stressed syllable use a hyphen between syllables Enclose the phonetic spelling in quotation marks WYSIWYG pronounced WIZ zee wig This style guide provides pronunciation keys for many acronyms Don t invent your own pronunciation key unless this guide doesn t show the pronunciation Consult your editor propeller Use Command key not propeller key to refer to the key with the 3 symbol Chapter 1 Style and Usage protocol When the word is part of the name of a protocol capitalize Protocol Name Binding Protocol NBP File Transfer Protocol FTP When you use protocol as a generic term use lowercase standard Internet protocols e Third party products When you refer to protocol names in third party products capitalize according to the third party company s style e Articles Use an article before the spelled out name of the protocol Don t use an article before the abbreviation when it stands alone The Name Binding Protocol resides at the transport layer of the reference model A protocol like NBP resides at the transport layer of the r
54. with the number 160 viewing angle 32 F dehighlight dehighlighted Don t use Use deselect as a verb when appropriate otherwise reword Use not highlighted as the adjective DEL character Not DELETE character or rubout character Refers specifically to ASCII character 7F Delete key Not DEL key deploy OK to use in server and developer documentation to refer to placing configured computer systems services or software in a specific environment or making these items available for use in that environment In large organizations collaboration services are usually deployed at both corporate and workgroup levels depress Don t use use press deselect OK to use when you mean cancel a selection Not uncheck unselect unhighlight or dehighlight Compare unselected desired Try to avoid Correct make your changes select the folder Incorrect make the desired changes select the desired folder Chapter 1 Style and Usage desk accessory Classic Don t use to refer to small application programs in the Apple menu such as the Scrapbook Correct the Alarm Clock the Calculator the Scrapbook Incorrect the Calculator desk accessory desktop n adj One word note lowercase Refers to the background area of the screen Compare Finder desktop computer Don t use desktop as a noun to refer to the computer use desktop computer desktop system or just computer or system See also computer system Desktop file C
55. your department s guidelines for instructions on handling en dashes in HTML See also hyphenation data Singular or plural depending on the context When used as a collective noun data takes a singular verb When the meaning is not collective use a plural verb In user documentation avoid in favor of information if information makes sense in the context Collective and thus singular Data is processed by the CPU Not collective and thus plural Selected data are transferred immediately database n adj One word As a noun database refers to the body of data manipulated by a database program data file Two words data terminal ready signal See DTR Date amp Time The name of a System Preferences pane Note the ampersand and capitalization dates Follow these guidelines for dates unless your department uses international style see Chapter 7 International Style on page 193 for those guidelines Commas Use a comma between the day of the month and the year May 21 2006 When you use the full date follow the year with a comma on May 21 2006 at 10 00 a m If you give only the month and year don t use commas in January 2006 at Macworld Cardinal and ordinal numbers Use cardinal numbers 1 2 3 in dates that include the month Use ordinal numbers 7st 2nd 3rd in dates without the month For ordinal numbers use full size letters 7st not superscript 754 The conference was held on August 12
56. 20 microprocessor e Plural Form the plural of a number by adding an s 1s and 5s the 90s e Code values in text Use numerals for numeric values in text except for zero in the same sentence as nonzero ord blue returns 0 The function fseek returns nonzero for improper seeks otherwise it returns zero e Large numbers For very large numbers that are a power of 2 you can use the exponential form to avoid a long string of digits for example 232 Numbers larger than 65 536 216 are good candidates for showing in exponential form If there are numbers larger and smaller than 65 536 in the same discussion show the smaller numbers both ways x must be between 1024 210 and 232 See also fractions Chapter 1 Style and Usage 109 110 number sign Use to describe this character Don t use pound sign or number symbol Avoid using the number sign to specify an item in a numbered series You can frequently omit number or the number sign from a sentence and still make the meaning clear See document 58677 for more information Use part 661 2262 to repair the computer numeric adj Not numerical except when you refer specifically to numerical order Exception to American Heritage See also numerics numeric keypad Can be shortened to keypad Don t use numerical keypad or numeric keyboard numerics n adj As a noun numerics takes a singular verb Use numerics not numeric as an adjective in relation to the scien
57. Apple Publications Style Guide Apple Computer Inc 2006 Apple Computer Inc All rights reserved No part of this publication may be reproduced stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form or by any means mechanical electronic photocopying recording or otherwise without prior written permission of Apple Computer Inc with the following exceptions Any person is hereby authorized to store documentation on a single computer for personal use only and to print copies of documentation for personal use provided that the documentation contains the Apple copyright notice The Apple logo is a trademark of Apple Computer Inc registered in the U S and other countries Use of the keyboard Apple logo Option Shift K for commercial purposes without the prior written consent of Apple may constitute trademark infringement and unfair competition in violation of federal and state laws Apple 1 Infinite Loop Cupertino California 95014 USA 408 996 1010 www apple com Apple the Apple logo AirPort Apple Cinema Display AppleDesign AppleScript AppleShare AppleSoft Apple Studio Display AppleTalk AppleWorks Aqua Carbon Chicago Cocoa ColorSync DVD Studio Pro Final Cut Final Cut Pro FireWire iBook iCal iDVD iLife iMac iMovie iPhoto iPod iTunes Keychain Logic Mac Macintosh Mac OS Panther PlainTalk PowerBook Power Mac Power Macintosh Quartz QuickDraw QuickTime Shake Sherlock So
58. B See Universal Serial Bus If connectors has subentries expansion connectors See connectors If the topic has no subentries put the page numbers in both places don t use a see cross reference Universal Serial Bus USB 26 111 USB Universal Serial Bus 26 111 You can put the full entry in both places even when there are subentries but you must set a consistent cutoff point for using cross references instead of the full entry when the entry is more than five lines for example If an index entry is a term not used in the document always use a see cross reference to refer to the term that is in the document whether or not the entry has subentries booting See starting up Chapter 6 How to Develop an Index Order of Entries Alphabetizing Alphabetize letter by letter not word by word Numerals When an entry begins with a numeral alphabetize it as if the number were spelled out When entries that contain numbers are grouped together put the entries in numerical order within that group For example G4 before G5 6502 before 65876 Nonalphabetic characters Indexes may begin with a section of nonalphabetic entries The section could include symbols numbers Greek letters and so forth Most entries in this section should also appear subsequently alphabetized as if they were spelled out Headings Separate entries with alphabetic headings A B and so on A letter for which there are no entries should be listed after th
59. CDs Use disc not disk to refer to CD media See also disc CD ROM drive Not CD ROM player When you include the drive speed hyphenate the adjective form 24x speed CD ROM drive Don t leave out the x cell phone cellular phone Don t use use mobile phone central memory Don t use use main memory central processing unit See CPU CGI Abbreviation for Common Gateway Interface Note capitalization spell out on first occurrence Use CGI scripts as the plural form on first occurrence Thereafter it s OK to use CGls chain OK to use when you mean a series of USB devices connected together See also daisy chain chapter Capitalize the word chapter in references to specific chapters exception to The Chicago Manual of Style Chapter 5 Expanding Your Computer Chapters 4 and 5 in the next chapter Use title style capitalization for chapter titles For guidelines see capitalization title style character Use in reference to what a key on the computer s keyboard stands for Compare symbol check Don t use when you mean the action of clicking a checkbox to select an option See also checkbox Chapter1 Style and Usage 31 32 checkbox Refers to an onscreen box like the ones shown here One word Not box or ballot box Checkbox 1 C Checkbox 2 You click a checkbox to select or deselect an option you can use the complete phrase click to select or just select You don t check or uncheck a checkbox If the it
60. DVD authoring application included in iLife Note capitalization iDVD is used to create DVDs not iDVDs i e Don t use use that is See also abbreviations and acronyms IEEE Abbreviation for Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Spell out on first occurrence if necessary Avoid in user documentation Describe the circumstance in which the action would be necessary Correct If file sharing is not on turn it on Incorrect If necessary turn on file sharing Correct If the file size is larger than the maximum your mail program allows compress the file Incorrect If necessary compress the file Chapter 1 Style and Usage iLife A suite of digital media applications iPhoto iMovie HD iDVD GarageBand and iTunes installed on Macintosh computers and available in a retail package Note capitalization i LINK Don t use use FireWire i LINK is the Sony version of the technology IM Abbreviation for instant message n v or instant messaging n adj Spell out on first occurrence No hyphen in the spelled out versions iMac An all in one desktop computer for consumers and education The names can be used with or without an article The iMac G5 reinvents desktop computing iMac makes it easy to set up wireless networking For a list of model names see Chapter 3 Apple Products on page 175 IMAP Acronym for Internet Message Access Protocol Note capitalization of spelled out version Pronounced
61. Disk Avoid Before installing the software run Disk Utility e Versions of the Mac OS For descriptions of versions of the Mac OS use with or that has not running Correct a computer with or that has Mac OS X version 10 4 Incorrect a computer running Mac OS X version 10 4 runtime n adj One word no hyphen Chapter 1 Style and Usage 131 132 S sad Macintosh Classic Refers to the startup icon Use quotation marks Not sad Mac Safari The web browser included with Mac OS X Note capitalization sans serif adj No hyphen Not sanserif save You save a file on a disk or to a disk but not onto a disk save box Don t use use close button Mac OS X or close box Mac OS 9 scalable scalability Not scaleable scaleability Scrapbook Classic Note capitalization screen Use to refer to what the user looks at while working on the computer Don t use display when you mean screen On an iBook eMac iMac or PowerBook the display is the LCD or CRT device The screen is the surface the user views Correct Tilt your PowerBook display to prevent glare on the screen Incorrect Tilt your PowerBook screen to prevent glare See also display screen saver n adj Two words screen shot n screen shot adj Two words note hyphenation of adjective script system Not script interface system When appropriate refer to a script system by its product name which may or may not include the words script syste
62. Don t use to describe software use compatible well constructed and the like which Use only to introduce a nonrestrictive clause clauses beginning with which are always set off with commas The newest computer in the lab which is a Power Mac G5 is also the students favorite There is only one newest computer the phrase which is a Power Mac G5 although it provides more information doesn t restrict the subject of the sentence This is the computer that has network access There are many computers the phrase that has network access restricts narrows the meaning of the subject of the sentence to one computer Compare that Chapter 1 Style and Usage whir Not whirr But whirring The disk drive whirs and in a moment you see the startup screen who whom Who should always be used as the subject of a verb or as a subject complement Whom should always be used as the object of a verb or preposition Who is the new system administrator This manual is intended for the person who manages the network Be selective about the people to whom you give network access wide Use a hyphen in compound adjectives beginning with wide wide angle viewing wide format screen Exception widescreen Close up words that end with wide companywide enterprisewide industrywide systemwide worldwide If part of the compound is a proper noun use a hyphen Apple wide wide area network See WAN widescreen adj One word widget A speci
63. Font in Text Most developer documentation uses code font for computer language elements in text Whether to use code font in text for other documents is a matter of judgment Use code font for all text fragments that the reader should construe as expressions in a programming language Use code font for names of files volumes directories and libraries StandardcRuntime o library MainProg c file Don t use a function or method name as a verb Correct Run 1s on both directories Incorrect Is both directories Correct Use cd to change to the root directory Incorrect cd to the root directory Don t mix fonts within a single word Rewrite to avoid forming the plural of a word in code font Correct values of type integer Incorrect integers Use regular text font not code font for punctuation following a word or phrase in code font unless the punctuation mark is part of the computer language element represented NAN 004 nan 4 and NaN are examples of acceptable input Metasymbols in Text In running text use italic regular text font when referring to a metasymbol that is an artificial term that has meaning only in your documentation and is to be replaced by a value or symbol Spell the metasymbol just as it would appear in a syntax description Don t use a metasymbol when you can use a regular English term in ordinary prose Correct Replace volumeName with a name of up to 12 characters Correct The volume name can be
64. K modem The generic name for any modem that can achieve download speeds of up to 56 kbit s See also V 90 V 92 100Base T Fast Ethernet 1000Base T Gigabit Ethernet Preferred in user documentation although 00BASE T or 1000BASE T is also correct See also 10Base T Fast Ethernet Gigabit Ethernet 802 11 wireless networking standard Use lowercase The original AirPort is based on the 802 11b standard AirPort Extreme and AirPort Express are based on the 802 11g standard Pronounced eight oh two dot eleven A AAC Abbreviation for Advanced Audio Coding an industry standard audio compression format abbreviations and acronyms An acronym is a pronounceable word formed from the initial letter or letters of major parts of a compound term An abbreviation is usually formed in the same way but is not pronounced as a word Abbreviations are often lowercase or a mix of lowercase and uppercase Acronyms are almost always all caps regardless of the capitalization style of the spelled out form Abbreviation mph for miles per hour MB s for megabytes per second Acronym ROM for read only memory Consider including acronyms and abbreviations in a glossary e When to spell out In most cases spell out an abbreviation or acronym on its first occurrence in a chapter In help documents for which there are no print counterparts spell out the term at its first appearance on a page e Industry standard and technical terms For indust
65. Mac G5 iMac Special Edition eMac Mac mini 175 176 Portable Computers Macintosh PowerBook G3 Macintosh PowerBook G3 Series PowerBook PowerBook G4 iBook iBook G4 iBook Special Edition Servers Macintosh Server G3 with AppleShare IP Macintosh Server G3 with Mac OS X Server Macintosh Server G4 with AppleShare IP Macintosh Server G4 with Mac OS X Server Xserve Note The software used with this product is Mac OS X Server Xserve G5 Displays Measurements given are the diagonal screen size not the viewable image size Apple Studio Display 15 inch flat panel Apple Studio Display 17 inch flat panel Apple Studio Display 17 inch CRT Apple Studio Display 21 inch CRT Apple Cinema Display 20 inch flat panel Apple Cinema Display 22 inch flat panel Apple Cinema HD Display 23 inch flat panel Apple Cinema HD Display 30 inch flat panel Chapter 3 Apple Products Keyboards and Mouse Devices e Apple Extended Keyboard e Apple Extended Keyboard II e Apple Keyboard e Apple Keyboard II e Apple Mouse e Apple Desktop Bus Mouse e Apple Desktop Bus Mouse II Apple USB Keyboard Apple USB Mouse Apple Pro Keyboard Apple Pro Mouse e Apple Wireless Keyboard e Apple Wireless Mouse e Mighty Mouse Storage Devices e Apple Drive Module e CD ROM drive e CD RW drive e Combo drive DVD ROM CD RW e DVD ROM drive e DVD RAM drive e SuperDrive DVD R CD RW e SuperDrive DVD RW CD RW e SuperD
66. See earlier later latest Don t use to refer to a specific software update Instead use only the version number or a date in technical support documents or use or ater to indicate a range of updates It s OK to use latest if you re generally instructing users to keep their software up to date Correct To use this feature you must have iPhoto 4 or later installed Correct For the best results make sure you re using the latest version of Mac OS X Correct Make sure you have installed Firmware Update 4 1 2 Incorrect The latest update is Firmware Update 4 1 2 See also most recent version launch Don t use in user documentation when you mean to open a program OK to use in developer documentation LED Don t use in user documentation unless you have a specific reason to distinguish from LCD for example Use light or indicator light Left Arrow key When you refer to more than one of the arrow keys arrow is lowercase as in the arrow keys left hand Avoid except in reference to left hand verso pages use just eft whenever possible leftmost No hyphen left side Not left hand side less fewer Use less for quantity or bulk use fewer for countable items The fewer devices in your network system the less cable you need less than sign lt Note hyphenation Not ess than symbol You can also use left angle bracket if appropriate in the context Compare angle brackets Chapter 1 Style and Usage 89 90
67. The conference was held on the 12th When to spell out Spell out the names of days and months in text Use numerals for the year except when it appears at the beginning of a sentence spell out the year there or rewrite to avoid Slashes in dates Don t use the form 6 5 06 because American usage is different from European usage See also Chapter 7 International Style on page 193 daughter board Don t use use expansion board Chapter1 Style and Usage 45 46 DB 9 connector OK in developer documentation In user documentation describe the connector by its size and shape its icon or in another way appropriate to the context because it may have fewer than nine pins In documentation written for new users however you may want to mention the term DB 9 or DB 11 DB 25 or DB 50 or include the term in the glossary because users may see it elsewhere See also connector DDR Abbreviation for Double Data Rate Note capitalization Apple computers have DDR SDRAM also called DDR memory See also memory SDRAM deactivate See activate deactivate dealer dealership Don t use use Apple Authorized Reseller See also Apple Authorized Reseller default n adj Define on first occurrence In user documentation you may want to use preset See also preset degrees OK to spell out degrees or use the degree symbol but be consistent Hyphenate when the term precedes a noun 160 degree viewing angle The symbol is closed up
68. Two words trackpad One word Chapter 1 Style and Usage 151 trademarks general The name of any trademarked Apple product or service mentioned in a document must appear in the appropriate credit line on the copyright page Categories include trademarks service marks s registered trademarks and registered service marks Apple trademarks On first use of a trademarked name and frequently thereafter use the name as an adjective Don t use the plural or possessive form of a trademark e Third party trademarks Some companies have special requirements for the use of their trademarks in Apple documents and for the wording in a trademark notice For a list of those trademarks and their notices see the Special and Licensed Trademarks and or Copyrights section of the Apple trademark list which is available at web apple com areas trademarkinformation internally www apple com legal trademark appletmlist html externally e Trademark symbols In user and developer documentation print and electronic don t use trademark symbols for Apple trademarks in headings or text Note however that other types of documents such as press releases do use trademark symbols in text Follow the usage guidelines specific to your type of documentation Trademark status changes with time For the most current Apple trademarks consult the trademark list on the web trademarks usage Follow these guidelines for trademarks
69. Video Adapter Apple DVI to ADC Adapter Apple iPod Power Adapter Apple Mini DVI to DVI Adapter Apple Mini DVI to VGA Adapter Apple Mini DVI to Video Adapter Apple Portable Power Adapter Apple VGA Display Adapter Apple Video Adapter ADC Abbreviation for Apple Display Connector A single cable and connector that carries USB signals power and video from the computer to the display Spell out on first occurrence See also display cable display port address Can refer either to an Internet address or to the location in the computer s memory where a piece of information is stored OK to use just address for either as long as the context is clear See also email addresses Internet addresses memory address memory location Address Book The contacts application in Mac OS X also a Dashboard widget Don t precede with the Capitalize only when you refer to the Address Book application or the Dashboard widget Use lowercase to refer to the user s collection of contacts in Address Book or to a generic address book application or feature such as the address book on a mobile phone addresses mailing Use the following forms for addresses e Apple corporate address If you include the Apple phone number corporate address and URL use this form Apple not Apple Computer Inc 1 Infinite Loop Cupertino CA 95014 USA 408 996 1010 www apple com e Specific Apple mailing addresses Department Name Apple 1 Infinite Loop MS xx xx C
70. Yoshiko Family name examples Contreras Johnson Kawabata Meyer Scharanski Stern Wong e Situations Portray both women and men in a variety of occupations and situations not just stereotypical ones e Pronouns Avoid using male pronouns generically Use he or she or switch to the plural when he or she is awkward However don t use their when the subject is singular Sometimes you can use the second person Correct Each student imports his or her GarageBand composition into iTunes Correct The students import their GarageBand compositions into iTunes Incorrect The student imports his GarageBand composition into iTunes Incorrect Each student imports their GarageBand composition into iTunes Chapter 1 Style and Usage family controls Don t use use parental controls FAQ Abbreviation for frequently asked questions FAQ is singular use the article an Use FAQs to refer to more than one set of frequently asked questions Use title style capitalization if the full term precedes a noun the Frequently Asked Questions document Fast Ethernet 100Base T Note capitalization A standard that allows data transmission rates of up to 100 megabits per second See also Ethernet Gigabit Ethernet fast user switching Note lowercase Favorites Capitalize when you refer to the Favorites folder in the Library folder of a home folder fax modem card No hyphen no slash felt tip pen Note hyphenation Not felt tipped pen female connec
71. You can perform a sync on your devices Correct If your devices weren t synced try again Correct You can speed up the process by syncing fewer devices Avoid using sync to refer to the synchronization feature that can be turned on and off use synchronization or syncing Correct Make sure synchronization is turned on for the device Incorrect Make sure sync is turned on for the device synchronous dynamic random access memory See SDRAM syntax descriptions Follow these conventions e Literals Use code font for literals parts of the language values and so on e Metasymbols Use italics for metasymbols artificial terms that have meaning only in your document and are to be replaced by a value or symbol Use an embedded cap to connect two words that act as a single metasymbol sourceFile Be consistent when you name metasymbols for example don t alternate between commands and commandList e Brackets Use regular text font for brackets that enclose something that s optional Pay close attention to punctuation Read file var system Use to refer to a computer and any peripheral devices accessories and software Don t use system to refer to the computer alone Correct The computer requires a folder named Applications in this location Incorrect The system requires a folder named Applications in this location Chapter1 Style and Usage 143 144 System Administrator Note capitalization Avoid except
72. ader and clutter the page e Organization In general organize your sections so that level four heads are subordinate to level three heads level three heads to level two heads and so on Don t skip a level of text heads When the next logical level of text head seems too prominent for a given usage in troubleshooting chapters for example you can use display sentences rather than skipping a level of text heads e Chapter openings Avoid beginning a chapter with a level one head start with an introductory paragraph or two before your first text head Similarly avoid placing a level two head immediately after a level one head and so on When you have limited space and when text serves primarily to separate one head from the next but isn t necessary to the reader it s OK to place a head immediately following the previous level of head e At least two heads of the same level If you use a particular level of head at all in a given chapter or section use at least two Strictly speaking a chapter or section can t be subdivided into only one part e Parallelism Keep the wording of parallel heads within a section parallel e Use the same verb forms gerunds imperatives and so on from head to head Comparable terms should all be either singular or plural not a mix e If you use complete sentences for some heads use them for all comparable heads e Capitalization Use title style capitalization for most text heads Check with you
73. ages voiceover One word Don t use as a verb Instead use record a voiceover or something similar VoiceOver The Mac OS X spoken interface Note capitalization VoiceOver chooser menus Menus that appear visually and are spoken in the VoiceOver user interface e The Application Chooser menu Option Control F1 twice for navigating among open applications e The Item Chooser menu Option Control F2 twice for navigating among items in the active window e The Window Chooser menu Option Control l for navigating among open windows in the active application Chapter 1 Style and Usage 159 VoiceOver command Any key combination used to work with VoiceOver Each VoiceOver command performs an action in VoiceOver and works in the same way as the standard Mac OS X keyboard shortcuts Press Command Option Control to move the VoiceOver cursor to the top of a window VoiceOver cursor In VoiceOver a box that outlines an item onscreen showing that the user can interact with the item The outlined item is in the VoiceOver cursor You can move the VoiceOver cursor until the item you want to interact with is in the cursor When the pop up menu is in the VoiceOver cursor press Return VoiceOver menu A menu that provides commands similar to those in an application menu The menu appears when the user presses Option Control F7 when VoiceOver is active voice quality microphone Note hyphenation volume disk In general don t use volume t
74. al application displayed by Dashboard You add widgets to Dashboard using the widget bar Capitalize the names of widgets Stocks Weather the Stocks widget the Weather widget window When an icon is double clicked what appears on the screen is called a window Inactive windows or objects are in back of or behind active windows window controls Standard controls for windows include the close button the minimize button the zoom button and the resize control windowful Don t use When you refer to scrolling through the contents of a window use window at a time or window by window Correct Click in the area above or below the scroller to view contents a window at a time Correct Click above or below the scroller to view the contents window by window Incorrect To scroll by the windowful click above or below the scroller Windows See Microsoft Windows window titles When you refer to a window by name use the exact words in the title bar of the window the Mail window the About This Mac window Use lowercase for window unless it s included in the window title and capitalized Chapter1 Style and Usage 163 164 window zooming Note lowercase No hyphen Wintel Jargon for personal computers based on Microsoft Windows software and Intel processors Don t use use a term such as PC Windows based computer or Pentium based computer wish See want word processing n word processing adj Note hyphenation of adjective
75. al globally even between Canada and the United States Providing a toll free number with a toll number allows customers to call no matter where they are from Usage Telephone number notations begin with the plus sign and are followed by a space the country code city code and number Breaks in national numbering plans may be represented by a space Toll free numbers are expressed in the local style You can reach Apple by calling 1 408 996 1010 or 800 692 7753 in North America You can reach Apple France by calling 33 1 69 86 34 00 or 0800 046 046 Units of Measure Use only units of the International System of Units SI to express the values of quantities Equivalent values in customary units may be given in parentheses following SI values in cases where safety may be an issue or when they are used in a product s name e International Authority Bureau Internationale des Poids et Mesures BIPM e Standard BIPM SI Brochure 7th edition 1998 English language translation and United States interpretation is available from the Department of Commerce Federal Register 63 FR 40333 40340 e Usage Quantities are always expressed with a unit symbol Use a nonbreaking space between the quantity and its symbol Unit symbols are unaltered in the plural and are never hyphenated even when they are used as an adjective Unit symbols are not followed by a period unless they appear at the end of a sentence Don t imply more precision than
76. an use an absolute path with an italicized username element or use the tilde to specify the path up to and including the user s home folder In many cases you can simply refer to a folder that is inside the user s home folder Your files are saved in Users username Documents Your files are saved in Documents Your files are saved in your Documents folder e Code font In developer documentation pathnames are in code font See also code font home folder home directory PC Avoid PC when you refer to Apple personal computers Use personal computer or computer It s OK to use PC Windows based PC or Windows PC to refer to non Apple personal computers QuickTime is available for both Macintosh computers and Windows based PCs You can share Macintosh files with a PC on a wireless network See also Microsoft Windows PC Card A card that conforms to the standard set by the Personal Computer Memory Card International Association PCMCIA Note capitalization On first occurrence include a parenthetical reference to PCMCIA cards You use PC Cards PCMCIA cards to expand your computer s capabilities Type Type Il and Type IlI refer to the thickness of the cards note spelling and capitalization PCI PCI X Abbreviation for Peripheral Component Interconnect an industry standard expansion bus Related terms include PCI bus PCI slot and PCI card PCI X is a higher speed version of PCI technology Spell out on first occurrenc
77. and phrases as phrases Italicize the i the o s the word boot the phrase Welcome to Macintosh But type Q press Command S Emphasis Use italics to emphasize a word or phrase but don t overdo this use of italics Make sure that the power cable is plugged in and that power is available at the outlet Metasymbols in syntax examples Italicize metasymbols Read file var Terms that stand for or define other terms Use italics not quotation marks for terms after stands for labeled named termed the term and so on If the term is an onscreen element however use plain text for elements whose names are capitalized title style use plain text in quotation marks for elements whose names are capitalized sentence style INIT stands for initialize A folder named New Folder appears Click the checkbox labeled Keep lines together e When italics aren t available When italics aren t available such as in some text designed to be read only on the screen use quotation marks for references to titles of discs and documents and for letters as letters words as words and phrases as phrases iTunes Digital jukebox software for Mac and Windows included with iLife and iPod Note capitalization Chapter 1 Style and Usage iTunes Music Store The music download store built into iTunes Not Apple Music Store In general references it s OK to use music store Music and other features are available in on at or from the iTunes M
78. as a verb when you describe what happens at the hardware level when a running program is stopped Hardware interrupts a running program a user stops a running program OK to use interrupt as a noun in developer documentation Compare exit halt quit stop Chapter 1 Style and Usage into in to Use in to when in is part of the verb Use into when into is part of the verb Correct Log in to the computer Incorrect Log into the computer See also onto on to plug in plug into intranet A private network usually owned by a corporation or institution your company s intranet Note lowercase Compare internet Internet in use light Note hyphenation inverted Don t use when you mean highlighted I O Abbreviation for input output Note lowercase and slash Spell out on first occurrence IP Abbreviation for Internet Protocol Note capitalization of spelled out version Spell out on first occurrence IPC Abbreviation for interprocess communication Note lowercase in spelled out version iPhoto An application for importing organizing editing and sharing digital photos included in iLife Note capitalization Don t use when you refer generally to photos or pictures Correct You can use iPhoto to place your pictures in an album Incorrect You can email your iPhotos to friends iPod A portable digital music player for Mac and Windows The product family includes iPod iPod nano iPod shuffle and iPod U2 Special Edition Pr
79. ase x for example 24x speed Note that there is no space between the numeral and the x spell check v Note hyphenation Also OK to use check the spelling of a document spell checker spelling checker Either term is OK spin down v Avoid using Use stop spinning instead OK for use in service related publications spinning gear See progress indicator Chapter 1 Style and Usage spinning wait cursor In developer documentation the colored pinwheel cursor In user documentation use wait cursor Developer documentation Try to avoid situations in your application that cause the window server to display the spinning wait cursor User documentation You might see a wait cursor looks like a colored pinwheel while the application is opening splash screen Don t use use opening display startup display or startup screen Spotlight The systemwide search technology introduced in Mac OS X v104 Related terms include the following Spotlight icon in the menu bar Spotlight search field Spotlight results menu or Spotlight menu Spotlight results window or Spotlight window spring loaded Use to describe the ability of a folder to open automatically spring open when an item is dragged onto it Don t use spring open square wave n square wave adj Note hyphenation of adjective standalone adj One word Don t use as a noun standard definition See SD Standard Roman character set Note capitalization stan
80. at a display device such as a computer screen or printer can display In some non Roman writing systems several different glyphs may be used to represent a single character Gopher Note capitalization Use as an adjective a Gopher site a server with Gopher software The UNIX command gopher is all lowercase GPU Abbreviation for graphics processing unit Note lowercase in spelled out version See also graphics card Grab An application utility included with Mac OS X Don t use as a verb graphic adj Not graphical except in graphical user interface Compare graphics graphical user interface Note lowercase Don t use the acronym GUI graphics n adj Use graphics not graphic as an adjective in reference to the field of graphic art or graphic design You can use advanced graphics software on the Macintosh graphics card Use for the card that controls display of the computer interface on the primary display Not video card See also GPU Graphics Interchange Format See GIF graphics processing unit See GPU Graphite appearance Note capitalization An appearance available in Mac OS X gray Not grey grayed Don t use use dimmed or highlighted in gray depending on the context Chapter 1 Style and Usage grayscale n adj One word greater than sign gt Note hyphenation Not greater than symbol You can also use right angle bracket if appropriate in the context Compare angle brackets grey Don t use use gray
81. ation Note capitalization Final Cut Studio The suite of integrated video and audio production software that includes Final Cut Pro Soundtrack Pro Motion DVD Studio Pro and other applications Note capitalization Finder The program that keeps track of files and folders and displays the desktop Note capitalization User documentation In user documentation when you discuss activities the user performs or things the user sees on the desktop use desktop or if necessary for the sake of identification Finder desktop You can also speak of finding items in the Finder or opening a window in the Finder Avoid using go to a location in the Finder A window opens in the Finder Developer documentation In developer documentation use Finder to describe the application The Finder obtains the type and creator codes from the information stored in the bundle Compare desktop firewall One word use lowercase FireWire A high speed industry standard technology IEEE 1394 developed by Apple for connecting peripheral devices to personal computers Note capitalization Products are FireWire equipped not FireWire enabled A FireWire cable is described according to its connector type such as a 4 pin to 6 pin FireWire cable first person Don t use rewrite in terms of the reader or the product fixed width adj Preferred term to describe fonts such as Courier in which each character takes up the same amount of space on the line Syno
82. ator See progress indicator submenu indicator indicator light Not LED information Use instead of data in user documentation if it makes sense in the context Info window Not Get Info window or Info box infrared No hyphen in front Use to explain the term active the active window is in front of other windows subsequently use active You can also use to describe palettes and other windows that float on top of active windows See also active front frontmost initialize When you refer to disks initialize and format mean the same thing inkjet One word inline One word in order to Don t use unless absolutely necessary use just to input n adj Don t use as a verb use enter or type depending on the context Input menu A menu that appears at the right side of the menu bar with other menu bar extras when the user has selected at least one item in the Input Menu pane of International preferences The menu s icon is a flag Note capitalization input output See I O insertion point Use to describe the point at which the user types or inserts data The vertical blinking bar marks the insertion point See also cursor pointer inside Not inside of Chapter 1 Style and Usage install You install items on a disk not onto a disk Don t use install as a noun See the examples in installation installation Don t use install when you mean installation Correct Insert the installation disc Incorrect Insert the
83. ay contain several statements and one statement may extend over several lines line breaks Don t break a line between Part Chapter or Appendix and its number or letter between Figure or Table and its number between slot or port and its number or between a product name and its number Don t break a line within an email address or URL line feed n line feed adj Note hyphenation of adjective Chapter 1 Style and Usage link n In a hypertext document such as a webpage a link is a connection between an element in the document text or graphics and a different element in the document or another document file or script A user clicks the link to go to another page or perform an action The term hypertext link is an acceptable synonym Avoid using follow a link use click a link instead Correct Click a link on the homepage to go to another page Incorrect Follow the link to the page of your choice link v OK to use when you describe the act of creating a link in a webpage but don t use link to describe connecting to a webpage Correct When creating a webpage be sure to link to other interesting webpages Incorrect Click the map to link to other pages in the site lists Three types of lists are available bulleted multicolumn and numbered Avoid nesting bulleted lists within bulleted lists or numbered lists within numbered lists Also avoid using combinations of numbered and bulleted lists that contain more
84. bably err on the side of including terms that most readers might already know rather than leaving out those that some readers won t know Developer documentation Developer documentation writers don t need to assume computer illiteracy on the part of readers you may not have to define general computer terms such as silicon or application program However you should probably assume that some readers will not be familiar with Apple terminology Terms such as Apple event Aqua or Quartz should probably be in the glossary if your document uses them 183 184 Content Guidelines A glossary is more than a list of definitions Entries should explain meanings by providing examples and context Make Definitions Explanatory Give an example where appropriate If possible make that example specific to the product about which you re writing Where helpful refer to other glossary terms for further information or contrast Make the Context Clear Is your definition general to all computers specific to Apple products specific to a particular device or system or somewhere in between If a term has two or more meanings that are relevant such as format the noun referring to page appearance and format the verb referring to the action performed on a blank disk provide all definitions Connect Ordinary Usage with Technical Meaning Many ordinary English words have specific meanings with regard to computer products In documentation for first
85. c or a soft g browsable deletable sharable sizable changeable pronounceable purgeable serviceable abort Avoid in user documentation Compare exit halt interrupt quit stop above You can use above to describe an element or section of an onscreen document that cannot be paged through such as a single webpage Don t use above in print documents instead use one of these styles e Earlier chapter Use the chapter name and number To learn how to create movies see Chapter 4 Composing Movies e Earlier section Use the section name followed by the page number For more information see Printing on page 154 Apple Product Documentation and User Publications use this style Earlier figure table or code listing Use the number of the element followed by the page number For a summary of slot and drive numbers see Table 1 2 page 36 Technical Publications uses this style for references to a figure table or code listing at a distance If the element is immediately above the page number is omitted See also below earlier later AC Abbreviation for alternating current Spell out on first occurrence Accelerated Graphics Port See AGP access n v It s OK to use access as a verb when you cannot be more specific Even in developer documents consider more precise terms such as og in to Avoid Access the server using an administrator account Preferable Log in to the server using an administrator account
86. c phrases such as these nitty gritty details start from scratch piggy backing e Examples and graphics Avoid examples and graphics that show events or activities specific to a particular nation or culture Conciseness Remember that text length may expand on translation so keep paragraphs short and tight See also Chapter 7 International Style on page 193 localize v Takes preposition for not to Correct Whether you localize your application for the French language or for French Canada make sure you test its interface Incorrect Whether you localize your application to the French language or to French Canada make sure you test its interface lock Users lock documents or applications they write protect their disks Disks are copy protected by the manufacturer logical operators Don t use as verbs Correct Using OR to combine x and y produces the result TRUE if either one is true or if both are true Incorrect ORing x and y produces the result TRUE if either one is true or if both are true Correct The directive uses the logical operator AND to compare the accumulator contents with the contents of memory specified by the operand Incorrect The directive logically ANDs the accumulator contents with the contents of memory specified by the operand Logic Express Music creation and audio production software for musicians producers and composers Note capitalization Logic Pro Advanced music creation a
87. capitalization convert to Not convert into Chapter 1 Style and Usage cookies Not cookie files Use to refer to small text files a website may copy to a user s hard disk to record information about the user or the computer To use some websites you must set your web browser to accept cookies coprocessor No hyphen copy Don t capitalize except when you refer to the Copy command by name You copy something using the Copy command you don t Copy it You copy a file to a disk not on a disk or onto a disk See also command names copy protect v copy protected adj pred adj copy protection n Hyphenate in all forms A copy protected disk or file cannot be copied legally The disc is copy protected copyright page All documentation must have a copyright page or copyright notice In a longer print document such as a user s manual the copyright information is usually on the second page which does not have a page number or a running footer In short print booklets or update sheets the copyright information is usually at the bottom of the last page Onscreen documents also require a copyright notice Finding the correct copyright notice The copyright page is a boilerplate element Consult with your department editor to be sure you have the appropriate boilerplate Apple trademarks All Apple trademarks mentioned in the document must receive a credit line on the copyright page See the most recent Apple trademark list which is
88. ce of numerics numerics capabilities numerics environment O offline One word offsite One word OK Not okay onboard One word Short for on the board refers to components attached to a circuit board or logic board Use built in as in built in graphics card or internal unless you need to make clear that a component is attached to a board once Don t use when you mean after Correct After you turn on the computer Incorrect Once you turn on the computer on hook off hook n adj Note hyphenation Chapter 1 Style and Usage online One word Use to describe items to which the user gains access over a network You can search an online database e Connection Avoid online when you refer to the state of being connected to a network Instead use a specific appropriate term Correct connected to the network Correct logged in Incorrect if you re online e Local files Avoid using online to describe items such as tutorials or help files on a local disk online help system Instead substitute a more specific word such as electronic or onscreen Avoid To learn more about the program take the online tutorial Preferable To learn more about the program take the onscreen tutorial on off switch Not on off button Note lowercase onscreen adj adv One word onscreen text Use quotation marks not italics for words as words letters as letters and phrases as phrases and for document and disc titles
89. computer or G5 as long as the meaning is clear Don t use variations of the names of products such as G3 iBook iMac G4 or G5 Power Mac See also Power Mac PowerPC GarageBand An application for playing recording and creating music included in iLife Note capitalization GarageBand Jam Pack Music content packages for use with GarageBand and other audio applications OK to shorten to Jam Pack Note capitalization Chapter 1 Style and Usage GB n adj Abbreviation for gigabyte Spell out on first occurrence e Noun In the noun form use a space between the numeral and the abbreviation The preposition of is necessary before the unit that the value quantifies 2 GB of memory e Adjective Don t hyphenate the adjective form 2 GB memory Gbit n adj Abbreviation for gigabit Spell out on first occurrence e Noun In the noun form use a space between the numeral and the abbreviation The preposition of is necessary before the unit that the value quantifies 10 Gbit of memory e Adjective Don t hyphenate the adjective form 10 Gbit memory Gbit s Standard abbreviation for gigabits per second Spell out on first occurrence See also Gbps Gbps Customary abbreviation for gigabits per second used by some Apple groups See also Gbit s GB s Standard abbreviation for gigabytes per second Spell out on first occurrence See also GB sec GB sec Customary abbreviation for gigabytes per second used by some Apple groups
90. dard user Use in Mac OS X to describe a user whose account is more restrictive than that of an admin user Don t use normal user See also administrator admin start Don t use when you mean open as in open an application program start up v startup n adj In user documentation try to avoid using startup as a noun except when repeated occurrences of when you start up become unwieldy Rewrite when possible to use a more specific term or description For AppleCare and developer documentation startup is an acceptable generic term for the period of time it takes the computer to start up Start up the computer After a few seconds you see the startup display While the computer is starting up you can check your voicemail AppleCare During startup you can scan the manual that came with your computer See also boot Chapter1 Style and Usage 139 140 startup disk Preferred term in user documentation but boot disk is OK in developer documentation Startup Disk A pane in System Preferences If you need to distinguish between the Mac OS X version and the Mac OS 9 version you can refer to them this way the Startup Disk pane of Mac OS X System Preferences the Classic Startup Disk control panel the Startup Disk control panel included with Mac OS 9 startup display startup screen Not splash screen Startup display startup screen and opening display are all OK startup sound Use to refer to the chord heard during a s
91. describe this type of pointer When you click the Text tool the pointer becomes an l beam Click the Selection tool to display the arrow pointer Cursor as in the VoiceOver cursor may be appropriate when you describe other interfaces and in developer documentation See also cursor insertion point pointer arrowhead One word Don t use when you mean the tip of the arrow pointer arrow keys Use lowercase in general references Don t use direction keys Capitalize the name of each arrow key Use the arrow keys to move the insertion point from cell to cell Press the Left Arrow key ASCII Acronym for American Standard Code for Information Interchange Note capitalization ASIC Acronym for application specific integrated circuit Note hyphen in spelled out version aspect ratio Use a colon in aspect ratios 4 3 16 9 assembler Don t use assembler when you mean assembly language assembly language n assembly language adj Not assembler language Note hyphenation of adjective Assistant Capitalize and don t use the when the word is part of a full name Use Airport Setup Assistant to Use lowercase when you use the term by itself or generically Use the assistant to You can use assistants to assure Don t use when you mean ensure Assure means to state positively as to remove doubt Compare ensure insure Asynchronous Common Gateway Interface See ACGI Chapter1 Style and Usage 19 20 asynchronou
92. e See also card Chapter 1 Style and Usage PCI Express No hyphen note capitalization An advanced industry standard expansion bus Don t use PCI E or PCI E P code Stands for pseudocode Note capitalization and hyphenation PDA Short for personal digital assistant Note lowercase for the spelled out version PDF Stands for Portable Document Format No need to spell out on first occurrence Capitalize when you refer to the file format use lowercase for the filename extension Installation Guide pdf Don t use a file in PDF format use a PDF file percent One word Always preceded by a numeral no matter how small the value 1 percent Percent symbol It s OK to use the percent symbol instead of the word percent in technical appendixes specification lists and tables or when the word must appear so many times in a text passage that its use becomes cumbersome Nonspecific quantities When you describe a nonspecific quantity use percentage as in a small percentage of the population periods See ellipsis points peripheral A device that can be connected to the computer Peripheral devices include printers scanners disk drives modems displays and keyboards OK to use peripheral device peripheral or device The adjective is singular peripheral manufacturer peripheral connections peripheral card Not accessory card When appropriate use the more specific term interface card Peripheral Component Interconnect See PCI
93. e length Figure titles should be short and to the point a line and a half should be considered the absolute maximum e Capitalization Use sentence style capitalization for figure titles Don t end a title with punctuation even if the figure title is a complete sentence Use articles in captions whenever appropriate Correct The Apple menu Correct An external FireWire drive connected to a computer Incorrect External FireWire Drive Connected to a Computer e In text references Each numbered figure should have an in text reference to point the reader to the figure at the appropriate point You can use various styles for in text references depending on the needs of the sentence An explicit see reference as a separate sentence in parentheses See Figure 6 2 An explicit see reference in parentheses within a sentence Choose Mail gt Mail Preferences see Figure 6 2 Just the figure number in parentheses the Page Setup dialog Figure 3 13 appears A phrase set off by commas the Page Setup dialog shown in Figure 3 13 appears The figure number as the subject of a sentence Figure 3 1 shows You can use more than one style in a project but don t use different styles for what is essentially the same purpose For example don t use both the first and second styles or both the third and fourth styles within a project figures Line art photographs and screen shots are all considered figures You should use figures
94. e means that the definition for a term is given elsewhere e See also means that additional relevant information is given elsewhere e Compare means that a contrasting or complementary term is defined elsewhere Don t say compare with You can also use same as and opposite of for synonyms and antonyms open To make available You open files or documents in order to work with them Compare close See also icon window Important Make sure all cross referenced terms are in your glossary Multiple Definitions For entries with multiple definitions precede each definition in a sequence with a number in parentheses followed by a single space graphics 1 Information presented in the form of 2 The display of pictures If the definitions are for different parts of speech show the part of speech abbreviation with a period in parentheses branch v To pass program control to a line or statement other than the next in sequence n A statement that performs the act of branching See also conditional branch unconditional branch More complexity is possible Consult a developmental editor if necessary when dealing with complex entries Independence A glossary should stand alone Don t include references to other parts of the document or to other documents Chapter 5 How to Write a Glossary Assembling the Glossary The following steps provide an overview of steps needed to put together a glossary First Decide which te
95. e numeral and the abbreviation The preposition of is necessary before the unit that the value quantifies 20 MB of memory e Adjective Don t hyphenate the adjective form 20 MB hard disk Mbit n adj Abbreviation for megabit Spell out on first occurrence e Noun In the noun form use a space between the numeral and the abbreviation The preposition of is necessary before the unit that the value quantifies 10 Mbit of memory e Adjective Don t hyphenate the adjective form 10 Mbit memory Mbit s Standard abbreviation for megabits per second Spell out on first occurrence See also Mbps Mbps Customary abbreviation for megabits per second used by some Apple groups Exception to the SI standard of Mbit s See also Mbit s MB s Standard abbreviation for megabytes per second Spell out on first occurrence See also MB sec MB sec Customary abbreviation for megabytes per second used by some Apple groups Exception to the SI standard of MB s See also MB s measurement See Chapter 2 Units of Measure on page 167 Chapter 1 Style and Usage 99 100 media medium When you describe a method of delivering information use the singular medium or the plural media The guide is presented in both print and electronic media plural The guide is presented only in the print medium singular When you discuss video and audio content however you can use the term media to describe a collection of content for example
96. e preceding letter If there are no entries beginning with X the heading would be W X not X Y Style of Entries Capitalization Don t capitalize all entries Capitalize only the entries you capitalize in the text Code font If a term is in code font because it s a literal computer language word functions constants and so forth it should be in code font in the index If it s in code font in the text to indicate what the user types it should be in regular text font in the index Italics f a term is in italics in text because it s the name of a metasymbol or the name of a disk it should be in italics in the index Generally the name of a document shouldn t be indexed but if it is it should be in italics If a term is in italics in text for emphasis or because it s a word used as a word it should be in plain style in the index Checking the Spelling In FrameMaker you cannot check the spelling within the index markers When you ve completed the index markers and generated the index make sure you review the generated index with the spelling checker Chapter 6 How to Develop an Index 191 International Style Following international style helps readers with limited English proficiency read what you write By following international style you also help translators human or machine localize your writing by minimizing the burdens of cultural and customary language usage Basic Rules Writing in the international
97. ee also above earlier later bibliography If you have relied on published sources other than Apple documents in writing a document you should credit those sources in a bibliography You can also use a bibliography to provide suggestions for further reading In complex documentation you can place a topic specific bibliography at the end of a chapter rather than as part of the back matter bibliography entries Follow these guidelines for entries e Author s name In each entry invert the first author s name last name first with a comma both before and after the first name or names e Titles Italicize book and periodical titles Enclose article titles in quotation marks Article Harrison Claire Visual Social Semiotics How Still Images Make Meaning Technical Communication February 2003 46 60 e Edition numbers When you refer to an edition number use lowercase and spell out both the ordinal number and the word edition Technical Introduction to the Macintosh Family second edition e Publisher s location Don t give the name of the state or country when the place of publication is a well known city If you need to provide a state name use the correct postal abbreviation given in The Chicago Manual of Style Book Norman Donald A and David E Rumelhart Explorations in Cognition San Francisco W H Freeman 1975 For more rules on bibliographic citation refer to The Chicago Manual of Style Chapter 1 Style and Usage
98. ee also dialog bps Don t use as the abbreviation for bits per second Use bit s braces Not curly brackets When you need to distinguish between the opening and closing braces use left brace and right brace brackets Not square brackets Don t use brackets when you mean angle brackets lt gt When you need to distinguish between the opening and closing brackets use left bracket and right bracket bridge Don t use interchangeably with router See also router browsable Not browseable browse v It s OK to use browse as either a transitive verb browse the web or an intransitive verb browse through a website browser Internet browser web browser Use lowercase for browser when referring to an application used to gain access to the World Wide Web and other Internet and intranet services See also Media Browser bug Avoid use problem condition issue or situation instead Chapter 1 Style and Usage build to order Not built to order Use lowercase and hyphenation Always use as an adjective your build to order computer Don t abbreviate as BTO built in adj built in pred adj built into pred adj In headings don t capitalize in exception to the rule of capitalizing the second word of a hyphenated compound Opening the Built in DVD Drive heading The dialog shows the name of the disc in the built in drive The DVD drive is built in The internal modem is built into the computer built
99. efer in general to hard disks and shared disks e Articles Use an article when appropriate the disk a disk See also copy save disk drive n adj Don t use disk as a short form A drive writes data to and reads data from a disk Don t hyphenate disk drive when you use the phrase as a compound adjective See also drive diskette Don t use use disk Disk First Aid Classic The Mac OS X replacement is Disk Utility disk image Two words no hyphen Note the k in disk disk name Use when you refer to the name that appears below a disk s icon on the desktop don t use disk title for this purpose Disk Utility A Mac OS X utility program Two words note capitalization Don t precede with the Chapter 1 Style and Usage display n In most cases use display not monitor to refer to the primary display connected to a desktop computer Also use display to refer to the built in PowerBook eMac iMac or iBook display Don t use when you mean desktop or screen Correct A window appears on the screen Incorrect A window appears on the display Correct Arrange your display so that the top of the screen is slightly below eye level See also monitor screen display v Don t use display when you mean appear Correct The Print dialog appears Incorrect The Print dialog displays See also appear display cable Use instead of monitor cable or monitor power cord for Apple displays display device Refers to a de
100. efer to the pane in System Preferences or to the icon in the Finder sidebar network time server Note lowercase new In most documents avoid describing a product or feature as new because the text will quickly become out of date When appropriate state the version of software in which a feature was introduced Correct The Core Data framework introduced in Mac OS X v10 4 Incorrect The new Core Data framework newsgroup One word nickel metal hydride Note hyphenation Abbreviated NiMH See also batteries non prefix Close up except before a proper noun a proper adjective an abbreviation or an acronym or when the resulting word would be difficult to read Hyphen non ADB non Apple non Macintosh En dash non Mac OS X platforms See also dash em dash en prefixes nonsexist language See fair language nonstartup disk Avoid when possible Instead use a disk that does not contain system software or another appropriate phrase normal installation Not normal install Note lowercase You perform a normal installation you don t do a normal install See also custom installation easy installation normal user See standard user Chapter 1 Style and Usage 107 108 Note Use the Note tag for information that is relevant to a topic but that may not apply to all readers You can also use a note for a bit of information that s tangential to a topic Use notes and other notices sparingly They lose their effectivenes
101. eference model pseudo prefix Close up except before o a proper noun or a proper adjective Hyphenate in those cases pull down adj Note hyphenation punctuation In general a punctuation mark should be in the same type style and font as the preceding body text This address called a vector directs program control to a specified destination The second comma is italicized See the glossary for the definition of word wrap The period is boldfaced Note the following exceptions to this rule e Punctuation in code font Punctuation following code font in running text should be in the font of the overall sentence not in code font unless the punctuation mark is part of what actually appears on the screen or in the program listing Avoid punctuation after something the user should type The user may type the punctuation e Parentheses brackets and quotation marks Parentheses brackets and quotation marks paired punctuation should be in the same style as the body text For example the parentheses around an italicized word should be in plain style not italics Read the manual iPhoto User s Guide The parentheses are not italicized e Plurals When you form the plural of an italicized letter used as a letter a number used as a number or a word used as a word don t use italics for the apostrophe or the s Enter a series of D s The apostrophe and s are in plain text For guidelines on punctuation in lists
102. em In user documentation the name appears in body font Name the file Paperdoc Apple Product Documentation and User Publications use this style The folder contains CurrencyConverter nib Technical Publications uses this style You can find a document by typing its filename in the search field Note the treatment of these similar terms device name host name pathname user name volume name file server Two words In user documentation use only when you explain what a file server is a computer that is dedicated to holding files shared by users on a network Use shared disk to refer to a file server icon on the desktop See also shared disk file sharing n file sharing adj Two words Note hyphenation of adjective Use lowercase unless you re referring to a specific onscreen element that is capitalized Turn on file sharing Click the File Sharing icon Chapter 1 Style and Usage 63 64 file system n file system adj Two words Note hyphenation of adjective File Transfer Protocol See FTP file types A file type name should be in code font and must consist of exactly four characters one of which may be a space inside straight single code font quotation marks for example TEXT APPL BIN FileVault A security feature in System Preferences Note capitalization Final Cut Express HD A digital video editing application Note capitalization Final Cut Pro A professional level digital video editing applic
103. em is already selected instructing the user to click deselects the item Correct Select the checkbox labeled Show displays in menu bar Correct Deselect the option Show displays in menu bar Ambiguous Click the checkbox labeled Show displays in menu bar See also select Compare radio button checkmark One word Use to refer to the X or check symbol in a checkbox checksum One word chip Use integrated circuit or silicon chip with an explanation of the term on first occurrence Don t use chip when you mean microprocessor PowerPC microprocessor not PowerPC chip chipset A group of integrated circuits that are designed to function as a unit One word choose Use choose not select for menu items In general the user selects something such as a disk icon a graphic image or a section of text and then chooses a command to act on the selection Choose File gt New gt Mail Message Choose QuickTime from the pop up menu Choose Make Alias from the shortcut menu See also menus select Chooser Classic The Mac OS 9 application for selecting devices on a network Note capitalization Cinema Tools Tools for working with film and HD video Note capitalization circuit board n No hyphen Chapter 1 Style and Usage Classic application An application originally created for Mac OS 9 or earlier that has not been rewritten for Mac OS X Don t use Classic as a noun Correct You can use Classic appl
104. entries can be worded so that all of them read correctly with one form of the main entry Subentries Don t use adjectives as main entries with nouns as subentries such subentries should be separate main entries For example synchronous communication and synchronous modem should each be main entries communication and modem should not be subentries of synchronous Use the subentry defined only when there are multiple page numbers for an entry if only one page number is given no subentry is necessary 189 190 Wording Wording should be as terse as possible but it s OK to use prepositions and conjunctions such as in of and and to make the relationship between the main entry and subentry clear Ignore these small words when alphabetizing Commands Follow the names of commands routines and options with an identifier in the index entry especially when the same word or words have another meaning For example Print command rather than just Print max function rather than just mMax PL option rather than just PL Cross References e See also See also references go on a separate line immediately after the main entry Use semicolons to separate items in a list of cross references For example icons 4 See also applications disks documents folders e See Use a see cross reference when there is more than one way to index a topic and a topic has subentries If Universal Serial Bus has subentries US
105. er 6 How to Develop an Index on page 189 provides guidelines for creating an index Chapter 7 International Style on page 193 provides guidelines for creating material for localization Standard Editorial Resources In general follow the style and usage rules in e The American Heritage Dictionary e The Chicago Manual of Style e Words into Type Exceptions to certain guidelines in these resources are noted in this guide In cases where reference sources conflict with each other follow e The Chicago Manual of Style for questions of style and usage e The American Heritage Dictionary for questions of spelling Also refer to any department specific materials provided by your editor Conventions Used in This Guide Modifiers consisting of two or more words are often hyphenated when they precede a noun but not when they follow the verb as a compound predicate adjective This guide distinguishes the differences as follows e An entry followed by adj in parentheses gives the form to be used when the adjective immediately precedes the noun it modifies An entry followed by pred adj in parentheses gives the form to be used when the adjective is a predicate adjective For example black and white adj black and white pred adj e Ifa hyphenated compound has no pred adj entry hyphenate the compound wherever it appears in a sentence The guide uses italics to call attention to the term being discussed If a ter
106. er connector Don t use female connector Compare connector jack port slot Chapter1 Style and Usage 137 138 SO DIMM Acronym for small outline dual inline memory module Spell out on first occurrence Note hyphenation of the acronym software software program See application system software software license agreement Not software licensing agreement Note lowercase Software Update A pane in System Preferences Not Software Updates software version numbers See version sound input port Note lowercase no hyphen Not sound in port or Sound In port The port that connects the computer to a microphone or similar sound input equipment Compare audio input port sound output port Note lowercase no hyphen Not sound out port or Sound Out port The port that connects the computer to headphones speakers or other sound output equipment Compare audio output port soundtrack One word Soundtrack Music composition software Note capitalization Soundtrack Pro An advanced audio editing and sound design application Note capitalization source file Two words Space bar Two words Note capitalization space character Not blank or blank character OK to use just space but in many cases it s necessary to remind the user that a space is actually a character and that margins indention word wrap and page breaks can sometimes be affected by extra space characters or a lack of them speed For the speed of disc drives use a lowerc
107. er1 Style and Usage 37 38 command names Use title style capitalization for command names don t capitalize command the Find command the By Icon command Commands used as ordinary verbs Don t capitalize a command name when you use the name as a normal English verb Correct Now cut the selected text from your document Incorrect Now Cut the selected text e Ellipsis points In menus some command names are followed by three unspaced periods ellipsis points to indicate that further action will be required Don t include the ellipsis points when you refer to the command name in text or text heads Correct Choose File gt Preferences and then click General Incorrect Choose File gt Preferences and then click General See also choose command menus commas Use a serial comma before and or or in a list of three or more items Correct Apple sells PowerBook computers the AirPort Extreme Card and Final Cut Pro software Incorrect Apple sells PowerBook computers the AirPort Extreme Card and Final Cut Pro software Common Gateway Interface See CGI communication communications Use the singular to describe the act of communicating the plural to describe the technology communications link Don t use use network connection compact disc See CD Company Co Spell out or abbreviate according to the particular company s preference compile time n compile time adj Note hyphenation of adjective co
108. ercase PowerPC One word Use PowerPC based computer to refer generally to computers with a PowerPC microprocessor See also G3 G4 G5 Power Mac power switch OK to use when you re not sure what kind of power control a device has See also power button power up n adj power up v OK in developer documentation Don t use in user documentation use switch on turn on or start up PRAM Acronym for parameter random access memory You can also use parameter RAM Spell out on first occurrence Pronounced PEA ram pre prefix Close up words beginning with pre except when one element is a proper noun or a date preinstalled preexisting preproduction pre WWDC pre 2006 Chapter 1 Style and Usage preface Depending on your department s guidelines you may use a preface to tell the reader about the document to describe conventions such as special notation for example code font and to outline what the reader will find where Discussion of the product itself usually belongs in the document text not in the preface although it is sometimes appropriate to include introductory information about the product in the preface A preface should have a title such as About This Guide or Introduction When you refer to a document s preface use the full preface title See the preface About This Guide If your department template includes the word Preface you may instead refer to it as the preface preference
109. erver or the server with Mac OS X Server installed Correct You can give users access to the server Incorrect Create a password to make your Mac OS X Server more secure e Version number When indicating a version of Mac OS X Server use either version or v closed up without a period following Mac OS X Server Mac OS X Server version 10 4 Mac OS X Server v10 4 Chapter 1 Style and Usage 97 98 e Version name If the operating system has a trademarked name in addition to Mac OS X Server you can use the name following the version number on first occurrence Don t use quotation marks or parentheses around the version name Mac OS X Server version 10 4 Tiger Mac OS X Server v10 4 Tiger Thereafter it s OK to use Tiger Server Don t use Mac OS X Server Tiger or Mac OS X Tiger Server In developer documentation don t use version names such as Tiger use version numbers only Macworld Note capitalization not MacWorld Mail The email application included with Mac OS X also refers to the Mac email service Use Mac OS X Mail or Mac Mail if necessary to distinguish the program from similarly named software Note capitalization mailbox One word In Mail a mailbox is essentially a folder which can contain messages sent draft and received email and other mailboxes Note lowercase mailbox list The list of mailboxes on the left of the viewer window in Mail Note lowercase main logic board Not motherboard or
110. evious products include iPod mini and iPod photo You can use iPod to refer to the iPod family The names are typically used without an article but it s OK to include the article You can copy photos to iPod and view them on the go You can sync podcasts to the iPod e iPod names Always include iPod in the name don t use mini nano photo or shuffle alone Don t capitalize iPod names even in title style heads e Possessives and plurals Rewrite to avoid the possessive and plural forms For example to make iPod plural use a phrase such as iPod digital music players iPod music players or iPod players iPod Universal Dock A dock for use with different iPod models via dock adapters Note capitalization IrDA Abbreviation for Infrared Data Association Note capitalization ISDN Abbreviation for Integrated Services Digital Network Spell out on first occurrence Chapter1 Style and Usage 83 84 iSight Digital video camera for videoconferencing and audioconferencing OK to use without an article ISP Abbreviation for Internet service provider not ISP provider Note capitalization of spelled out version Spell out on first occurrence iSync Synchronization software included with Mac OS X Note capitalization not iSynch italics Follow these guidelines for using italics e References to titles of discs and titles of documents talicize the entire title See the Power Mac G5 Setup Guide Letters as letters words as words
111. ew the guide so that they become familiar with the range of issues involved in creating high quality readable and consistent documentation Apple developers and third party developers should follow this guide when labeling user interface elements and writing any text that users see as well as when writing documentation for their users What s in This Guide This 2005 edition of the style guide adds terms used in Mac OS X version 10 4 and its Classic environment Terms that appear only in the Classic environment are designated as such Chapter 1 Style and Usage on page 7 shows how certain terms are used in Apple publications and gives preferred style capitalization spelling and hyphenation for those terms It also gives general rules of style and usage for Apple publications Entries appear in alphabetical order Chapter 2 Units of Measure on page 167 provides preferred style for spelled out and abbreviated forms of units of measurement likely to occur in Apple publications Chapter 3 Apple Products on page 175 lists the official names of major Apple hardware and software products Chapter 4 Technical Notation on page 181 provides special style and usage rules that apply largely or exclusively to developer documentation Some of these rules are also included by topic in Style and Usage e Chapter 5 How to Write a Glossary on page 183 provides guidelines for preparing glossaries Chapt
112. ext being set off does not come at the end of the sentence use an em dash both before it and after it Setting just three edit points the clip In point the clip Out point and the sequence In point gives you total control of the edit that s performed To generate an em dash in a word processing application press Shift Option hyphen Close up the em dash with the word before it and the word after it Consult your department s guidelines for instructions on handling em dashes in HTML dash en The en dash is shorter than an em dash and longer than a hyphen Use the en dash as follows Numbers in a range Use an en dash between numbers that represent the endpoints of a continuous range bits 3 17 2003 2005 Compound adjectives Use an en dash between the elements of a compound adjective when one of those elements is itself two words desktop interface specific instructions Keyboard shortcuts using combination keystrokes Use an en dash between key names in a combination keystroke when at least one of those names is two words or a hyphenated word Command Option Up Arrow Command Shift double click See also key keys Minus sign Use an en dash as a minus sign except in code font where you use a hyphen 1 65 535 Chapter 1 Style and Usage To generate an en dash in a word processing application press Option hyphen Close up the en dash with the word or number before it and the word or number after it Consult
113. full name don t shorten to OS 9 or 9 Note spacing between each word Don t use Mac OS 8 9 use Mac OS 8 and Mac OS 9 It s OK to use Mac OS 8 and 9 if you need to use the term a lot See also version Mac OS Extended format Note capitalization Mention on first occurrence that this is also called HFS Plus not HFS thereafter use Mac OS Extended format See also HFS Plus Mac OS Standard format Note capitalization Mention on first occurrence that this is also called HFS thereafter use Mac OS Standard format See also HFS Mac OS X Always use the full name don t shorten to OS X or X Note spacing between each word e Version number When indicating a version of Mac OS X use either version or v closed up without a period following Mac OS X Mac OS X version 10 4 Mac OS X v10 4 Version name If the operating system has a trademarked name in addition to Mac OS X you can use the name following the version number on first occurrence Don t use quotation marks or parentheses around the version name Mac OS X version 10 4 Tiger Mac OS X v10 4 Tiger Thereafter it s OK to use either Mac OS X Tiger or Tiger In developer documentation don t use version names such as Tiger use version numbers only Mac OS X Server Apple s UNIX based server operating system Note capitalization Use only to refer to the server software don t use to refer to a computer with Mac OS X Server installed Call the computer the s
114. g Mail and for showing and hiding other applications are in the Mail menu Application menu Classic In Mac OS 9 use this name note capitalization for the menu at the far right side of the menu bar even though the name does not appear in the menu bar application names Follow the style of the software itself for capitalization and spaces for example TextEdit Image Capture DigitalColor Meter iPhoto In general don t use the with application names Correct Open QuickTime Player Incorrect Open the QuickTime Player application programming interface See API Applications folder The folder located at the top level of the hard disk and accessible to all users of a computer The Applications folder for an individual user located in the user s home folder is your Applications folder or a user s Applications folder application software Not applications software Use application software when you compare application software to other software such as system software Use application program or software when you refer to a single program or type of program application specific integrated circuit See ASIC Aqua user interface Note capitalization Arabic adj Always capitalized when you refer to numerals See also Roman roman armband One word Chapter 1 Style and Usage arrow In user documentation use pointer in general references Use arrow or arrow pointer when you are comparing different types of pointers and want to
115. g is used in 2D graphics to smooth and soften jagged or aliased edges Correct Many renderers support anti aliasing techniques Correct Apple Type Services produces anti aliased glyph images Avoid When you anti alias icons don t add pixels or shadows to the outline shape of color icons Preferred When using anti aliasing for icons don t add pixels or shadows to the outline shape of color icons Aperture A professional level application for importing organizing editing and publishing digital photos API Abbreviation for application programming interface not application program interface Note lowercase apostrophes Use the curly apostrophe Option Shift except in code font Check your department s guidelines for usage with HTML See also plurals possessives quotation marks Chapter 1 Style and Usage 15 appear Use appear not display to refer to the appearance of items on the screen The Print dialog appears When possible avoid stating that the item appears the user can see the item on the screen or include the item in instructions In the Print dialog choose Layout from the pop up menu appendix Use appendixes for background information and other supplementary material that does not contribute directly to the main subject of the document In user manuals technical information should go in an appendix e Letters Appendixes are lettered Appendix A Appendix B and so on e Part title An appendix
116. ggable Avoid in user documentation hot swap v Note hyphenation On first use enclose in quotation marks and define In user documentation avoid the adjective form hot swappable Chapter 1 Style and Usage HTML Abbreviation for Hypertext Markup Language Spell out on first occurrence Use lowercase when the abbreviation is part of a URL A file can be in HTML or an HTML file but it is not in HTML format because HTML is not a format If you know HTML you can create webpages You can find the file at this address http www books com classics html See also Internet addresses URL HTTP Abbreviation for Hypertext Transfer Protocol Use lowercase when the abbreviation is part of a URL See also HTML Internet addresses URL humor Humor can enhance documentation by adding to a reader s enjoyment and by helping to lighten the tone Humor usually works best in examples where it is less likely to distract the reader Be careful that your humor is in good taste one reader s joke can be another reader s insult and keep in mind that humor may not translate well in localized text See also fair language hypertext link See link n Hypertext Markup Language See HTML Hypertext Transfer Protocol See HTTP hyphenation In general hyphenate two words that precede and modify a noun as a unit Follow this rule especially when Confusion might result if the hyphen were omitted as in parameter list pointer or read only memor
117. hapter 1 Style and Usage double click n double click v double clicking n v Note hyphenation Small children may have trouble with a double click Adults can double click without difficulty By double clicking you can work faster You do this by double clicking the icon Double Data Rate See DDR double layer n double layer adj Hyphenate as an adjective but not as a noun double layer disc DVD R DL Double Layer Use lowercase for general references You can burn up to 4 hours of video on a double layer DVD See also DVD double tap n double tap v double tapping n v Note hyphenation Use when you describe the trackpad action that s equivalent to double clicking Down Arrow key Note capitalization When you refer to more than one of the arrow keys use lowercase as in the arrow keys download n v downloadable adj One word dpi Abbreviation for dots per inch n and dot per inch adj Spell out on first occurrence OK to use dpi thereafter The printer provides a resolution of 600 dots per inch dpi it can be upgraded to 1200 dpi The printer provides a 600 dot per inch dpi resolution some printers offer 1200 dpi resolution drag Refers to the act of positioning the pointer pressing and holding down the mouse button moving the mouse and then releasing the mouse button Define on first mention Always use drag in reference to objects on the screen Don t use drag the mouse Do
118. he Power Mac G5 Chapter 1 Style and Usage 103 104 module Classic Don t use when you re discussing the Control Strip in Mac OS 9 use portion the Battery Level portion of the Control Strip monitor In general don t use to refer to the primary display connected to the user s computer use display You can use monitor to refer generically to different kinds of display devices that may be connected to a user s computer such as a CRT monitor or NTSC monitor Correct Connect the display to your Power Mac G5 Incorrect Connect the monitor to your Power Mac G5 Correct If you want to show your movie on an external monitor first connect the monitor to your computer monitor cable Not video cable or monitor cord Use when you refer to cables for displays other than Apple displays otherwise use display cable Use display power cord or monitor power cord for the cord that goes from the display or monitor to the power source See also display cable monitor depth Avoid use color depth monitor port Not video port Use to refer to the port to which a monitor is connected Don t use monitor port to refer to the port to which an Apple display is connected See also display port monospaced adj Not monospace Fixed width is the preferred term to describe fonts such as Courier in which each character takes up the same amount of space most recent Don t use to refer to a specific software version Instead use only the versi
119. head The control in QuickTime Player iMovie HD and Final Cut Pro that users manipulate to move around in a movie One word plug Not male connector See also connector plug in n Note hyphenation If the hyphen is not used in something the user sees in the interface or in a filename match what the user sees Locate the QuickTime Plugin on your hard disk In text heads use lowercase for the i in Plug in exception to the rule that you capitalize the second word in a hyphenated compound plug in v plug into v Use when you refer to the specific act of plugging a connector into a port or outlet For example a power cord plugs into an electrical outlet you can plug a USB connector into a USB port See also connect connector into in to Chapter 1 Style and Usage plurals Follow these guidelines for plurals e Acronyms and abbreviations To form the plural of an acronym or an abbreviation add an s but no apostrophe CDs DVDs e Adjectives Don t add s to an adjective unless necessary For example it s electronic circuit but electronics engineer Other words that fall into this class of adjectives are graphic and graphics communication and communications numeric and numerics e Letters and symbols To form the plural of a letter or symbol add an apostrophe and ans p s s e Numbers Form the plural of numbers by adding an s 1s 1930s e Nouns Don t use s to indicate that a noun can be either singular
120. heads If absolutely necessary level four heads can be included but remember that a document long enough to need level four heads also has an index Capitalization wording and punctuation The wording capitalization punctuation and spelling of all heads and titles must be exactly the same in the table of contents as in the text Chapter 1 Style and Usage 145 tables Use tables for information that is easier to scan in columnar form than in running text Also use tables for information matrixes which provide an effective way to present quick reference instructions or descriptions e Capitalization Use sentence style capitalization for all parts of a table including the column headings e Headings Make table headings short and descriptive e In text references Provide in text references to all tables In general place the reference in the paragraph immediately preceding the table In user documentation you can use below to refer to a table that immediately follows the paragraph In text references can stand alone as a complete sentence with or without parentheses or can occur within a sentence with or without parentheses Use a consistent style throughout a document The following table shows how the tools work and what they do The application provides several tools see the following table See the table below for details If the table has a number use it in the in text reference Table 3 2 lists the signa
121. ialogue Use dialogue not dialog to refer to spoken words dial up adj Note hyphenation Don t use dial up as a verb Dictionary A dictionary and thesaurus application also a Dashboard widget Note capitalization Don t precede with the different from Not different than Make sure that the elements being compared are parallel nouns Correct The Macintosh user interface is different from that of a Windows PC Incorrect The Macintosh user interface is different than that of a Windows PC Incorrect The Macintosh user interface is different from a Windows PC differently than Use when comparing two parallel clauses Don t use different than different from or differently from for this purpose But rewrite whenever possible to set up a construction in which different from is used to compare two parallel nouns Correct She uses the computer differently than he does Preferable Her use of the computer is different from his Incorrect She uses the computer differently than him digital to analog converter See DAC digital video n adj No hyphen See also DV digital video recorder See DVR Digital Visual Interface See DVI dimensions In general use by not x to show dimensions 3 2 by 6 0 by 11 4 in 8 1 by 15 2 by 28 9 cm 8 5 by 11 inches 8 5 by 11 inch paper 4 by 6 inches 4 by 6 inch photo acceptable 4 by 6 photos 4 x 6 photo If you use x instead of by use the x consistently throughout a document See also reso
122. ic document window In user documentation call a sheet a dialog sheet is mainly used in developer documentation When you choose Print the Print dialog appears User documentation When the user responds to a sheet and another sheet for that document opens the first sheet must close before the second one opens Developer documentation Sherlock A Mac OS X Internet services application Note capitalization Shift click v adj Note capitalization and hyphenation The hyphen denotes a combined action Shift click is equivalent to press the Shift key and click Use the Shift click technique to select more than one icon To include another item in the selection Shift click it Chapter1 Style and Usage 135 136 Shift key Note capitalization Shift lock Don t use use Caps Lock shortcut One word See also keyboard shortcut shortcut menu See menus shows up Don t use use appears When you choose Find a dialog appears shutdown n adj shut down v Use Shut Down when you refer to the menu command In generic references use lowercase sidebar The column on the left side of Finder windows that shows mounted disks servers and favorite items One word note lowercase sign Use sign not symbol in the following terms division sign equal sign greater than sign less than sign minus sign multiplication sign number sign and plus sign signaled signaling Not signalled signalling signals Use regular te
123. ications in the Classic environment Incorrect You can use the application in Classic Classic Mac OS Don t use instead use Mac OS 9 and earlier Classic describes applications not the operating system clean installation Not clean install Note lowercase You perform a clean installation you don t do a clean install See also install installation click Use click to describe the act of positioning the pointer on an object onscreen and briefly pressing and releasing the mouse button Don t use click on You don t click the mouse button you press and release it Because most users know what clicking is you need to define it only in documentation designed for beginning users such as tutorials Icon To open the Mail application click the Mail icon in the Dock Button To show the toolbar click the Toolbar button in the top right corner of the window Disc icon Click the disc icon and then choose File gt Make Alias Unnamed elements In the photo viewing area click the triangle next to the film roll you want to view See also click in press select click and drag Don t use You either click or drag Correct Drag the icon to the Trash Incorrect Click and drag the icon to the Trash click and hold Don t use Click means to press and quickly release the mouse button Use hold down when you mean press and hold down the mouse button See also hold down press click in You click in a window or region such as a scro
124. ies 1 TB of memory e Adjective Don t hyphenate the adjective form 1 TB hard disk Tbit n adj Abbreviation for terabit Spell out on first occurrence e Noun In the noun form use a space between the numeral and the abbreviation The preposition of is necessary before the unit that the value quantifies 1 Thit of line capacity e Adjective Don t hyphenate the adjective form 10 Thit router Tbit s Standard abbreviation for terabits per second Spell out on first occurrence Tbps Customary abbreviation for terabits per second used by some Apple groups See also Tbit s TB s Standard abbreviation for terabytes per second Spell out on first occurrence See also TB sec TB sec Customary abbreviation for terabytes per second used by some Apple groups See also TB s TCP IP Abbreviation for Transmission Control Protocol Internet Protocol Note capitalization of spelled out version telecommunicate Don t use as a verb Use communicate instead telecommunication Telecommunication refers to the act telecommunications refers to the field When used as an adjective the correct term is telecommunications Telecommunication gets simpler by the day though you can t prove it by most manuals on this subject The telecommunications industry is expanding rapidly Chapter 1 Style and Usage 147 148 telephone numbers Use hyphens in U S phone and fax numbers don t use parentheses or a leading 7 Use toll free number no
125. ification to refer to the horizontal placement of lines of text with respect to the left and right edges of the margin Alignment can be flush left flush right centered or justified that is flush on both the left and right margins Compare justification Chapter 1 Style and Usage 13 14 all in one Refers to computers with built in displays such as eMac and iMac computers Also refers to products that combine functions such as printing faxing scanning and copying allow Avoid using allow when you can restructure a sentence to make the reader the subject Weak FileMaker Pro allows you to create a database Preferable You can create a database with FileMaker Pro See also disable disabled enable enabled let alphabetic Not alphabetical except when you refer specifically to alphabetical order Exception to American Heritage alphabetization Alphabetize letter by letter not word by word program disk programmer program selector Place numbers at the beginning of an alphabetized text list see page 7 of this guide for an example and list the numbers in numerical order alphanumeric One word alternate Don t use when you mean alternative As an alternative to fsck you can use Disk Utility to check the disk for errors alternating current See AC AltiVec Don t use when you mean Velocity Engine OK to say that the Velocity Engine is based on AltiVec technology Alt key Don t use except when you give in
126. in disk drive You can use either built in disk drive or internal disk drive built in graphics card Use to describe graphics cards that are installed at the factory Don t use onboard graphics card bullet Use bullet for the character that precedes an item in a list Use also for the symbol in a Window menu that appears next to a document with unsaved changes Zoom Bring All to Front v List rtf List2 rtf e List3 tf See also dot bundle bundled Refers to a collection of products or to products included with a computer It s preferable to use a term such as included or comes with Don t use prebundled In developer documentation a bundle is also a special type of directory that stores the code of applications and plug ins in a file package that appears as a single file in the Finder burn You burn files on a disc or to a disc but not onto a disc You can also burn a disc Use iPhoto to burn your photos on a CD Select the playlists you want to burn to a CD If you have a SuperDrive you can burn DVDs See also write bus buses Note spelling of plural In documentation for audio technology you can use busses for the plural but be consistent in all documentation for a particular product Chapter 1 Style and Usage 25 26 bus powered self powered In user documentation try to avoid when indicating whether devices draw power from a power cord or from another USB device When possible describe the device don t give it a label
127. ing the Macintosh user interface use insertion point or pointer depending on the context The term cursor is appropriate when you describe the VoiceOver interface and may be appropriate when you describe other interfaces and in developer documentation See also insertion point pointer VoiceOver cursor custom installation Not custom install Note lowercase You perform a custom installation you don t do a custom install See also easy installation install installation normal installation cut Don t capitalize unless you re referring to the Cut command by name You cut something using the Cut command you don t Cut it See also command names Chapter 1 Style and Usage 43 44 D DAC Acronym for digital to analog converter Note lowercase and hyphenation in spelled out version Spell out on first occurrence daisy chain n daisy chain v adj daisy chained adj pred adj Note hyphenation of verb and adjective forms Darwin An operating system that includes some but not all of the components of Mac OS X Darwin comprises the kernel plus the BSD libraries and commands essential to the BSD Commands application environment The term Darwin doesn t appear in the Mac OS X user interface dash em Use the em dash to set off a word or phrase that interrupts or changes the direction of a sentence or to set off a lengthy list that would otherwise make the syntax of a sentence confusing Don t overuse em dashes If the t
128. is clear or use available on the desktop or in Finder windows When you mount a volume you make its contents available Click the Computer button to see a list of all available disks Note that in Finder preferences users can choose whether to display disks on their desktops See also unmount unmounted mouse Drop references to the mouse as quickly as possible Switch emphasis to the actions on the screen such as clicking dragging selecting or choosing See also choose click drag press select Avoid using the plural form of mouse If you must use the plural use either mouse devices or mice Apple offers several types of mouse devices mouse ahead n adj mouse ahead v No hyphen in verb Refers to the queuing of the user s mouse actions until an application is ready to process them Compare type ahead type ahead mouse down event Note hyphenation Chapter 1 Style and Usage 105 106 Mouse Keys Capitalize when you refer to the feature that can be set in the Universal Access pane of System Preferences mousepad One word mouse scaling n mouse scaling adj Note hyphenation of adjective mouse up event Note hyphenation MP3 Short for MPEG Audio Layer 3 an audio compression technology The plural is MP3s Don t use MP3 to refer to audio files in general some files use AAC or other formats MPEG Acronym for Moving Picture Experts Group a working group of the International Standards Organiza
129. l without the word Apple when you refer to the Apple menu Consult your department s guidelines for treatment of the symbol in HTML Chapter 1 Style and Usage Apple Remote Note capitalization OK to shorten to the remote after using the full name Apple Remote Desktop An application for managing networked Mac OS X based computers Note capitalization AppleScript Mac OS X scripting software AppleScript is used to create a script or scripts not an AppleScript or AppleScripts Don t use terms such as AppleScriptable or AppleScripting Apple Store The name of Apple online and retail stores Note capitalization Use Apple Store when possible If you need to be more specific use one of these variations online Apple Store Apple Store online retail Apple Store retail Apple store location Don t use the following variations Apple store Apple Online Store Online Apple Store Retail Apple Store Educators can purchase from the Apple Store for Education Business customers can purchase from the Apple Store for Business Use a comma before and after store locations the Apple Store Valley Fair in Santa Clara Products are available at from in or through not on the Apple Store The Apple Store has everything you need for your new Macintosh computer Visit the online Apple Store or stop by an Apple Store in your area iPod is available through the Apple Store http www apple com Apple retail stores and Apple Authorized Rese
130. l and pin assignments for the DVI connector See Table 3 10 for additional result codes e Table notes and footnotes Information that pertains to an entire table is generally set as a table note before any table footnotes The table note begins with the word Note initial cap only followed by a colon If it is essential that this information be more prominent than a table note allows it can be added instead after the table title in parentheses with no capitalization or ending punctuation even if it is a complete sentence When specific items in a table require footnotes depending on your department s style either number the items consecutively starting with 1 or use the following symbols in this order asterisk dagger t Option T double dagger 4 Option Shift 7 section Option 6 paragraph 4 Option 7 number When more symbols are needed they are doubled in the same order In developer documentation table notes and footnotes are not used because of problems with HTML conversion 146 Chapter 1 Style and Usage tap n v tapping n v Use when you describe the trackpad action that s equivalent to clicking See also click press type target disk mode Note lowercase TB n adj Abbreviation for terabyte Spell out on first occurrence e Noun In the noun form use a space between the numeral and the abbreviation The preposition of is necessary before the unit that the value quantif
131. lassic Note capitalization Refers to a resource file used by the Finder Desktop Folder Classic Note capitalization determinate progress bar In developer documentation the progress bar that fills from left to right In user documentation use progress indicator and describe what it looks like Developer documentation Use a determinate progress bar when you can tell the user how much of a process has been completed User documentation A progress indicator a moving bar shows the status of the download device Use to refer to any piece of hardware that connects directly or indirectly through a network to the computer Use peripheral device on first mention device name Two words Note the treatment of these similar terms filename host name pathname user name volume name diacritical mark Not diacritic dial in dial in to v dial in adj Note hyphenation of the adjective form dialog Refers to a window like the one below that appears on the screen to elicit a response from the user All dialogs are windows but not all windows are dialogs A dialog appears Don t use dialog box Compare alert window Printer HP LaserJet 1200 H Presets Standard B Copies amp Pages i Copies 1 M Collated Pages All O From 1 to 1 PDFw Preview Supplies Cancel Print Chapter1 Style and Usage 47 48 dialog box Don t use use dialog dialog message Don t use use message d
132. le capitalization This line provides an example of sentence style capitalization See also capitalization sentence style capitalization title style Chapter 1 Style and Usage capitalization sentence style Follow these guidelines for sentence style capitalization e What to capitalize When you use sentence style capitalization capitalize the first letter of the first word as well as the first letter of any proper nouns and proper adjectives e Where to use Use sentence style capitalization for callouts and other text in figures table column headings and overview steps Apple Product Documentation and User Publications e Cross references Capitalization in cross references to section heads should match that in the section heads For example if the section head is sentence style the cross reference to it should be sentence style capitalization title style Use title style capitalization for book titles part titles chapter titles section titles text heads disc titles running footers that use chapter titles and cross references to such titles e References to specific book elements In cross references to a specific appendix or chapter capitalize the word Appendix or Chapter exception to The Chicago Manual of Style When you refer to appendixes or chapters in general don t capitalize the word appendix or chapter See Chapter 2 QuickTime on the Internet See Appendix B for a list of specifications See
133. ll bar you click other onscreen elements such as icons and buttons See also click click on Don t use use click Click Wheel The combined iPod touch wheel and buttons Not Apple Click Wheel or touch wheel Note capitalization clip art Two words Chapter 1 Style and Usage 33 34 Clipboard Note capitalization In developer documentation it s OK to use pasteboard when you discuss the NSPasteboard class but point out that users view the contents of the pasteboard in the Clipboard In user documentation use Clipboard not pasteboard close Users close a window or a document Don t refer to an icon as a closed window See also open close button Note lowercase In Mac OS X refers to the leftmost button of the three window controls in the upper left corner of the title bar In Mac OS 9 the equivalent item is called the close box closed clamshell mode Don t use Use when the computer is closed or when the display is closed CLUT Acronym for color lookup table Spell out on first occurrence Note lowercase in spelled out version spell lookup as one word co prefix Close up except in a few words beginning with o co op co owner coexist cooperate coprocessor coworker coax Don t use when you mean coaxial Cocoa application An application written and compiled using the Cocoa frameworks Use the term Cocoa only in developer documentation codec Short for coder decoder or compressor decompressor Not CODEC e Teleco
134. llers applet Can be any small application but usually refers to a piece of code that is attached to an HTML document on the World Wide Web AppleTalk Refers to an overall network system and any software that uses it including the resources you turn on and off in Network preferences The following terms are appropriate uses of the word AppleTalk AppleTalk developer AppleTalk identification number AppleTalk network Shared devices used over an AppleTalk network such as a shared printer can be called AppleTalk services See also Ethernet Apple USB Modem An external modem used for dial up Internet connections Note capitalization AppleWorks An integrated word processing spreadsheet database presentation painting and drawing application Note capitalization Chapter 1 Style and Usage 17 18 application A computer program that performs a specific task such as word processing database management and so on Don t use app or apps The terms application program and software can all be used to refer to this type of program Application Chooser menu In VoiceOver a menu for navigating among open applications The menu appears when the user presses Option Control F1 twice application menu In Mac OS X the application menu is the menu to the right of the Apple menu It shows the application name in boldface You don t need to include the word application when you refer to a specific application menu Commands for hidin
135. lons question marks and exclamation points go outside quotation marks unless they re part of an actual quotation e Four character identifiers When you give the name of four character identifiers such as file types use straight single quotation marks in code font and place any punctuation outside the quotation marks Examples of file types are TEXT PICT and APPL Chapter 1 Style and Usage e Terminology Use quotation marks not quote marks or quotes Quote is a verb quotation is a noun or an adjective e Cross references and quotations Use quotation marks for references to other sections of documents chapter titles and direct quotations See Maintenance on page 83 See Chapter 2 Using iMovie HD e Onscreen use Use quotation marks around text that appears only onscreen for letters as letters words as words and document and disc titles e Onscreen messages Enclose quotations from the screen such as alert messages in quotation marks e Terms that stand for or define other terms Use italics not quotation marks for terms after called known as labeled stands for termed and so on Use plain style for elements whose names are in title style capitalization A folder called My Files appears e Sentence style onscreen elements Use quotation marks for elements whose names use sentence style capitalization and for title style phrases in which any word is in lowercase Select the checkbox labeled
136. lowercase Use to refer to the instructional text that appears when the pointer hovers over an interface element in Mac OS X Use tooltips only if that is the term used in the interface Help Viewer The application used to display HTML help files Don t use the before Help Viewer Two words note capitalization hexadecimal In user documentation don t use hex as a shorthand form In developer documentation hex is OK but spell out hexadecimal on first occurrence Use a preceding to designate a hexadecimal number hexagonal head screw Not hex head screw HFS Abbreviation for hierarchical file system Spell out on first occurrence Avoid in user documentation use Mac OS Standard format instead HFS Plus Note capitalization Don t use HFS Avoid in user documentation use Mac OS Extended format instead hierarchical file system See HFS Chapter 1 Style and Usage high bit n high bit adj Not hi bit or hi bit High bit is an acceptable short form for the noun high order bit high definition See HD highlight trans v Don t use in user documentation In developer documentation don t use as an intransitive verb Correct Your application should identify the selection range and highlight it properly Incorrect The icon highlights when you click it Compare highlighted highlighting select highlighted adj No hyphen Not hilighted Don t use inverted except in developer documentation When explaining highlighti
137. lution x DIMM Acronym for dual inline memory module Spell out on first occurrence Chapter 1 Style and Usage dimmed Use dimmed not hollow or grayed to describe a shaded icon menu item button or option in a dialog Dimmed options cannot be selected Dimmed menu items cannot be chosen Dimmed icons can represent disks whose contents are displayed in a window disks that have been ejected or files or folders in the window of a disk that has been ejected You don t need to say dimmed unavailable because a dimmed object is understood to be unavailable DIN Use all caps when you refer to a type of connector as in DIN 8 Don t use mini DIN direct connect adj Note hyphenation direction keys Don t use use arrow keys directory Standard UNIX term for an organizational unit or container used to organize files and other directories into a hierarchical structure known as a file system In developer documentation use directory in other Apple documentation use folder See also folder directory pathnames See pathnames disable v disabled adj In user documentation avoid disable when you can use turn off or deselect Don t use disabled when you mean unavailable when you refer to menu items Correct Make sure virus protection software is turned off and your computer isn t set to go to sleep Avoid Make sure virus protection software and system sleep are disabled In developer documentation it s OK to use
138. ly if it is part of the name for example Sound Driver or Disk Driver In user documentation avoid using driver use software instead printer software When you use the term driver generically as in print driver don t capitalize drop box Two words note lowercase drop down menu Don t use use menu DTR Abbreviation for data terminal ready signal dual inline memory module See DIMM dual processor adj Note hyphenation due to Not due to the fact that A phrase beginning with due to must follow a linking verb and must function as a subject complement it cannot function as an independent prepositional phrase Use because of with prepositional phrases The interference was due to a faulty cable Your programs will open faster because of the additional memory Chapter 1 Style and Usage DV An industry standard video format Generally use DV to refer to the format or to products that use the format Don t use DV to refer to the medium digital video Related terms include DV format DV standard DV camera DV camcorder DVD Don t spell out DVD doesn t stand for a specific term DVD technologies include the following DVD Audio read only DVD R recordable DVD R recordable DVD R DL recordable double layer DVD RAM rewritable DVD ROM read only DVD RW rewritable not DVD R W or DVD RW DVD RW rewritable not DVD R W or DVD RW DVD Video read only Refer to the specific type of disc or drive or use the
139. m Don t capitalize generic references to types of script systems KanjiTalk is Apple s version of the Japanese script system The Roman Script System is available on all Macintosh computers scroll Avoid using as a transitive verb Correct Scroll through a document Correct Scroll to view more of the document Incorrect Scroll a document scroll arrows Two words not scroll bar arrows Chapter 1 Style and Usage scroll bar Two words The whole control is the scroll bar In Mac OS X the control that users drag is the scroller in Mac OS 9 it s the scroll box scroll box Classic The control that users drag in the scroll bar In Mac OS X it s called the scroller it s not a box scroller The control you drag in the scroll bar See also scroll bar scroll wheel The mechanism on the original iPod SCSI Acronym for Small Computer System Interface Spell out on first occurrence The acronym is pronounced SKUH zee so it is preceded by a not an The DVD ROM drive is a SCSI device You can connect Narrow SCSI devices to the computer s external SCSI port Different types of SCSI connections are named according to their speed Note the treatment of these terms Narrow SCSI also called SCS 1 Fast Narrow SCSI also called SCSI 2 Fast Wide SCSI Wide Ultra SCSI Wide Ultra2 SCSI SCSI cable Not SCSI system interface cable or SCSI interface cable Be specific SCSI system cable SCSI peripheral cable SCSI ca
140. m or element should be italicized in text such as the title of a book the entry states that the element should be in italics If an entry doesn t explicitly call for italics the term or element usually should not be italicized in text Preface About This Guide Style and Usage This chapter provides guidelines on writing style and usage in Apple publications and in the user interface The intent of these guidelines is to help maintain a consistent voice in Apple publications and in the user interface If you don t find what you re looking for in these pages consult your editor Mac Use uppercase M Mac in text even though packaging and the interface may use mac The term is pronounced dot Mac 2 byte character Don t use use double byte character 2D Abbreviation for two dimensional No hyphen in the abbreviation 3D Abbreviation for three dimensional No hyphen in the abbreviation 3 5 Not 3 1 2 when you refer to 3 5 inch disks 8 pin minicircular connector Note hyphenation Use a numeral don t spell out eight After first mention the shorter minicircular connector is fine Avoid in user documentation describe the connector by its size and shape by its icon or in another way appropriate to the context because it may have fewer than eight pins See also connector 10Base T Preferred in user documentation although 70BASE T is also correct See also 100Base T Fast Ethernet 1000Base T Gigabit Ethernet 56
141. main circuit board You can also use main board main memory Not central memory male connector Don t use use plug See also connector manual Use manual to refer generically to a print book that comes with a computer or other product You can also use user s manual user manual or user s guide depending on the manual title See the manual that came with your camcorder See your user s guide for instructions Apple Product Documentation uses this style See your user manual for instructions User Publications uses this style e Electronic delivery If a print manual will also be delivered electronically for example as a PDF file don t call the book an electronic manual simply describe it for the user The manual is also available as a PDF file on the installation disc e Cross references To refer to documentation that may be either printed or electronic use documentation See the documentation that came with your computer See also document titles user s guide user s manual Chapter 1 Style and Usage mass storage device No hyphen OK in reference to a hard disk drive tape backup unit DVD drive or CD drive but not in reference to a 3 5 inch disk drive maximize Don t use to refer to an item in the Dock use make active To make an item in the Dock active click the item may can See can may MB n adj Abbreviation for megabyte Spell out on first occurrence e Noun In the noun form use a space between th
142. mmunications A codec coder decoder is a device for encoding and decoding signals Modems and digital telephones use codecs to convert information between digital and analog signals e Multimedia A codec compressor decompressor is a method for compressing and decompressing data For example MP3 and H 264 are codecs that reduce the amount of information used to represent audio and video content respectively code file Two words code font Code font is a fixed width font such as Courier used for code e Uses Use code font for the following e Text the user is to type Technical Publications uses this style Other groups may use single or double quotation marks or italics for short words or phrases the user is to type Consult your department s style guidelines e Code listings e Small pieces of sample code e Computer language elements such as reserved words literals variables and routines e Commands that appear in running text Chapter 1 Style and Usage e Punctuation and spaces Style any punctuation following a word or phrase in code font as regular body font unless the punctuation mark is part of the computer language element represented or part of something the user is to type Style the spaces that immediately precede or follow text in code font in regular body font If the language with which you re working has a standard style of indentation use it If it doesn t have such a style develop a logical style of your
143. mponent video Note lowercase composite video Note lowercase Chapter 1 Style and Usage comprise A whole comprises parts Parts constitute a whole Don t use is comprised of Your video editing system comprises a Power Mac computer Final Cut Pro software a digital camcorder and an external NTSC monitor Four iMac and two iBook computers constitute the class s computing resources computer Use when you describe a computer without any peripherals Use system to refer to a computer its peripheral devices and software Don t use machine computer voice See code font connect Use to refer to the act of hooking devices together don t use attach or hook up You connect USB devices to a computer and you can connect computers to an Ethernet network Don t use connect when you mean plug in See also plug in plug into connector Use to refer only to an item that can be plugged into a receptacle such as a slot port or socket Use the following terminology edge connector the connector on the edge of a peripheral card fits into a slot minicircular connector an 8 pin connector Don t use mini DIN plug a connector with prongs or pins e Descriptions In user documentation describe connectors by their shape and size by the icon that appears on the connector or in another way appropriate to the context The user should be able to identify the connector easily even if she or he doesn t know the terminology e Pins In
144. n printer port Note lowercase Printer Setup Utility Note capitalization Don t use the before the name Open Printer Setup Utility print head Two words Chapter 1 Style and Usage printout n One word print out v Don t use use print print server Two words problem Don t use in phrases such as this is a known problem or this version fixes that problem Use condition issue or situation It s OK to use problem in a general way such as the following If you have a problem registering try again in a few moments processor Synonymous with microprocessor for Apple products In user documentation the simpler processor is preferred See also CPU product names Follow the capitalization style on the product s packaging Don t capitalize words like card and driver unless they are part of the product name Don t use quotation marks around product names e The company name Use the company name Apple with the product at its first use in both the preface and main text to establish ownership of the product Thereafter it s OK to drop the name of the company e Possessives In general avoid forming possessives of product names whether or not the names are trademarked For example avoid AirPort Card s features AirPort Card is not trademarked For official hardware product names see Chapter 3 Apple Products on page 175 See also plurals trademarks professional pro Generally use professional as in the f
145. n Use once and describe what it looks like rectangular Chapter 1 Style and Usage 153 154 type ahead n adj type ahead v Don t use a hyphen in the verb Refers to the queuing of a user s keystrokes until an application is ready to process them Compare mouse ahead mouse ahead Type B connector A type of USB connector Note capitalization Use once and describe what it looks like square typeface Use to refer to a distinct design for a particular character set Each typeface has its own name such as Times or Garamond Fonts of the same typeface regardless of font style or point size or whether they are outline or bitmap fonts form a single font family Compare font font family type family Don t use use font family type size Don t use use size or font size U UDF Abbreviation for Universal Disk Format Note capitalization of spelled out version UFS Abbreviation for UNIX File System a file format available in Disk Utility that is used primarily by UNIX and UNIX based operating systems Not necessary to spell out on first occurrence ultra prefix Close up except in words beginning with a vowel ultra efficient ultrafast ultralight ultrasharp ultrathin ultrawide unavailable Use to describe an item such as a menu item or an option in a dialog that the user cannot select or choose because certain conditions are not met The Copy command is unavailable if there is no text selected See also dimmed
146. n causes something to happen when clicked always call it a button don t call it an icon For example the following interface elements look and act like buttons J Le Le oy e Icons that act like buttons If an element in the user interface looks like an icon displays a picture and does not appear three dimensional but acts like a button causes something to happen when clicked you can call it either a button or an icon See also checkbox click icon radio button C cable Use cable to describe what physically connects two pieces of hardware Don t use cabling even when you mean cable collectively use cables Compare cord cache n v cached v adj caching n v Note spelling See also backside cache level 2 cache level 3 cache RAM cache Calculator The calculator application in Mac OS X also a Dashboard widget Note capitalization Don t precede with the calendar When you need to refer to a specific type of calendar use Gregorian calendar to refer to the calendar used in Europe and the Western Hemisphere Use Islamic calendar to refer to the lunar calendar used in predominantly Muslim countries Other calendar names are Buddhist Hebrew and Japanese Chapter1 Style and Usage 27 28 callback n adj No hyphen callouts Use a callout a short text label with a line that points to part of a figure when you need to identify something within a figure A thin line without an arrowhead known as
147. n application updated for Carbon Use the term Carbon only in developer documentation card Refers to a removable circuit board that is installed in a slot Compare board See also interface card PCI PCI X peripheral card card names Capitalize the word card in a card name only if it is part of the name for example AirPort Extreme Card For generic names don t capitalize any part of the card name for example an internal modem card caret In developer documentation use caret for the blinking bar that marks the insertion point In user documentation the blinking bar is the insertion point Don t use caret when you mean circumflex A circumflex is an accent used in French words such as tre carriage return See CR catalog Refers to a list of all files and folders stored on a volume Don t use this term in user documentation cathode ray tube See CRT Chapter 1 Style and Usage CD Abbreviation for compact disc CD technologies include the following CD ROM read only CD R recordable CD RW rewritable not CD R W or CD RW Types Types of CDs include audio CDs or music CDs MP3 CDs and data CDs Refer to the specific type of disc or drive or use the general term CD depending on the context Usage Don t use CD ROM CD RW or CD R as a noun the term must modify another word such as drive or disc For the plural don t use CD ROMs CD RWs and so on Instead use CD ROM discs CD RW discs and so on or simply
148. n name is capitalized B back end n back end adj Note hyphenation of adjective backlight backlit One word back panel Two words backside cache A kind of level 2 cache Backside cache operations are faster than those of other level 2 caches Also OK to use backside level 2 cache See also level 2 cache level 3 cache backslash Use to describe this character See also slash backspace n v adj One word Chapter 1 Style and Usage Backspace key A key on Windows keyboards that is equivalent to the Delete key on a Macintosh keyboard Note capitalization backup n adj back up v One word except as a verb no hyphen The software included with Mac membership is called Backup backward adv Not backwards when you refer to direction But in certain other contexts such as putting a card in backwards it s OK to use backwards backward compatibility Not backwards compatibility backward compatible adj Note hyphenation balloon Classic Use lowercase when you refer to an individual balloon in Balloon Help Not bubble text balloon or speech balloon See also help tags Balloon Help Classic Note capitalization bandwidth One word batteries Describe batteries in terms of the number required size and type e Description Include only the appropriate information lithium ion battery lithium polymer battery eight AAA alkaline batteries one AA rechargeable nickel cadmium battery two
149. n t use click and drag Don t use place put or move when you mean drag Correct Drag the icon all over the screen Correct Drag the icon to the Trash Incorrect Click and drag the icon to the Trash Incorrect Put the icon in the Trash Chapter 1 Style and Usage 53 54 drag and drop v drag and drop adj Note hyphens in the adjective Avoid using drag and drop as a compound verb followed by an object dragging includes dropping the item into place Correct Drag the file to the printer icon Correct Using iPhoto you can create digital photo albums with drag and drop simplicity Correct Just drag and drop to add photos to your documents Incorrect Drag and drop the file onto the printer icon DRAM Acronym for dynamic random access memory Pronounced DEE ram Spell out on first occurrence drawer A window that slides out from a parent window when users click a button or choose a command drive A drive holds disks or discs hard disk drive DVD ROM drive Zip disk drive Don t capitalize drive except in a product name such as SuperDrive Use disc disk or hard disk to refer to a disk and its contents Don t use drive when you mean disc or disk Correct You can connect an external hard drive to your computer Incorrect You can connect an external hard disk to your computer See also CD ROM drive disk drive DVD ROM drive hard disk hard drive driver Capitalize the word driver in a driver name on
150. n titles Use title style capitalization and enclose the title in quotation marks Some departments include page numbers in cross references to the titles of sections of print documents consult your department s style guidelines See Trouble Starting Up in Chapter 4 See Before You Install the Software on page 16 e To part titles Use title style capitalization and enclose the title but not the word Part or the part number in quotation marks See Part Ill Real Time and Rendering for more information See the Final Cut Pro 5 User Manual Volume Part Ill Setting Up Your Editing System e To onscreen help When you refer to onscreen help don t place quotation marks around the names of specific help books such as Keychain Access Help Do place quotation marks around the names of chapters of a help book as you would the chapters of a print book See the Files and Programs topic area See the section New Features in AppleScript Help CRT Abbreviation for cathode ray tube Note hyphenation of spelled out version Spell out on first occurrence Don t use when you mean display or screen Ctrl Abbreviation for Control note capitalization Use the abbreviation only when space constraints don t allow use of the full term as in column heads in tables otherwise use Control as in Control key or Control S Don t use CTRL curly brackets Don t use use braces cursor In describ
151. n to RAID 0 RAID 1 RAID 0 1 and so on RAM Acronym for random access memory Spell out on first occurrence Note hyphenation and lowercase of spelled out version RAM cache Use lowercase c except when you refer specifically to the RAM Cache option in a Mac OS 9 control panel RAM disk Two words Note capitalization random access memory See RAM RAW A file type Use all caps even though RAW is not an acronym Don t use RAW alone use RAW file RAW image RAW setting and so on When you take photos using your camera s RAW setting the camera creates a RAW file that retains all the image data captured by the camera re prefix Usually closed up even when it forms a double vowel as in reenter and reinstall Exceptions re create as in re create the file re sort as in re sort the database Read Me A document usually in text only or Rich Text Format that accompanies a product and contains information the user needs to read before installing or using the product e Titles In user documentation don t call such documents the Read Me or Read Me file Instead use the document s name enclosed in quotation marks Call a file Read Me only if that s the actual filename Titles for application software For some software products use Read Before You Install Product Name for the title of a standalone Read Me one that is a separate file on the user s hard disk or the product disc Read Before You Install iPhoto
152. n when clicked always call it an icon For example always call the following items icons An iPhoto album icon p An iPhoto film roll icon E A hard disk icon Macintosh HD Chapter 1 Style and Usage 77 78 e Icons that act like buttons If an element in the user interface looks like an icon displays a picture and does not appear three dimensional but acts like a button causes something to happen when clicked you can call it either a button or an icon Unnamed icon f an icon does not have a label and there is no established name for the icon consult your editor to determine what to call the icon Use lowercase for the name of the icon To refer to an unnamed icon follow this form the headphones f port the Add button See also button icon view A way to display and select items by viewing them as icons for example the icon view in Finder windows You can view items in Finder windows in icon view list view or column view Icon View button The leftmost button in the View control in Finder windows Note capitalization m iDisk The Mac service that provides storage space for pictures movies website files and other data Mac members have an iDisk Note the distinction between your iDisk on Apple s Internet servers and a local copy of your iDisk on the user s computer A user synchronizes or syncs his or her iDisk automatically or manually after creating a local copy iDVD A
153. nd audio production software Note capitalization Chapter 1 Style and Usage log in v login n adj log out v logout n adj Use log in to not log into Correct You must log in as an administrator Correct If you turn automatic login on for yourself the computer opens your account when it starts up Incorrect You must log into the computer Users log in to a file server not log on to users log out of a file server not log off log off of or log out from Correct You must log out of the server Incorrect You must log out from the server Incorrect You must log off the server You can use login screen to refer to the dialog that appears when a new user logs in to Mac OS X login items Applications or files that open automatically when the user logs in In user documentation it s preferable to use descriptive language for example items that start up automatically The pane in the Accounts preference pane of System Preferences is named Login Items in Mac OS X v10 4 but Startup Items in Mac OS X v10 3 log on log off Don t use use log in and log out look up v lookup n adj Spell the verb as two words close up the noun or adjective lo res Don t use use low resolution n or low resolution adj low bit n low bit adj Note hyphenation of adjective Not lo bit or lo bit Low bit is an acceptable short form of the noun low order bit lowercase n adj One word no hyphen Don
154. ng use a highlighted icon changes color or a highlighted icon is filled in Correct When you click the icon it becomes highlighted Incorrect When you click the icon it highlights Don t use unhighlighted or dehighlighted for an item that isn t highlighted use not highlighted highlighting n No hyphen Don t use in user documentation When an application displays a selection range it marks the range with highlighting high order bit n Not hi bit or hi bit High bit is an acceptable short form high resolution n high resolution adj Not hi res The short form high res n adj is OK in developer documentation or when space constraints don t allow use of the full phrase as in column heads in tables Hindi Don t use when you refer to the writing system used to represent Hindi and several other Asian languages use Devanagari hi res Don t use use high resolution n or high resolution adj See high resolution high resolution hit n Don t use to refer to an item found in a search or to the act of connecting to a webpage Correct Many users connect to this website each day Incorrect This website receives many hits per day hit v Don t use to instruct users to press a key use press instead See also push Chapter 1 Style and Usage 73 74 hold down Use hold down to describe the act of pressing a key on the keyboard the mouse button or a mechanical button until a specified action or re
155. ng a task that makes subsequent actions possible Correct Turn on Windows file sharing Incorrect Enable Windows file sharing Avoid using enabled when you mean selected for example when you refer to radio buttons or checkboxes or available when you refer to commands or buttons that are sometimes dimmed but not in this case Correct Make sure the Magnification checkbox is selected in Dock preferences Incorrect Make sure the Magnification option is enabled in Dock preferences Correct The Copy command isn t available because no text is selected Incorrect The Copy command isn t enabled because no text is selected Its OK to use enable to describe a task that makes other actions possible To use this website you must enable cookies Slide the Hold switch to enable the iPod buttons In developer documentation it s OK to use enabled and disabled when you describe buttons menu items and the like See also allow disable disabled let en dash See dash en end of file See EOF end user n end user adj Avoid in favor of user See also user energy management software No hyphen energy saving adj Note hyphenation ENERGY STAR Note capitalization ensure insure Use ensure to mean make sure or guarantee Use insure to describe what an insurance company does Compare assure enter Use enter and type interchangeably when you refer to typing information or entering data Use press not type to refer
156. nickel metal hydride batteries e Abbreviations Abbreviate the battery type only if space is limited Abbreviations include the following NiCd nickel cadmium Li lithium Li ion lithium ion NiMH nickel metal hydride bay An opening in the computer in which a battery or peripheral device can be installed Use a more specific name when appropriate drive bay storage bay or expansion bay because See since because Chapter1 Style and Usage 21 22 below You can use below to describe a later element or section of a single page onscreen document such as a single webpage or help page In print documents you can use below for an element such as a table or figure that immediately follows a paragraph if the element doesn t have an element number Otherwise use one of the following styles e Later chapter Use the chapter name and number To learn how to create movies see Chapter 4 Composing Movies e Later section Use the section name followed by the page number For more information see Printing on page 154 Apple Product Documentation and User Publications use this style e Later figure table code listing Use the number of the element followed by the page number For a summary of slot and drive numbers see Table 1 2 page 36 Technical Publications uses this style when referring to a figure table or code listing at a distance If the element is immediately below the page number is omitted S
157. nstructions per second Spell out on first occurrence Don t drop the s when you refer to a single unit 7 MIPS not 7 MIP mixed directional adj Note hyphenation Use to refer to a combination of left to right and right to left text within a single line French and Arabic on one line for example Compare bidirectional M JPEG Note hyphenation and capitalization Pronounced em jay peg The M stands for motion and the form Motion JPEG is sometimes used M JPEG extends the JPEG standard to video Not the same as MPEG mobile phone Use instead of cell phone or cellular phone mode Avoid mode in user documentation when you refer to software Correct When you are using the paintbrush Incorrect When you are in paintbrush mode In developer documentation in references to software you enter or leave a mode you don t turn on or turn off a mode model Don t use when you can use computer Correct How you use this feature depends on which model of Macintosh computer you have Correct The setup guide that came with your computer provides instructions Incorrect The setup guide that came with your model provides instructions modem port Note lowercase Not phone port modifier key Use instead of control key in the generic sense for a key that affects the action of other keys such as the Command Shift Option Control and Esc keys modular Macintosh computer A Macintosh computer that has a separate display such as t
158. nymous with monospaced flashing Don t use to describe the insertion point use blinking for this purpose Chapter 1 Style and Usage flash memory Note lowercase Flash memory card formats include CompactFlash Memory Stick MultiMedia Card MMC Secure Digital SD and SmartMedia flatbed scanner Note that flatbed is one word flat blade screwdriver Note hyphenation flat panel adj Note hyphenation flip foot Two words no hyphen Fn key Capitalize when you refer to the Fn key on a laptop computer On first occurrence you can say the Fn Function key thereafter use the Fn key folder An organizational unit or container used to organize files and other folders into a hierarchical structure known as a file system In developer documentation folders are usually referred to as directories Capitalization Capitalize folder names according to how they are named and how they appear on the screen If the word Folder doesn t appear in the folder name don t capitalize the f Communications folder The word folder doesn t appear on the screen System folder In Mac OS X the word folder doesn t appear on the screen System Folder In Mac OS 9 the word Folder appears on the screen and is capitalized Folders for different users When you refer to folders on a computer used by more than one person you need to distinguish only the folders that are not accessible to all users For example the top level applications folder tha
159. o refer to disks in user documentation use disk or the specific kind of disk to which you re referring OK to use volume to refer to a server or to individual partitions on a disk Also OK to use volume to refer generically to units of storage when these may include different kinds of disks You can use the Find command to search for items on all volumes connected to your computer volume document Documents are divided into volumes when page length exceeds manageable limits The volumes of a multivolume document have the same title because the division into volumes doesn t represent a difference in subject matter however each volume may have a subtitle e Volume numbers The type of numeral used Arabic or Roman varies by department Consult your editor for guidelines Mac OS X Server Administrator s Guide Volume 2 Final Cut Pro 5 User Manual Volume Il Editing e Cross references In cross references to specific volumes capitalize but don t italicize Volume See Volume 1 of the AppleSoft BASIC Programmer s Reference Manual for more information For more information about moving projects and media files between editing systems see the Final Cut Pro 5 User Manual Volume IV Part Il Project Interchange Compare parts Volume Down key Volume Up key Note capitalization 160 Chapter 1 Style and Usage volume name Two words Note the treatment of these similar terms device name filename host name pathname use
160. ollowing phrases professional audio applications professional level videos professional looking results professionally designed templates It s OK to use pro in informal text pro applications pro user pro level videos pro quality results Use lowercase in general references Apple pro applications not Apple Pro applications program In user documentation when you refer to a single application program it s OK to use application program or software program listings Use code font Programmable Array Logic See PAL Chapter1 Style and Usage 123 124 progress indicator The generic term for an onscreen element that lets users know a process is taking place iPhotoS04 dmg gJ m 5 14 0 of 39 2 MB 81 KB sec In developer documentation use asynchronous progress indicator for the spinning gear determinate progress bar for the bar that has a fill that moves left to right and indeterminate progress bar for the spinning striped cylinder If you have to mention a progress indicator in user documentation use the generic term and describe it You see a progress indicator looks like a spinning gear A progress indicator a moving bar shows the status of the download A progress indicator a spinning striped cylinder lets you know that a process is taking place See also asynchronous progress indicator determinate progress bar indeterminate progress bar spinning wait cursor prompt n v adj Avoid as a
161. on don t refer to a shortcut menu as a contextual menu See also choose command names submenus menu types Note hyphenation pop up menu pull down menu The names of menu types used in the Windows interface such as drop down menus are also hyphenated Refer to Apple Human Interface Guidelines for a description of each menu type message list The list of messages in the viewer window in Mail metadata One word use lowercase Chapter 1 Style and Usage 101 102 metasymbols Refers to artificial terms that are to be replaced by a value or symbol In running text use italics when you refer to a metasymbol and spell the metasymbol just as it would appear in a syntax description Replace volumeName with a name of up to 12 characters When the words are being used as a regular English phrase don t use italics and put spaces between words Correct The volume name may have up to 12 characters Incorrect The volumeName may have up to 12 characters See also syntax descriptions and Chapter 4 Technical Notation on page 181 MHz n adj Abbreviation for megahertz Spell out on first occurrence e Noun In the noun form use a space between the numeral and the abbreviation at a rate of 800 MHz e Adjective Don t hyphenate the adjective form an 800 MHz processor mice Try to avoid but if you must use the plural of mouse it s OK to use mice or mouse devices See also mouse Microsoft Windows OK to use Windows
162. on number or a date in technical support documents or use or later to indicate a range of version numbers It s OK to use most recent if you re generally instructing users to keep their software up to date Correct For the best results make sure you re using the most recent version of Mac OS X Incorrect Mac OS X v10 4 is the most recent version of Mac OS X See also latest version motherboard Don t use use main logic board or main board Motion A real time motion graphics design application Note capitalization Chapter 1 Style and Usage mount v Use to refer to making a volume available To mount the volumes again select them in Disk Utility and click Mount Use this function to mount one or more server volumes Don t use mount as an intransitive verb Correct Mount the volume Incorrect The volume mounts In documentation for new users enclose in quotation marks on first occurrence and make sure the meaning is clear or describe the steps necessary to make the disk or disk image available to the file system To see the contents of a disk image you must first mount the disk image which makes it appear on the desktop and in Finder windows See also unmount unmounted mounted adj Use to refer to a volume that is available You can copy files from the mounted volume to your hard disk In documentation written for new users enclose in quotation marks on first occurrence and make sure the meaning
163. on the keyboard You press a key you type a character word or phrase In general don t use articles and the word key in references to keys Ease the user into this construction by using the and key the first time you mention a keystroke Press the Control key e Modifier keys Capitalize the names of modifier keys Command key Shift key Option key Control key Esc key e Keyboard shortcuts using combination keystrokes In combination keystrokes use hyphens to signify that the user should hold down the first key or keys while pressing the last key Don t use a hyphen if each key should be pressed and released separately Be sure to explain this convention on first use Shift Control N Esc N Capitalize but don t italicize or use code font for letters used as key names Command C Command X Use this order for modifier keys Command Shift Option Control Chapter 1 Style and Usage e Two word key names When one of the key names in a combination keystroke is two words or a hyphenated word use en dashes where you would ordinarily use hyphens Option right bracket Command Option Up Arrow Command Shift double click Punctuation keys When a punctuation key is used in a combination keystroke use lowercase for the punctuation key name Command period Shift Option hyphen e Key graphics With graphic representations of combination keystrokes in tables for example use the plus sign instead of a hyphen between keys
164. on your hard disk to restore all files Incorrect If you don t have enough space on your hard disk to complete the restore return character Not carriage return or CR except in developer documentation when you re referring to ASCII character OD See also CR Return key Capitalize when you refer to the key on the keyboard Use lowercase when you refer to the character When you press Return you generate a return character RFI Abbreviation for radio frequency interference Note hyphenation of spelled out version spell out on first occurrence Rich Text Format See RTF Right Arrow key When you refer to more than one of the arrow keys arrow is in lowercase as in the arrow keys right hand Avoid except in reference to right hand recto pages use just right whenever possible rightmost No hyphen right side Not right hand side road map Two words ROM Acronym for read only memory Spell out on first occurrence Roman roman adj Capitalize when you refer to numerals and in the term Standard Roman character set use lowercase when you refer to type style See also Arabic ROM disk Two words Note capitalization Chapter 1 Style and Usage root The top level folder in a file system In pathnames the root of the file system is designated by a leading slash Avoid using root as a synonym for System Administrator See also pathnames System Administrator root user See System Administrator router Don t u
165. or kilobit Spell out on first occurrence e Noun In the noun form use a space between the numeral and the abbreviation The preposition of is necessary before the unit that the value quantifies 256 kbit of memory e Adjective Don t hyphenate the adjective form 256 kbit device Chapter 1 Style and Usage 85 86 kbit s Standard abbreviation for kilobits per second Spell out on first occurrence See also kbps kbps Customary abbreviation for kilobits per second used by some Apple groups Exception to the SI standard of kbit s See also kbit s KB s Standard abbreviation for kilobytes per second Spell out on first occurrence See also KB sec KB sec Customary abbreviation for kilobytes per second used by some Apple groups Exception to the SI standard of KB s See also KB s Kbyte Don t use Use KB Kerberized OK to use to mean configured for Kerberos authentication or able to be configured for Kerberos authentication When a Mac OS X user is authenticated using Kerberos the user doesn t have to enter a user name and password every time a Kerberized service is used To take advantage of the single sign on feature users and services must be Kerberized configured for Kerberos authentication and use the same Kerberos Key Distribution Center KDC server Kerberos A network authentication protocol Note capitalization key keys Use to describe something on the keyboard press the Option key You don t need to say key
166. or plural Spell out the singular and plural forms if necessary if possible rewrite to avoid either construction Acceptable Initializing your hard disk or disks Preferable Initializing hard disks Incorrect Initializing your hard disk s e Trademarked product names Form the plural of trademarked product names by adding the plural generic noun to the singular product name Correct Macintosh computers PowerBook computers iMac computers Incorrect Macintoshes PowerBooks iMacs If a product name includes a generic noun as well as a trademarked adjective form the plural as you would with any noun AirPort Cards AppleCare Service Parts Kits e Words as words Form the plural of a word italicized to show that it is used as a word by adding an apostrophe and an s Don t italicize the apostrophe or the s He had too many and s in the sentence plus sign Not plus symbol p m Note lowercase and periods 6 30 p m Use a space before the abbreviation pocket sized Use to describe a format for printing contacts in Address Book Note hyphenation and spelling Chapter 1 Style and Usage 117 118 point n Use only when writing about font sizes Don t use as a synonym for dot or to describe a place or spot on the screen point v When you describe the desktop interface don t use point as a verb without first defining it for the reader First occurrence Move the mouse to position the pointer on the hard disk icon Thi
167. oun its It s important that the department keep track of its computers control character n control character adj Note hyphenation of adjective Control click v adj Note capitalization and hyphenation The hyphen denotes a combined action Control click is equivalent to press the Control key and click To open a document Control click the document icon and choose Open from the shortcut menu control key Don t use in a general sense use modifier key The name of the specific key is capitalized Control key Control key It s OK to abbreviate as Ctr when space constraints don t allow the use of the full term as in column heads in tables Don t use CTRL controlled controlling Not controled controling control panel Classic Use lowercase Refers to a small application with which users can set or control some feature of hardware or software such as the volume of the speaker or the number of colors displayed on the screen These applications are available in the Control Panels folder Refer to a control panel by its name capitalized and add the words control panel use lowercase Views control panel Map control panel Memory control panel Monitors control panel Sound control panel Refer to the General Controls control panel as the General Controls panel Control Panels folder Classic Note lowercase folder A folder located in the System Folder for storing control panels Control Strip Classic Note
168. part title may precede the first appendix and includes only the word Appendixes When a document has only one appendix it should be titled Appendix not Appendix A Cross references to a single appendix should refer to the appendix appendixes Not appendices Apple Authorized Reseller Note capitalization Use the full term unless many references are required in that case you can shorten to reseller Apple Authorized Service Provider Note capitalization Use the full term unless many references are required in that case you can shorten to service provider AppleCare Apple service and support programs and products Note capitalization Apple Display Connector See ADC Apple event Two words note capitalization Capitalize the names of Apple events but not the word event Open Application event Quit Application event Open Documents event Print Documents event and so on Apple Filing Protocol See AFP Apple key Don t use The key with the Apple logo is the Command key See also Command key Apple Loops An open standard file format for audio loops and sound effects also refers to the audio and effects files Always plural not an Apple Loop Apple menu When you refer to the Apple menu in user documentation use both the word Apple and the symbol on first occurrence The Apple menu contains commands for shutting down your computer Thereafter use the phrase Apple menu without the symbol Don t use the symbo
169. peed of data transmission megabyte MB computer memory megabytes per second MB s standard MB sec some Apple groups speed of data transmission megahertz MHz frequency meter m length distance meters per second m s velocity micrometer 10 6 meters um Option m length micron See micrometer mil 10 3 inches mil length mile mi except in mph length distance miles per hour mph velocity millimeter 10 3 meters mm length million instructions per second MIPS microprocessor speed millisecond 10 3 seconds ms time millivolt 10 3 volts mV electric potential milliwatt 10 3 watts mW power minute min time month mo time Chapter 2 Units of Measure 171 172 Unit symbol or abbreviation Quantity newton kilogram meters per N force second squared newtons per square meter See pascal ohm Q Option Z electric resistance ounce oz volume weight pascal Pa pressure stress newtons per square meter pound Ib weight poundal pdl force radian rad plane angle radians per second rad s angular velocity radians per second squared rad s2 angular acceleration revolutions per minute rpm angular velocity second s unit symbol or sec time abbreviation siemens amperes per volt S conductance square foot sq ft area square inch sq in area square meter m2 area square mile sq mi area s
170. pell out on first occurrence iApp iApplication Don t use use iLife iLife applications digital media applications digital lifestyle applications or a specific application name such as iPhoto or iMovie HD Don t use digital applications l beam Note capitalization Refers to this pointer Chapter 1 Style and Usage iBook A laptop computer for consumers and education The names can be used with or without an article You can connect the iBook G4 to a wide range of peripherals iBook is designed for life on the go For a list of model names see Chapter 3 Apple Products on page 175 IC Abbreviation for integrated circuit Spell out on first occurrence No apostrophe for the plural ICs iCal An application for managing and sharing calendars Note capitalization iCards The Mac service for creating and sending electronic greeting cards Note capitalization Users create an iCard or iCards iChat Instant messaging software for finding and chatting with friends and associates online Note capitalization iChat Server Software included with Mac OS X Server Don t precede with the Note capitalization icon An icon is a graphic that represents another item such as a file in a Finder window or an album in iPhoto e Icons that don t act like buttons If an element in the user interface looks like an icon displays a picture and does not appear three dimensional and doesn t act like a button does not initiate an actio
171. pter 1 Style and Usage service manual Note lowercase setup n adj set up v One word except as a verb Setup Assistant Two words Capitalize when you refer to an application that helps users configure the system or software use lowercase for a generic reference Don t use the before Setup Assistant Correct You must have an AirPort Extreme Card installed in your computer to use AirPort Setup Assistant Incorrect You must have an AirPort Extreme Card installed in your computer to use AirPort setup assistant Incorrect You must have an AirPort Extreme Card installed in your computer to use the AirPort Setup Assistant Correct Apple Remote Desktop provides an easy to use setup assistant to guide you through the process See also Assistant sexism sexist language See fair language shared disk In user documentation use shared disk when you discuss connecting to another computer over the network When you discuss setting up a folder to share on your own computer use shared folder Use file server only when explaining the concept of file servers shared folder In user documentation use shared folder when you discuss setting up a folder to share on the user s computer Use shared disk when you discuss connecting to another computer over the network See also shared disk share point Two words A folder hard disk or removable storage device that is available over a network sheet Refers to a dialog attached to a specif
172. quare yard sq yd area steradian sr solid angle terabit Tbit computer memory terabits per second Tbit s standard Tbps some Apple groups speed of data transmission terabyte TB computer memory terabytes per second TB s standard TB sec some Apple groups speed of data transmission tesla webers per square meter T magnetic flux density ton tn or ton mass weight volt V electric potential difference electromotive force volt ampere See watt volts point to point Vop electric potential volts root mean square Vims electric potential watt joules per second power watt hour Wh energy Chapter 2 Units of Measure weber Unit symbol or abbreviation Wb Quantity magnetic flux webers per square meter See tesla yard yd length distance year yr time Chapter 2 Units of Measure 173 Apple Products This chapter lists the names of major Apple hardware and software products Use the spelling and capitalization shown in this chapter Note that Apple continually introduces products and the list does not include every product in the selected categories For information on trademarks see the trademark entries in Chapter 1 Style and Usage Desktop Computers Power Macintosh G3 Power Mac G4 Power Mac G4 Cube Power Mac G5 Twentieth Anniversary Macintosh iMac iMac DV iMac DV iMac DV Special Edition i
173. r editor for your department s guidelines e Punctuation Avoid colons in heads wherever possible If a colon in a head is required capitalize the first word after the colon Avoid ellipsis points in heads e Humor Keep heads simple and descriptive Avoid cute flippant or gimmicky heads Humor can be an effective means of enhancing the reader s experience but it generally works best in examples rather than in titles or heads that Use to introduce a restrictive clause clauses beginning with that are generally not set off with commas This is the computer that has network access There are many computers the phrase that has network access restricts narrows the meaning of the subject of the sentence to one computer The newest computer in the lab which is a Power Mac G5 is also the students favorite There is only one newest computer the phrase which is a Power Mac G5 although it provides more information doesn t restrict the subject of the sentence Compare which Chapter 1 Style and Usage 149 150 then Then is not a coordinating conjunction In plain declarative sentences that consist of two or more independent clauses then should usually be preceded by a comma and and or by a semicolon First you insert the CD and then you install the printer software First you insert the CD then you install the printer software In the imperative mood as in how to steps then is OK without the conjunction Inse
174. r The nickname for Mac OS X Server version 10 4 See also Mac OS X Server tilde See pathnames timecode One word no hyphen Chapter 1 Style and Usage timeout n adj One word no hyphen timestamp n v One word no hyphen title bar Two words Note lowercase titled Not entitled titles chapter and section Make part titles chapter titles and heads concise and consistent Keep the reader s needs in mind and remember that these elements are used primarily as locators for someone skimming through a document titles disc See disc titles titles document See document titles titles window See window titles title style capitalization Capitalize each word except for articles prepositions of four or fewer letters and so on See also capitalization title style Compare capitalization sentence style toggle v OK to use in developer documentation don t use in user documentation toolbar One word note lowercase An area containing buttons such as in Finder windows and Mail Don t call toolbar buttons icons or shortcuts toolkit One word tooltips Don t use unless tooltips is the term used in the interface Use help tags See also help tags Torx screwdriver Note capitalization Not Torex or Torque touch screen Two words touch tone adj Note hyphenation touch wheel Don t use See Click Wheel toward Not towards trackball An input device used as a substitute for a mouse One word track list
175. r name VRAM Acronym for video random access memory Spell out on first occurrence Pronounced VEE ram vs Don t use use versus when absolutely necessary but rewrite to avoid the term when possible W wait cursor See spinning wait cursor WAN Acronym for wide area network Spell out on first occurrence Note lowercase in the spelled out version no hyphen want An infinitive or a direct object should follow want in conditional statements It s OK to use wish by itself Correct Rename the file if you want to create infinitive a duplicate Correct Make a copy if you want a duplicate direct object Correct Rename the file if you wish Incorrect Rename the file if you want warm start n warm start adj Note hyphenation of adjective Warning Use a Warning notice when the reader needs to know that an action may cause bodily injury damage to hardware or software or loss of data Use warnings and other notices sparingly They lose their effectiveness if they appear too often Don t use a Warning notice immediately before or after a Note or Important notice or immediately after a text head See also Important Note waveform n adj One word wavelength n One word we Don t use first person rewrite in terms of the reader or the product Correct For best performance your computer should have at least 256 MB of RAM Incorrect We recommend that your computer have at least 256 MB of RAM See also recommend
176. r simply commands Use menu item to refer to items that aren t commands such as window names in the Window menu Don t use menu option A menu item is in a menu not on or under a menu a menu contains items or commands e Pull down menus When you give instructions for choosing an item from a pull down menu a menu in the menu bar use the style shown here Choose menu gt item gt submenu item Choose Edit gt Find gt Find Next Choose File gt Save As Don t use an angle bracket when you re simply identifying which menu contains the item Correct the Page Setup command in the File menu Incorrect the File gt Preferences command e Pop up menus For pop up menus use the style shown here Choose Intranet LAN from the Connection Speed pop up menu Choose a format from the Format pop up menu If the pop up menu doesn t have a name simply call it the pop up menu Choose Numeric from the pop up menu e Shortcut menus For shortcut menus use the style shown here Control click one of the selected clips and then choose Make Multiclip from the shortcut menu If the shortcut menu has submenus you can use the style shown above or you can use the angle bracket style Control click the Clip Keyframes control choose Video from the shortcut menu and then choose Motion Bar from the submenu Control click the selection and then choose Send To gt Soundtrack Pro Multitrack Project from the shortcut menu In user documentati
177. r to the command name in text or text heads As three spaced periods ellipsis points are used to indicate an incomplete sentence a break in thought or omitted words in a quotation See The Chicago Manual of Style for guidance on these uses eMac An all in one desktop computer for education and consumers eMac can be used with or without an article eMac comes with everything you need The eMac includes a Combo drive or SuperDrive email n adj v One word note lowercase Send an email to your manager Send an email message to your manager Your manager wants you to email her You can contact Apple by email email addresses Email addresses use this format username location subdomain domain The address mac worm apple com specifies a user named mac at the site worm in the apple subdomain of the com domain e In text Use plain text for email addresses in text e Line breaks Avoid line breaks in an email address If necessary set the address on a separate line e Punctuation If an email address ends a sentence it s OK to use a period See also Internet addresses embed Not imbed em dash See dash em EMI Abbreviation for electromagnetic interference Spell out on first occurrence Chapter 1 Style and Usage 57 58 enable v enabled adj Avoid in user documentation when you mean turn on Turn on implies initiating an action or starting a process immediately enable implies doi
178. rayscale comes before gray space Numerical entries are ordered as though they were spelled out For example 32 bit addressing comes between text width and thumbnail Where there are several entries with numerals in a group however order the entries numerically within the group For example PowerBook G5 comes after PowerBook G4 Parts of Speech e Verbs If the term is a verb start the definition with an infinitive not a gerund Correct To make available Incorrect Making available e Adjectives If the term is an adjective you may have to start the definition with phrases like these Said of Characteristic of Used to describe e Different parts of speech Use n v or adj for noun verb or adjective when you need to distinguish a part of speech Chapter 5 How to Write a Glossary 185 186 Pronunciation When you define an acronym or other term with unusual or unclear pronunciation provide a pronunciation key Use all caps to indicate the stress and hyphens to separate syllables Use quotation marks around the pronunciation key ASCII Acronym for American Standard Code for Information Interchange pronounced ASK ee EBCDIC Acronym for pronounced EB si dik leading The amount of blank vertical space between lines Pronounced LED ing Cross References If you want to draw attention to related terms in the glossary add cross references at the end of the entry e Se
179. rd Not SCSI interface card SCSI ID indicator Not SCSI priority switch SCSI ID number Not SCSI priority number SCSI ID switch Not SCSI priority switch setter or SCSI ID number switch SD n adj Abbreviation for standard definition Spell out on first occurrence no hyphen in spelled out version SDRAM Abbreviation for synchronous dynamic random access memory Spell out on first occurrence search field The field that appears when you click the Spotlight icon in the menu bar Note lowercase search results list The list that appears after a Spotlight search Note lowercase secondary cache second level cache Don t use use level 2 cache or L2 cache Chapter 1 Style and Usage 133 134 select Use select not choose to refer to the action users perform when they select among multiple objects such as icons graphic images radio buttons or checkboxes in a dialog or when they highlight text for editing Select a name in the list of users To select several files at once hold down the Shift key and then click the files Select the text you want to make bold Select the Autosave Vault checkbox e Selecting objects Although users generally click to select objects they can also use the keyboard you need to use the complete phrase click to select only if you think there s potential for confusion Both of the following examples are acceptable Click to select a name in the list of users Select a name in the list
180. re represented with the largest units given first From left to right the ranking is year month week day hour minute second This standard in addition to being used in many Asian languages solves ambiguities in the date notations used in Canada the United States and the United Kingdom Usage Dates are expressed numerically as year month day and are separated by a hyphen Times are expressed on a 24 hour clock A colon separates hours minutes and seconds Coordinated Universal Time UTC times are expressed as Z Local time zones are expressed as the number of hours from UTC The iPod U2 was introduced on 2005 10 26 The file will be posted at 18 002Z The file will be posted at 18 00 0800 PST Decimals Decimals are expressed by a period or a comma For numbers larger than 999 don t use a period or comma as a separator A nonbreaking space Option Space bar may be used instead International Authority Bureau Internationale des Poids et Mesures BIPM e Standard BIPM SI Brochure 7th edition 1998 e Rationale Breaking up large numbers makes them easier to read especially in tables A nonbreaking space cannot be confused as a decimal marker Chapter 7 International Style e Usage Use a period to produce a decimal in English Numbers may be divided in groups of three on either side of the decimal to make them easy to read Use a nonbreaking space instead of a period or comma to divide numbers Express large
181. rect Your computer can connect to and transfer information to devices that use Bluetooth wireless technology Incorrect Your computer can connect to devices that use Bluetooth Don t use a hyphen with Bluetooth Correct Bluetooth enabled device Incorrect Bluetooth enabled device Blu ray Note hyphenation and capitalization A high capacity optical disc format using blue violet lasers also referred to as Blu ray Disc BD The discs can be used to store data or video Chapter 1 Style and Usage 23 24 board Don t use when you mean card A board is built in a card can be removed by the user Compare card bomb Don t use as a verb use not responding or stops responding OK to use as an adjective as in the bomb icon Bonjour Apple technology for the automatic discovery of and connection to computers peripherals and services on IP networks Note capitalization bookmark n v One word Boolean adj Note capitalization boot Don t use for start up or switch on except in developer or server documentation In documentation written for new users however you may want to mention the term boot or include it in the glossary because users may see the term elsewhere boot chime Don t use for the chord heard during a successful startup sequence Use startup sound boot disk Don t use except in developer or server documentation Instead use startup disk bottommost One word no hyphen box Don t use dialog box use dialog S
182. rive DVD R DL DVD RW CD RW Chapter 3 Apple Products 177 178 Software and Technologies e Address Book e Aperture e Apple Remote Desktop e AppleScript e AppleWorks e Automator e Backup e Bonjour Calculator Cinema Tools ColorSync Utility e Dashboard Dictionary Disk Utility e DVD Player e DVD Studio Pro e Expos Final Cut Express Final Cut Express HD Final Cut Pro Final Cut Pro HD Final Cut Studio e Finder e FireWire Font Book e Front Row e GarageBand e GarageBand Jam Pack e Grab e iCal e iChat e iDisk Chapter 3 Apple Products iDVD iLife Image Capture iMovie iMovie HD Installer Internet Connect iPhoto iSync iTunes iWork Keychain Access Keynote Logic Express Logic Pro Mac OS 9 Mac OS X Mac OS X Server Mail Motion Pages Photo Booth Preview Production Suite QuickTime QuickTime Player QuickTime Pro Safari Shake Sherlock Soundtrack Soundtrack Pro Spotlight Chapter 3 Apple Products 179 180 Stickies System Preferences System Profiler Terminal TextEdit VoiceOver WebObjects Xcode Xgrid e Xsan Audio Music and Video Products e AppleDesign Powered Speakers e AppleDesign Powered Speakers II e Apple Headphone e Apple Microphone Apple PlainTalk Microphone Apple Pro Speakers e Apple Remote e iPod e jPod mini e iPod nano e iPod photo e iPod shuffle e iPod U2 Special Edition e iSight Wireless Networking Prod
183. rms you need to include and define for your readers Second Check to see if your department has a glossary from which you can cut and paste appropriate entries Third Check other Apple documentation on related topics for highly specific definitions that may not appear elsewhere Finally Look in other dictionaries or write your own definition You don t necessarily have to use an existing definition verbatim Make up your own variant or examples if appropriate If an entry contains both a simple definition and a complex one and you don t need both use only the applicable part Correct errors or misconceptions if you find them Chapter 5 How to Write a Glossary 187 How to Develop an Index This appendix provides guidelines for developing and checking index entries The index is an important tool for readers as they search for information Making an index accurate comprehensive and useful is worth the extra time and effort required Choosing the Number of Levels For most documents two levels of entries are enough Some documents may require three The indexer writer and developmental editor should agree on the number of levels before the indexing begins though the indexer may suggest changing the number after work begins Main Entries A main entry shouldn t have more than five page numbers after it If there are more than five page numbers use subentries Don t use s to make a main entry both singular and plural Sub
184. roke One word key up adj Note hyphenation keyword Refers to a special word that identifies a particular type of statement or command such as int or while Follow the capitalization style of the programming language involved The term keyword refers also to assigned identifiers in applications such as iPhoto Use keywords to make your photo albums easy to search kHz n adj Abbreviation for kilohertz Spell out on first occurrence e Noun In the noun form use a space between the numeral and the abbreviation at a rate of 44 1 kHz e Adjective Don t hyphenate the adjective form a 44 1 kHz rate kilobit See kbit kilobits per second See kbit s kbps kilobyte See KB kilobytes per second See KB s KB sec kilohertz See kHz L L2 cache L3 cache See level 2 cache level 3 cache labeled labeling Not abelled labelling labels See figure text LAN Acronym for local area network Spell out on first occurrence No hyphen in the spelled out version Chapter 1 Style and Usage laptop computer OK to use to refer generically to Apple portable computers When you refer to a specific model such as an iBook or a PowerBook it s preferable to use the model name You can also use portable computer or Notebook computer generically On first occurrence use laptop computer or notebook computer Thereafter it s OK to use laptop or notebook alone as a noun Don t use portable alone as a noun laserdisc One word later
185. rophe and an s the computer s power cord the boss s husband e Plural nouns Form the possessive of a plural noun that ends in s by adding an apostrophe Form the possessive of a plural noun that does not end in s by adding an apostrophe and an s the students curriculum children s requirements e Proper nouns or names Form the possessive of a singular proper noun or proper name including one that ends in s by adding an apostrophe and an s Form the possessive of a plural proper noun or proper name by adding an apostrophe David Williams s biography singular the Joneses computer plural e Product names Rewrite to avoid forming a possessive of any product name trademarked or not for example don t use Keynote s slides See also trademarks post prefix Close up words beginning with post except when one element is a proper noun or a date postgraduate postmortem posttest post WWDC event post 2006 Exception post production post v OK to use post to or post on in reference to a network or the Internet Post Office Protocol See POP PostScript Note capitalization Don t use small caps pound sign Don t use use number sign for this character See also number sign PowerBook A notebook computer for professionals Use an article with the names Wireless networking is easy with the PowerBook The PowerBook G4 reinvents mobile computing For a list of model names see Chapter 3 Apple Products
186. rt the CD then install the printer software It s also correct to use and then in imperative sentences consisting of two independent clauses or to precede then by a semicolon Insert the CD and then install the printer software Insert the CD then install the printer software Avoid using then unnecessarily Preferable If you save a document often you re less likely to lose changes Avoid If you save a document often then you re less likely to lose changes Whichever style you choose be consistent throughout a project third party n third party adj The adjective is hyphenated Avoid in user documentation If possible replace with another descriptive term such as not made by Apple or from other manufacturers Avoid If you ve installed third party plug ins one of the plug ins could be causing the problem Preferable If you ve installed plug ins from manufacturers other than Apple one of those plug ins could be causing the problem thread In the context of a series of related files such as email messages items are in a thread You can reply to an earlier message in the thread throw away Don t use when you mean to drag an item to the Trash Correct After you ve expanded the compressed file drag it to the Trash Incorrect Throw away the compressed file after you expand it thumb Don t use when you mean scroller or slider Tiger The trademarked name for Mac OS X version 10 4 See also Mac OS X Tiger Serve
187. rve A 1U rack optimized server system The name can be used with or without an article Note capitalization Xserve RAID A 3U rack optimized storage system The name can be used with or without an article Note capitalization Y Y adapter Note capitalization and hyphenation Chapter1 Style and Usage 165 Z zap zapping Don t use as in zapping PRAM Use reset Reset the PRAM zero character OK for the ASCII character 30 Don t confuse with null character 00 zeros Not zeroes zip code Note lowercase Zip disk Zip drive Note capitalization Don t call a Zip disk a cartridge zoom button The rightmost button of the three window controls at the left of the title bar Note lowercase Zoomed Video port A port that enables data to be transferred directly from a PC Card to a VGA controller Note capitalization 166 Chapter 1 Style and Usage Units of Measure This chapter provides usage guidelines for units of measure and lists abbreviations and symbols for frequently used units Follow these guidelines when you use units of measure in documentation When to spell out In user documentation spell out units of measure on first occurrence Repeat the spelled out version in new sections and chapters if the unit symbol or abbreviation is obscure and if the audience requires it First occurrence Spell out the unit and give the abbreviation in parentheses 20 gigabytes GB of memory Subsequent occurrences It s OK to use
188. ry standard and technical terms it s OK to use just the abbreviation or acronym without spelling out the term on first occurrence When you spell out a term put the definition first with the abbreviation or acronym in parentheses Internet service provider ISP File types Use all caps for abbreviations of file types a JPEG file an AIFF file the MP3 file Filename extensions which indicate the file type should be in lowercase jpg aif mp3 e Pronunciation Provide a pronunciation key for an acronym if you think the pronunciation is not self evident and if you think the reader may not know how to pronounce the term WYSIWYG pronounced WIZ zee wig See also pronunciation e Punctuation Don t use periods except in abbreviations for customary nonmetric units of measure and in the abbreviations U S a m and p m e Plural Don t add an apostrophe before the s when you form the plural of an abbreviation CDs ICs ISPs Chapter 1 Style and Usage e Latin Avoid using Latin abbreviations Correct for example and others and so on and that is or equivalent phrases Incorrect e g for example et al and others etc and so on i e that is e Units of measure For detailed usage guidelines for units of measure and for a list of abbreviations and symbols see Chapter 2 Units of Measure on page 167 able suffix When you add able to a word ending in e drop the e unless the word ends with a soft
189. s Chapter 1 Style and Usage lists numbered Use a numbered list when you want to stress the sequential nature of steps rules or instructions In numbered task lists steps each item should be a complete sentence Use sentence style capitalization for each item and end each item with closing punctuation To burn a CD 1 Insert a blank disc into your computer 2 IniTunes select the playlist you want to put on the disc 3 Click the Burn button See also lists list view A way to display items in a list with one or more columns of data for example the list view in Finder windows List View button The middle button in the View control in Finder windows Note capitalization m lithium ion adj Note hyphenation See also batteries live link Don t use to refer to hypertext links in webpages use hypertext link or just link lo bit Don t use use low order bit adj or low bit n local area network See LAN localizable Don t use Correct An application that follows the human interface guidelines should be easy to localize Incorrect An application that follows the human interface guidelines should be easily localizable Chapter1 Style and Usage 93 94 localization n adj Many Apple publications written in English go through the localization process which involves revision and translation for non English speaking users e Idiomatic language To make the localization process easier avoid idiomati
190. s Mach BSD Device drivers and the I O Kit Networking File systems e A complex list The main clause is an independent clause and each bulleted item is a complete sentence Follow these guidelines for password systems See also lists Allow passwords to contain both alphabetic and numeric characters Allow passwords to be as long as is practical Never display the password on the screen in clear text not even while the user is typing it Provide a way for the user to verify the password when it is entered or changed lists multicolumn Use a multicolumn list when you want to present simple data in tabular form without all the formal parameters of a table You can use column heads if you wish A multicolumn list does not have spanners row titles or stubs and it does not use horizontal rules as a table does e Numbers and titles Multicolumn lists do not have numbers or titles If you need to refer to a list in text anywhere other than in the paragraph preceding the list use a standard table e Length Don t use a multicolumn list for very complex sets of information or for very lengthy lists of data The entire list should not exceed one page for best results in page layout it should probably be no more than half a page long Here are some examples of file types APPL Launchable application MOOV QuickTime movie TEXT Stream of ASCII characters GIFF Animated GIF file Midi MIDI file See also list
191. s See RAID reference Don t use as a verb use refer to register Capitalize names of specific registers but don t capitalize the word register Don t capitalize generic register names such as floating point registers and vector registers regular Don t use when you mean standard as in Use standard settings release Don t use when referring to a system software version number See also system software version Rendezvous See Bonjour Reset The button or switch which may be labeled with the word Reset or with a triangle symbol resizable Not resizeable resize Not size or grow OK to use change the size of resize control The area in the lower right corner of a window that you drag to resize the window In Mac OS 9 this item is called the size box resolution Use a lowercase letter x not the word by to express screen or other resolution 640 x 480 See also dimensions x Chapter 1 Style and Usage 129 130 resources and resource types Classic A resource type name should be in code font and must have exactly four characters inside straight single code font quotation marks for example INTT crsr ICN and snd restore v adj Don t use as a noun Correct Avoid stopping the restore process Incorrect Avoid stopping a restore in progress Correct Restoring stopped because the hard disk is full Incorrect The restore stopped because the hard disk is full Correct If you don t have enough space
192. s When discussing System Preferences the Mac OS X application you can shorten the name of each set of system preferences to Name preferences note lowercase preferences as in Universal Access preferences When discussing preferences for any application use lowercase for preferences Use the Sound pane of System Preferences to choose an alert sound Use Sound preferences to change volume settings Use the Sharing pane of iTunes preferences to share your music library See also System Preferences prefixes In most cases close up prefixes such as multi non post and pre with the following word Exceptions e Compounds that contain proper nouns non Apple e Compounds with double i s or double a s anti inflammatory meta analysis e Compounds that are homographs or could be misread re cover e Compounds with double prefixes sub subentry e Compounds that contain a compound term non self sustaining See The Chicago Manual of Style for more examples prepositions Although placing prepositions at the ends of sentences can add an informal flavor to documentation avoid using this construction too frequently Instead rewrite the sentence or use the more grammatically correct preposition which Avoid Specify the application you want to connect with Instead Specify the application with which you want to connect Or Specify the application you want to use to connect Chapter 1 Style and Usage 121 122 preset n adj
193. s action is called pointing Then press and release the mouse button to select the icon This action is called clicking the icon Thereafter Point to the hard disk icon and click to select it If you know that the reader is familiar with basic mouse techniques it s not necessary to mention pointing at all Click the hard disk icon or Select the hard disk icon pointer OK in general references but be specific whenever appropriate arrow crosshair beam The term cursor is appropriate when you describe the VoiceOver interface The term may also be appropriate in developer documentation and when you describe other interfaces See also insertion point t Arrow Crosshair l beam point of presence See POP POP Acronym for point of presence access point to the Internet or Post Office Protocol Spell out on first occurrence When used as an abbreviation for Post Office Protocol POP must modify a noun as in POP server or POP ID pop up v pop up adj Note hyphenation of adjective pop up menus See menus port Use to refer to a location for passing data in and out of a computer Don t use connector to refer to a port Compare connector jack slot socket portable computer See laptop computer Portable Document Format See PDF Chapter 1 Style and Usage possessives Follow these guidelines for possessives e Singular nouns Form the possessive of a singular noun including one that ends in s by adding an apost
194. s audio video equipment such as a television or VCR See also display cable monitor cable video card Don t use See graphics card Chapter 1 Style and Usage video input port Or composite video input port Not video in port or Video In port Port that connects the computer to most video equipment Compare S video input port video jack Not video connector video mirroring n adj No hyphen A dual display mode in which the same image appears on two displays video output port Or composite video output port Not video out port or Video Out port Port that connects the computer to most video equipment Compare S video output port video port Don t use when you mean the port to which the display is connected use display port for Apple displays or monitor port for non Apple displays See also display port monitor port video random access memory See VRAM View control The three button unit for changing views of Finder windows The View control comprises the con View button the List View button and the Column View button See also Column View button Icon View button List View button viewer window The main Mail window where mailboxes and messages appear On first occurrence call it the Mail viewer window for later references use the viewer window virtual memory Not Virtual Memory or VM voicemail One word Don t use as a verb Instead use leave a voicemail or check your voicemail A comparable term is voice mess
195. s if they appear too often Don t use a Note tag immediately before or after a Warning or Important notice or immediately after a text head See also Important Warning notebook computer See laptop computer null character Use for ASCII character 00 Don t confuse with zero character ASCII 30 number Abbreviate as no if space is limited See also number sign numbers Follow these guidelines for numbers e Cardinal numbers In general spell out cardinal numbers from zero through ten except when you express numbers as numbers Use a numeral no matter how small to express numbers as numbers Use numerals when you refer to a specific address bit byte chapter field key pin sector slot or track or when expressing amounts of memory The outlines of the four glyphs are aligned Leave at least 12 pixels of space between controls The numeral 8 occurs eight times e Ordinal numbers Spell out ordinal numbers from zero through ten Form ordinal numbers larger than ten by adding st nd rd or th as appropriate e Numbers that appear together Where two numbers appear together consider spelling one of them out There are sixteen 32 bit registers Use numerals for numbers of the same category within a paragraph if any of the numbers is higher than ten We have 25 computers and 4 printers on the network Computers and printers are the same category There are two kinds of 32 bit registers only one of which needs to be
196. s progress indicator In developer documentation the progress indicator that looks like a spinning gear In user documentation use progress indicator and describe what it looks like Developer documentation Don t use the asynchronous progress indicator for processes that start out indeterminate but could become determinate User documentation You see a progress indicator looks like a spinning gear attach Don t use to mean connect as in Connect the USB device to your computer audio Close up the following words beginning with audio audiobook audiocassette audioconference audiotape audiovisual Don t use a hyphen in compound adjectives that include audio audio editing program audio CD Not CD audio disc audio input port Note lowercase no hyphen Not audio in port or Audio In port The port that connects the computer to RCA type output ports of video or audio equipment Compare sound input port audio output port Note lowercase no hyphen Not audio out port or Audio Out port The port that connects the computer to RCA type input ports of video or audio equipment Compare sound output port auto prefix Close up in words beginning with a consonant autoconfiguration autoplay autosave autosensing autosync auto answer auto update Automator Automation assistant first included in Mac OS X v10 4 Automator produces workflows made up of tasks Note capitalization autoplay Autoplay The feature is lowercase the butto
197. s the protocol that is used for transferring data from the server to the user s computer website http samples examples com FTP site ftp myfiles hobbies org Telnet site telnet games transfer com An Internet address includes a suffix that indicates the domain to which the address belongs Examples of domain suffixes include edu educational organizations com commercial organizations mil military organizations org nonprofit organizations uk fi networks located in the United Kingdom Finland e Font Use plain text for an Internet address In print documents don t underline the address or use quotation marks around it e Line breaks Avoid breaking Internet addresses set them on a separate line if necessary e Punctuation If an Internet address ends a sentence it s OK to use a period e References When you refer to a website or page use a generic name for example the Apple website rather than the specific title for example Welcome to Apple Computer because webpage titles change frequently If a reader can figure out how to get to the specific information needed from the homepage of a whole site refer to that page rather than to a specific page because organization of sites frequently changes See also email addresses HTML HTTP URL Internet Message Access Protocol See IMAP Internet Protocol See IP Internet service provider See ISP interprocess communication See IPC interrupt Use
198. sage 35 36 colons Avoid using colons in text heads If you must use a colon in a head capitalize the first word after the colon regardless of its part of speech Setting Up A Beginner s Guide When possible a colon in text including a colon used before lists or steps should be preceded by an independent clause a complete thought with both subject and verb Your Macintosh computer includes these storage devices e A hard disk drive e An optional Zip drive in the expansion bay It s OK for a colon to precede lists or steps even if it is preceded by only a partial thought exception to The Chicago Manual of Style To create a new document 1 Click the TextEdit icon in the Dock 2 Choose File gt New Your Macintosh computer includes e A hard disk drive e An optional Zip drive in the expansion bay See also lists color lookup table See CLUT color picker Avoid naming this feature in user documentation instead use a phrase such as Choose a color in the dialog color pixels Not colored pixels colors Colors include shades of gray so you can use colors to refer to settings for both grayscale and color displays On first mention of setting colors say for example You can set the number of colors or shades of gray displayed on the screen Thereafter use colors ColorSync Color management software used by the Quartz graphic system Note capitalization column view A way to display and select items in a hierarch
199. se interchangeably with bridge A bridge joins two networks to form an expanded network not an internet A router maintains a logical map of the networks and other routers in an internet allowing the networks to retain separate identities RS 232 C Note hyphenation Similar terms are hyphenated in the same way RTF Abbreviation for Rich Text Format Note capitalization of spelled out version spell out on first occurrence rule An editable action in Mail 1 3 or later Note lowercase run v running adj Don t use running to refer to an application whose icon is visible in the Dock or in the Application menu in the Classic environment use open Correct Quit open applications Incorrect Check to see if any applications are running e Background processes Use running for applications or processes that perform their function in the background and have no graphical interface Open Activity Monitor and make sure the netinfod process is running e Applications with a graphical interface Say use not run to describe what a user does with a program that has a graphical interface Correct Don t use other applications while burning a DVD Incorrect Don t run other applications while burning a DVD e Utilities In most cases avoid using run to refer to using a utility application Instead describe the actions the user performs Correct Before installing the software open Disk Utility select your disk and click Verify
200. see lists See also apostrophes commas dash em dash en ellipsis points hyphenation quotation marks Chapter1 Style and Usage 125 126 push Don t use See press put Don t use when you mean drag Correct Drag the file to the Trash Incorrect Put the file in the Trash PVR Abbreviation for personal video recorder Note lowercase in spelled out version Q quality Don t use quality alone as an adjective include a modifier The compound adjective is hyphenated broadcast quality high quality professional quality question mark button Don t use use Help button QuickDraw A legacy technology Note capitalization QuickDraw 3D No hyphen in 3D quick reference card No hyphen QuickTime A media player and authoring environment Related software includes the following QuickTime Broadcaster QuickTime Player QuickTime Pro QuickTime Streaming Server QuickTime Streaming Server Publisher QuickTime VR Don t precede names with the Open QuickTime Player QuickTime VR VR stands for virtual reality Don t use QTVR quit You quit or exit from a program You never exit a program Compare exit halt interrupt stop See also force quit quotation marks Use curly opening and closing quotation marks except in code font e With periods and commas Put periods and commas within quotation marks If necessary for clarity periods and commas can go outside as in ANS 77 e With other punctuation Semicolons co
201. sound intensity bit bit size of data bits per second bit s speed of data transmission byte B size of data candela cd luminous intensity candela per square inch cd sq in luminance candela per square meter cd m2 luminance centimeter cm length characters per inch cpi letter spacing in type coulomb ampere second C electric charge quantity of electricity coulombs per volt See farad cubic centimeter cm3 volume cubic foot cu ft volume cubic inch cu in volume cubic meter m3 volume cubic yard cu yd volume cycle c complete execution of a periodically repeated phenomenon cycles per second See hertz day d time decibel 0 10 bels dB sound intensity degree Option Shift 8 angular measure Chapter 2 Units of Measure 169 170 Unit Unit symbol or abbreviation Quantity degree Celsius C Option Shift 8 temperature degree Fahrenheit F Option Shift 8 temperature degree Kelvin See kelvin degree Rankine R Option Shift 8 temperature dots per inch dpi resolution electromotive force emf energy derived from electrical source per unit quantity of electricity electron volt eV energy farad coulombs per volt F capacitance foot ft length gallon gal volume gigabit Gbit computer memory gigabits per second Gbit s standard speed of data transmission gigabyte Gbps some Apple groups GB computer memory gigabytes per second GB s s
202. structions for Windows users For Macintosh users use Option key a m Note lowercase and periods 8 30 a m Use a space before the abbreviation America American Refers to both North and South America Don t use when you mean United States See also U S American National Standards Institute See ANSI ampersand Use the ampersand character amp in text only when you describe a command name an onscreen element or a document or disc title that uses the character Chapter 1 Style and Usage and or Rewrite to avoid this construction Correct document and application icons Avoid document and or application icons angle brackets Use angle brackets not brackets to describe these symbols lt gt Use left angle bracket and right angle bracket when you need to distinguish between opening and closing brackets You can also use ess than sign and greater than sign for these symbols if appropriate in the context See also braces brackets menus Compare greater than sign less than sign anonymous FTP Note lowercase a See also FTP ANSI Abbreviation for American National Standards Institute Note capitalization antenna antennas Not antennae in relation to wireless products anti prefix Close up except before i a proper noun or a proper adjective Hyphenate in those cases Exception anti alias anti aliasing n adj anti aliased adj Note hyphenation Avoid using anti alias as a verb Correct Anti aliasin
203. sult occurs Don t use hold down when you mean press Press means to press and quickly release a key or mechanical button Correct Hold down the C key while you restart the computer You press the C key continuously until the computer starts up Correct Press the key to set an In point You press and quickly release the key Incorrect Hold down the O key to set an Out point You press and quickly release the O key See also click press home folder home directory In Mac OS X a home folder is a folder for a user s personal use Note lowercase Your home folder provides a secure place to keep your documents In developer documentation use home directory See also directory folder pathnames homepage One word note lowercase Use to refer to a webpage that serves as the directory or entry point to a website Don t use to refer to an entire website Correct The Apple homepage has a link to the Apple Store where you can purchase Apple products Correct Visit the Apple website for more information about Apple products Incorrect Visit the Apple homepage to purchase products HomePage When you refer to the Mac service HomePage is one word with an embedded cap host name Two words Note the treatment of these similar terms device name filename pathname user name volume name hot link n Don t use as a verb Don t use to refer to hypertext links in webpages use hypertext link or just link hot plu
204. t s accessible to all users of a computer is the Applications folder An individual user s applications folder is a user s Applications folder or your Applications folder See also directory font For outline fonts a complete set of characters in one typeface such as Times or Garamond and style For bitmap fonts a complete set of characters in one typeface size and style Don t use face Compare font family typeface Font Book The Mac OS X application for previewing installing organizing and finding fonts Note capitalization font family Use to refer to a complete representation of characters for one typeface including all available sizes and styles for example Times or Garamond A font family may include both bitmap and outline fonts Compare font typeface Font panel The systemwide window named Font or Fonts for selecting fonts styles sizes and other text features Chapter 1 Style and Usage 65 66 font size Not type size When the meaning is clear it s OK to use just size font style Not typestyle or typeface attribute Refers to one or more attributes such as boldface underline italic shadow and so on When the meaning is clear it s OK to use just style footnotes See tables Table notes and footnotes force quit Don t use force quit as a verb Correct You can force an application to quit Incorrect You can force quit an application format n Refers to the arrangement and appearance
205. t 800 number For numbers with extensions use extension or ext not x For phone numbers that use letters for easier recall include the numeric form in parentheses when possible 800 282 2732 800 MY APPLE 800 692 7753 800 800 APPL 800 800 2775 408 996 1010 See also addresses mailing and Chapter 7 International Style on page 193 television Not television set or TV set After the first occurrence TV is OK television monitor Don t use Use video monitor or monitor Telnet Note capitalization Avoid as a verb The UNIX command telnet is all lowercase Correct You use Telnet to connect to another computer as a terminal Correct You use the telnet command to connect to another computer as a terminal Incorrect You Telnet to another computer to use its software terabit See Tbit terabits per second See Thit s Tbps terabyte See TB terabytes per second See TB s TB sec terminal A device or software for sending commands to a computer located somewhere else Terminal An application for using the command line interface Don t use the before terminal emulation n adj No hyphen TextEdit A basic word processing application included in Mac OS X Note capitalization text field See field text file Two words Chapter 1 Style and Usage text heads Use different levels of text heads to make the organization of documentation clearer to the reader but remember that too many heads too close together distract the re
206. t Protocol See TCP IP Trash Note capitalization Use an article drag the file to the Trash tray loading adj Not tray load See also slot loading troubleshoot v troubleshooting n adj One word TrueType Note capitalization tune in to Three words See also into in to turn on turn off OK to use when you describe power to a computer or peripheral device You can also use turn on to describe enabling features such as file sharing as in turn on file sharing See also start up startup switch on switch off TV Not TV set or television set TV monitor Don t use Use video monitor or monitor twisted pair cable Note hyphenation type n Use in general references to the text that appears on a printed page Don t use type when you mean font or font family type v Use to describe the act of pressing keys to produce characters on the screen Use code font or quotation marks to represent what the user actually types depending on your department s style guidelines Type PR 4 Technical Publications uses this style Type 01221419 in the Current Timecode field User Publications uses this style Use regular text font to describe generically what the user types Type a new timecode value in the Current Timecode field Don t use type in when you mean type Compare enter press Type 1 font Note capitalization A font that conforms to the ISO 9541 standard Type A connector A type of USB connector Note capitalizatio
207. t use lowercase as a verb When used in conjunction with uppercase as a noun or to modify a noun use uppercase and lowercase both words spelled out in that order low order bit n Not o bit or lo bit Low bit is an acceptable short form low resolution n low resolution adj Not o res The short form low res n adj is OK when space constraints don t allow use of the full phrase as in column heads in tables Chapter 1 Style and Usage 95 96 M Mac See Mac on page 7 Mac Use to describe Apple personal computers and related products Mac computer your Mac Mac users the Mac platform for Mac and Windows Mac compatible products Mac is typically preceded by an article Configure the Mac to suit your needs For a list of Macintosh model names see Chapter 3 Apple Products on page 175 See also Macintosh Mac OS Mac Help Note capitalization See also help machine Don t use when you mean computer machine language n machine language adj Note hyphenation of adjective Macintosh Use Macintosh to describe computers manufactured by Apple Use Mac compatible to describe hardware or software that works with the Mac OS e Adjective Macintosh is most correctly used as an adjective as in Macintosh computer When you use Macintosh as a noun place an article or a possessive before it to avoid anthropomorphizing the Macintosh your Macintosh e Plural and possessive forms Don t use the plural Macin
208. tandard GB sec some Apple groups speed of data transmission gigahertz GHz frequency gilbert Gb magnetomotive force gram g mass weight grams per cubic centimeter g cm3 density henry H inductance hertz cycles per second Hz frequency horsepower HP power hour h time inch in length joule kilogram meter J energy joules per second See watt kelvin K thermodynamic temperature kilobit 1000 bits kbit computer memory kilobits per second kbit s standard speed of data transmission kbps some Apple groups kilobyte 1024 bytes kilobytes per second KB KB s standard KB sec some Apple groups computer memory speed of data transmission kilogram Chapter 2 Units of Measure kg mass weight Unit symbol or abbreviation Quantity kilogram meter See joule kilogram meters per second squared See newton kilograms per cubic meter kg m3 density kilohertz kHz frequency kilohm k Option Z electric resistance kilometer km length distance kilometers per hour km h velocity kilowatt kilovolt ampere kW power kilowatt hour kWh energy usually electric power consumption lines per inch lpi resolution liter volume liters per second I s change in volume over time lumen Im flux of light lux Ix illumination megabit Mbit computer memory megabits per second Mbit s standard Mbps some Apple groups s
209. te the spelled out version even when it s used as an adjective high definition video HD disk Don t use Use high density disk Note hyphenation of spelled out version Chapter 1 Style and Usage 71 72 HDV A format for recording and playback of high definition video on standard DV cassette tapes using a form of MPEG 2 compression Don t use HDV to refer in general to high definition video Related terms include the following HDV format HDV standard HDV video HDV camera HDV camcorder headings See text heads help Use lowercase unless you re referring to the complete name of an application s help such as Mail Help or iTunes Help You can search the help system for specific topics For more help look in iPhoto Help help book The collection of HTML files that provides onscreen help for a particular product Don t use in user documentation use the product s specific name for example Keynote Help Help button A button that opens Help Viewer The standard Help button has a question mark graphic Note capitalization Help Center In some earlier versions of Mac OS X the collection of all the help books installed on a user s computer and displayed in the Help Viewer window In Mac OS X version 10 2 the contents of the Help Center appeared in a drawer that slid out from the Help Viewer window Starting with Mac OS X version 10 3 the help files for just the active application appear in the Help Viewer window help tags Note
210. the abbreviation 20 GB of memory Always spell out customary units of measure in text for example 17 inch display It s OK to abbreviate such units in tables and technical specifications Display size 17 in Noun When you use a unit symbol or abbreviation as a noun use the preposition of before the unit the value quantifies 20 GB of memory Adjective When you use a spelled out unit of measure in a compound adjective hyphenate the compound 17 inch display 3 meter cable When you use a unit symbol or abbreviation in a compound adjective don t hyphenate add a space between the number and the abbreviation 20 nA battery 30 GB capacity Capitalization With the exception of degrees Celsius units of measure derived from a proper name are not capitalized when spelled out but their unit symbols are capitalized For example the unit symbol for joule is J 167 168 e Punctuation Abbreviations for customary nonmetric units are followed by a period 30 in display e Plurals Unit symbols and abbreviations are unaltered in the plural forms for example b not bs e International System of Units Use the unit symbol for units of the International System of Units SI after first occurrence If the unit symbol for meter could be confused with another term in your document spell out meter The maximum size for a memory card is 35 mm The Ethernet cable is 40 meters long Don t use a period after an SI unit
211. tion ISO Note capitalization It s not necessary to spell out on first occurrence Pronounced em peg MPEG usually refers to the family of digital video compression standards that the group developed There are three major versions MPEG 1 MPEG 2 and MPEG 4 MPEG 4 is based on the QuickTime file format and defines standards for video and audio streaming There is no MPEG 3 Note that MP3 is short for MPEG Audio Layer 3 not MPEG 3 MPEG Audio Layer 3 See MP3 MS DOS Note hyphenation and capitalization multi prefix Close up in words beginning with either a consonant or a vowel except multiplayer multitasking multiprocessor multithreading multiuser multi item multiple scan adj No hyphen multiplication sign Not multiplication symbol multiprocessing multiprocessor No hyphen A multiprocessor computer has multiple processors not multiprocessors Multipurpose Internet Mail Extension See MIME Musical Instrument Digital Interface See MIDI Mute key Note capitalization Chapter 1 Style and Usage N name server Two words native applications Don t use quotation marks to enclose native Correct For best performance use a native application Incorrect Native applications are designed to take advantage of your computer s microprocessor Net Don t use as a short form of Internet NetInfo One word note capitalization network Computers are on not in a network Network Capitalize when you r
212. tion of color wells appears later in this document Compare above below easy installation Not easy install Note lowercase You perform an easy installation you don t do an easy install See also custom installation normal installation EBCDIC Acronym for Extended Binary Coded Decimal Interchange Code Note capitalization of spelled out version spell out on first occurrence The acronym is pronounced EB si dik editing Don t use a hyphen when you use editing in a compound adjective video editing application audio editing system editor Capitalize editor only when using the full name the Property List Editor but the editor e g Don t use use for example or such as See also abbreviations and acronyms eject trans v Don t use as an intransitive verb Correct The disk drive ejects the disk Correct To eject the disk drag its icon to the Trash Incorrect The disk ejects Eject button The button next to the name of a CD DVD disk server or other device in the sidebar of Finder windows Also the button next to the name of an iPod in the iTunes Source list I gt Clicking the button ejects discs from drives and removes other items from the desktop Chapter 1 Style and Usage electromagnetic interference See EMI ellipsis points In menus some command names are followed by three unspaced periods ellipsis points to indicate that further action will be required Don t include the ellipsis points when you refe
213. tor Don t use use socket See also connector fewer less Use fewer for countable items use ess for quantity or bulk The fewer devices in your network system the less cable you need Fiber Gigabit Ethernet Gigabit Ethernet using fiber optic cable Note capitalization See also Gigabit Ethernet 1000Base T fiber optics n fiber optic adj The adjective is not hyphenated fiber optic cable Fibre Channel A high speed serial data transmission technology Xserve RAID has a 2 Gbit not 2 GB Fibre Channel interface Note capitalization field Use to refer to the boxes that appear in windows dialogs webpages or database records in which users enter information It s not necessary to specify text field or number field but if a field has a name try to use it For example Enter the video timecode in the Current Timecode field Fill in the required fields and then click Checkout For novice users text box or number box may be more appropriate These are OK too but try to be consistent within a document Chapter 1 Style and Usage 61 62 figure captions Use of figure captions varies by department Consult your department guidelines to determine whether to use them e Number and title Most figure captions include both a figure number and a figure title Unnumbered figures are not included in a list of figures and tables A figure with a number must also have a title a figure with a title generally has a number e Titl
214. toshes in describing any of the Macintosh family computers If you must describe any Macintosh computer in the plural add the word computers Macintosh computers Rewrite to avoid possessive forms of any Macintosh product name e Model names Use the full Macintosh computer model name on a manual cover and title page Avoid using the full model name in text For example refer to your computer or the Macintosh computer instead of the Power Mac G5 e Startup icons When you describe the startup icons in Mac OS 9 use happy Macintosh and sad Macintosh in quotation marks Don t use happy Mac or sad Mac For a list of Macintosh model names see Chapter 3 Apple Products on page 175 Macintosh file sharing Note capitalization Include Macintosh when you need to specify the platform otherwise it s preferable to use just file sharing Macintosh operating system Mac OS is preferred See also Mac OS Mac mini Apple s smallest desktop computer for consumers and education Don t use Mac Mini even in title style headings The name can be used with or without an article Chapter 1 Style and Usage Mac OS Two words Use with an article the Mac OS except when including a version number Mac OS X v10 4 Use Mac compatible to refer to software or hardware that can be used with the Mac OS Use Mac OS to refer to any version of Macintosh system software later than 7 6 See also system software version Mac OS 9 Always use the
215. ty programs Note lowercase Not systems software See also version systemwide adj One word See also wide Chapter 1 Style and Usage T tab in Classic Control Strip Use lowercase tab when you refer to the tab at the end of the Mac OS 9 Control Strip tab user interface element In the user interface the tab itself is called the tab name tab but the content you see when you click a tab is the pane Note that some controls that used to look like tabs now look like buttons In general if it looks like a tab call it a tab if it looks like a button call it a button See also pane Tab key tab character Capitalize when you refer to the key on the keyboard Use lowercase when you refer to the character When you press Tab you generate a tab character The tab character HT for horizontal tab has ASCII value 09 table captions Table captions include a table number and a table title In developer documentation most tables are numbered In user documentation many tables have no numbers and no titles When you use table titles keep them short don t exceed a line and a half of text Avoid using complete sentences for table titles table of contents Most documents of ten pages or more should have a table of contents which always begins on a new right hand page e What to include The table of contents should include part chapter and chapter equivalent titles and may include level one level two and level three
216. uccessful startup sequence Don t use boot chime statement Not necessarily the same as line One line may contain several statements and one statement may extend over several lines stationery In user documentation not stationery document The checkbox in the Info window is labeled Stationery Pad note capitalization stationery aware program Don t use Use program that works with stationery or program that recognizes stationery step Don t capitalize even in specific references step 1 steps 1 and 2 several steps stereotypes See fair language Stickies The name of an application The things you create with Stickies are called notes Sticky Keys Capitalize when you refer to the feature that can be set in the Universal Access pane of System Preferences stop A general term meaning to cause a process command or program to cease Compare exit halt interrupt quit style of type Not typestyle or type style sub prefix Close up words beginning with sub subaccount submenu subdirectory subnetwork Chapter 1 Style and Usage subdirectory In developer documentation can be used to refer to a directory within another directory In user documentation use folder See also folder submenu indicator Refers to the triangular symbol that indicates an additional set of choices usually a submenu in a menu Move Left gt S Submenu indicators Move Right gt submenus Use when you describe hierarchical menus When the
217. ucts AirPort AirPort Extreme AirPort Express e AirPort Base Station AirPort Extreme Base Station AirPort Express Base Station e AirPort Card AirPort Extreme Card Chapter 3 Apple Products Technical Notation This chapter gives special style and usage rules that apply largely or exclusively to developer documentation Many of the rules covered here are also included by topic in Chapter 1 Style and Usage General Considerations When writing about a particular programming language be careful to follow the capitalization style of that language Code Use code font for code Develop a method of spacing around punctuation and use the method consistently It s often best to use English style spacing one space character between words because it s easy to remember and to stick with height width extended quo integer PageSize 1024 Syntax Descriptions Use code font for literals parts of the language values and so on italic text font for metasymbols artificial terms that have meaning only in your document and are to be replaced by a value or symbol and plain style regular text font for brackets that enclose something that s optional Pay close attention to punctuation Read file var Use embedded caps to connect words that act as a single metasymbol sourceFile Be consistent when naming metasymbols for example don t alternate between commands and commandList 181 182 Code
218. undtrack TrueType Velocity Engine WebObjects Xcode Xsan and Xserve are trademarks of Apple Computer Inc registered in the U S and other countries AirPort Express Aperture Apple Remote Desktop Balloon Help Cinema Tools Develop Disk First Aid eMac Expos Finder GarageBand iSight iWork Keynote Pages QuickTime Broadcaster Safari SnapBack Spotlight SuperDrive Techno Tiger and Xgrid are trademarks of Apple Computer Inc AppleCare Apple Store and iTunes Music Store are service marks of Apple Computer Inc registered in the U S and other countries AppleWorld and Mac are service marks of Apple Computer Inc FileMaker is a registered trademark of FileMaker Inc in the U S and other countries Mighty Mouse Viacom International Inc All rights reserved The Mighty Mouse trademark is used under icense PostScript is a trademark or registered trademark of Adobe Systems Incorporated in the U S and or other countries PowerPC and the PowerPC logo are trademarks of nternational Business Machines Corporation used under license therefrom Times is a registered trademark of Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG available from Linotype Library GmbH Preface Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 nau WM 167 168 169 175 175 176 176 176 177 177 178 180 180 181 181 181 181 182 182 183 183 184 185 187 Contents About This Guide What s in
219. up to 12 characters long Incorrect The volumeName can be up to 12 characters long Avoid foo bar baz or frobozz to represent hierarchical or ordered metasymbols in code examples Instead use metasymbols that suggest the kind of item that the programmer is to fill in TObject FirstMethod TObject SecondMethod Chapter 4 Technical Notation How to Write a Glossary This chapter provides guidelines on content definitions and format for a glossary of terms A good glossary can enhance the usefulness of the documentation you produce A term that one reader sees as jargon is seen by another as an everyday term in constant use Audience Considerations Keep in mind the needs of the people for whom you are writing Follow the guidelines in this section First time users If your document is intended for first time computer users or first time Apple product users you ll probably have to include obvious terms such as window screen menu start up and command Look at earlier user documentation for ideas about what to include and ask your developmental editor for suggestions Intermediate users Documentation for intermediate users and installation manuals for peripheral devices lie in a gray area Can you assume for example that the person buying a hard disk has already learned how to use the computer Perhaps not But some hard disk buyers will be very advanced users When deciding which terms to include you should pro
220. upertino CA 95014 USA Chapter1 Style and Usage 11 12 e Fax and email Elements such as fax numbers and email addresses can be included in Apple mailing addresses Place the elements below the phone number using the following format Fax 408 123 1234 Email appleci apple com e Other addresses For other addresses spell out elements such as Avenue Drive Road Street and Suite It s OK to abbreviate Blvd and Bldg Use the format shown in the preceding examples for city and state phone numbers fax numbers and email addresses Use two letter abbreviations for state names see The Chicago Manual of Style administrator n A person who has administrative authority for networks servers databases or other information technology assets Don t shorten to admin To maintain the distinction between professional administrators and Mac OS X users with administrator accounts avoid using the noun administrator by itself to describe a person who has an administrator account in Mac OS X Instead say an admin user or a user with an administrator account typically the owner or owners of a particular Macintosh computer Correct To obtain a static IP address for your computer contact your network administrator Correct You must have an administrator account to install software Incorrect You must be an administrator to install software See also administrator admin System Administrator administrator adj admin adj
221. user documentation avoid identifying connectors by the number of pins 9 pin 11 pin 25 pin or 50 pin as well as the corresponding DB 9 DB 11 and so on The actual number of pins may not be the number in the designation You may however want to mention these terms in a glossary e Other names and descriptors Avoid obscure names such as power input unit in favor of more direct terms such as recessed plug Don t use male or female to describe types of connectors Compare jack port slot socket constitute Parts constitute a whole A whole comprises parts Compare comprise contextual menu In user documentation don t use to refer to the menu that appears when you press the Control key and click an item on the screen use shortcut menu See also menus Chapter1 Style and Usage 39 40 contractions It s OK to use contractions in most documentation interface text and informal marketing copy avoid in formal materials such as legal documents e Acceptable contractions Form contractions from pronouns and verbs she s you ll we ve and from verbs and the word not isn t don t won t can t e Contractions to avoid Don t form contractions from nouns and verbs For example avoid constructions such as this Apple s going to introduce a new computer today Avoid contractions that may be difficult for localization such as it ll e Its and its Don t confuse it s the contraction for it is with the possessive pron
222. user highlights a menu item with a triangular indicator a submenu appears Select All 38A EN Fini Panel BF Spelling gt Find Next G Speech gt Find Previous D Use Selection for Find 3E Scroll to Selection 38 To describe choosing an item from a submenu use this style Choose Edit gt Find gt Find Next See also choose menus subtitles document See volume document super prefix Close up words beginning with super supercomputer superfine supermodem SuperDrive The combination drive that reads and writes burns DVD and CD discs Usually preceded with an article Don t use Combo drive or combo drive It s OK to use a term such as SuperDrive DVD R CD RW to explain the drive s capabilities Use the form 8x speed or 8x to refer to the drive s speed Types of SuperDrive include the following DVD R CD RW DVD RW CD RW DVD R DL DVD RW CD RW Chapter 1 Style and Usage 141 142 support Avoid in user documentation when you can use compatible works with or another appropriate word or phrase Preferable To use iDVD you must have an Apple SuperDrive installed Avoid iDVD does not support DVD R drives other than the Apple SuperDrive Preferable You can use files in most QuickTime formats with iMovie HD Avoid iMovie HD supports most QuickTime formats It s OK to use support to refer to a product Apple has not tested or to a feature that Apple does not provide but that the user can obtain for example
223. usic Store depending on the context Find your favorites online at the iTunes Music Store Buy your favorites from the music store iWork Productivity software that includes Keynote and Pages Note capitalization J jack A small round 1 pin socket used in audio and video connections Don t use connector to refer to a jack See also connector port slot socket jargon Avoid jargon whenever possible Define technical terminology on first occurrence Joint Photographic Experts Group See JPEG JPEG Acronym for Joint Photographic Experts Group pronounced JAY peg JPEG usually refers to the image compression standard that this group developed for color and grayscale images Note capitalization it s not necessary to spell out JPEG on first occurrence justification Don t use to refer to the alignment of text to the right or left margin use alignment Text that is aligned on both the right and the left margins is justified Compare alignment K K Abbreviation for the number 1024 Never use K as an abbreviation for the number 1000 Don t use K as an abbreviation for kilobyte use KB KB n adj Abbreviation for kilobyte Spell out on first occurrence e Noun In the noun form use a space between the numeral and the abbreviation The preposition of is necessary before the unit that the value quantifies 800 KB of memory e Adjective Don t hyphenate the adjective form a 678 KB file kbit n adj Abbreviation f
224. using software from other manufacturers Avoid saying Apple does not support something Preferable You can t copy songs from your iPod to your computer Avoid Apple does not support copying songs from your iPod to your computer Acceptable Check the iMovie HD website for a list of supported camcorders S video Note capitalization and hyphenation S video input port Connects the computer to video equipment that uses an S video connector Not S video In port Different from a composite video input port Compare video input port S video output port Connects the computer to video equipment that uses an S video connector Not S video Out port Different from a composite video output port Compare video output port switch on switch off Don t use power down power off power on or power up in user documentation OK to use turn on and turn off symbol OK in a generic sense as in the percent symbol Don t use symbol when you mean character letter or digit Use sign not symbol in the following terms division sign equal sign greater than sign less than sign minus sign multiplication sign number sign plus sign Chapter 1 Style and Usage sync synced syncing Sync synced and syncing are OK as short forms of the verb synchronize or as short ways to refer to particular instances of synchronization Avoid using sync as a noun Correct You can sync your devices Correct You can perform a sync operation Incorrect
225. ver Don t use when you mean more than Correct You can add more than 1000 songs Incorrect You can add over 1000 songs P page See homepage webpage Pages The word processing application included in iWork Note capitalization PAL Acronym for Phase Alternating Line a European color video standard or for Programmable Array Logic a type of integrated circuit Spell out on first occurrence palette Note spelling pane Use pane to refer to changeable areas within a window or dialog such as views that can be changed by clicking a button or choosing an item from a pop up menu and windows that change automatically as in an installer Also use pane to refer to the parts that result when a user splits a document window In many cases in user documentation you can avoid using pane by describing how to get to a particular onscreen item Open System Preferences click Displays and click Color It s OK to refer to a pane within a pane Don t use panel to refer to a pane See also tab user interface element Panther The trademarked name for Mac OS X version 10 3 See also Mac OS X parameter random access memory See PRAM parental controls Note lowercase Don t use family controls Chapter 1 Style and Usage parenthesis sing parentheses pl Note different spelling of singular and plural See also punctuation parts Most print documents don t need to be divided into parts division into chapters is usually sufficient Good
226. vice connected to the computer that displays text or graphics If possible be more specific LCD projector or television display port The port on a computer or graphics card used to plug in an Apple display Don t use monitor port display system Refers to a display and the display card sometimes called a graphics card that works with it division sign Not division symbol do Don t use in phrases such as do a clean installation Use perform instead Dock Don t use as a verb Items are in the Dock not on the Dock Correct Click the Mail application icon in the Dock Correct Click a minimized window in the Dock Correct To put a window in the Dock click the minimize button Incorrect You can dock any window Incorrect When an item is docked Don t assume that an item is in a user s Dock only the Finder and the Trash can t be removed from the Dock dock iPod An accessory for iPod digital music players with a dock connector Capitalize in the full name iPod shuffle Dock Don t use dockable dock connector The port on iPod digital music players for connecting to an iPod dock cable or device Chapter1 Style and Usage 51 52 document In user documentation refers to a file the user creates and can open edit and print Don t use when you mean file Correct Back up all your files Incorrect Back up all your documents Compare file document titles When you cite the full title of a document use the capitali
227. when their presence will enhance the reader s understanding or will illustrate a procedure or point that is not evident from the text alone Consider your audience when you plan an art program figure text Use figure text also known as abels for any text that accompanies a figure usually line art but is not connected to the figure by a leader line Text connected by a leader line is a callout Labels are embedded in the figure Keep labels brief Capitalization is sentence style See also callouts Chapter 1 Style and Usage file Refers to any entity stored on a disk regardless of whether the user can open edit or print it Compare document file formats Abbreviations should be in all caps filename extensions should be in lowercase In most cases you don t need to spell out on first occurrence The following table shows abbreviations extensions and names for some common file formats Abbreviation Extension Full name AIFF aif Audio Interchange File Format DMG dmg disk image GIF gif Graphics Interchange Format JPEG jpg Joint Photographic Experts Group MP3 mp3 MPEG Audio Layer 3 PDF pdf Portable Document Format RTF rtf Rich Text Format TIFF tif Tagged Image File Format WAV WAVE wav Waveform format file locations See pathnames FileMaker Inc Note capitalization filename One word In specific references capitalization should agree with the way the filename appears in the interface the file syst
228. when you re referring to the Mac OS X user account identified as System Administrator long name and root short name Anyone with access to the System Administrator account can obtain read and write access to all settings and files on the system including hidden system files that a regular admin user can t modify Each computer can have multiple administrator accounts but can have only one System Administrator account Lowercase system administrator is an acceptable and frequently used variant of the noun administrator To obtain a static IP address for your computer contact your system administrator or network administrator See also administrator administrator admin system extension Classic In user documentation may be used to describe files for instance files of type INIT appe and seri that extend the abilities of the computer System file Classic Note capitalization Refers to the specifically named file in the Classic Mac OS 9 System Folder Compare system files system files Note lowercase Refers to any files used by the computer to start up or to provide systemwide information Compare System file System folder System Folder Use a lowercase fin Mac OS X and an uppercase F in Mac OS 9 System Preferences Note capitalization for the name of the application See also preferences system software The software used to operate and maintain a computer system including the operating system and utili
229. xt font all caps for signal names Use an en dash between the first and last signal names to indicate a range of signals Begin active low signal names with a slash and use angle brackets to enclose two or more ranges in a set CLK lt AD31 AD29 AD7 ADO gt sign on n adj sign on v Two words no hyphen in verb Note hyphenation in phrases such as single sign on authentication SIMM Acronym for single inline memory module No hyphen in spelled out version Spell out on first occurrence Simple Mail Transfer Protocol See SMTP since because Use since to mean during the period subsequent to the time when Use because to mean for the reason that Correct It has been 5 hours since you checked your email Correct Because you made a backup copy you didn t lose your work Incorrect Since you made a backup copy you didn t lose your work single inline memory module See SIMM single letters See letters as letters size v Don t use use resize or change the size of in reference to a window or an object Chapter 1 Style and Usage size box Classic The area in the lower right corner of a window that you drag to resize the window In Mac OS X this item is the resize control slash Use to describe this character See also backslash sleep An energy saving feature of some computers The computer goes to sleep or the user can put it to sleep the computer is then in sleep or in sleep mode Don t use the
230. y The second word is a participle past or present as in binary coded decimal or color matching algorithm The two modifiers are a number or a single letter and a noun or a participle as in 32 bit color or D shaped connector Follow these guidelines in various specific cases Units of measure When you use a spelled out unit of measure in a compound adjective hyphenate the compound 3 5 inch floppy disk When you use an abbreviation or a metric unit of measure including KB MB mm and so on don t hyphenate 4 GB hard disk Location compounds Hyphenate compounds such as lower left corner top right portion Chapter 1 Style and Usage 75 76 e Adverbs Don t hyphenate compounds with very or with adverbs that end in ly very high speed recently completed project e Keyboard shortcuts using combination keystrokes In combination keystrokes use hyphens to signify that the first key or keys should be held down while the last key is pressed Don t use hyphens if each key should be pressed and released separately Be sure to explain this convention on first use Shift Control N Esc N When one of the key names in a combination keystroke is itself two words use an en dash wherever you would ordinarily use a hyphen Option right bracket Command Option Up Arrow Shift double click Command Shift double click See also dash en IAC Abbreviation for interapplication communication Note lowercase in spelled out version s
231. y of data for example the column view in Finder windows Chapter 1 Style and Usage Column View button The rightmost button in the View control in Finder windows Note capitalization command Use command or menu command in user documentation don t use menu option The menu contains a list of commands Use the Save command to save any changes to your file Use menu item to refer to items that aren t commands such as names of windows in the Window menu and About This Mac in the Apple menu In the Classic environment use menu item to refer to items in the Apple menu and to open programs in the Application menu A command is in a menu not on a menu a menu contains commands Users choose commands they don t select commands See also choose command names menus Commancd click v adj Note capitalization and hyphenation The hyphen denotes a combined action Command click is equivalent to press the Command key and click Command key On first use in print user documentation identify the Command key with its symbol Command 4 key Thereafter just use Command key Don t use Apple key Command key equivalent Don t use use keyboard shortcut even when all the combinations use the Command key command line n command line adj In applications without a graphical user interface you enter commands in the area known as the command line Such applications Terminal for example have a command line interface Chapt
232. zation style used in the title The article the is not usually part of the title but for user s manuals User s Guide Apple Product Documentation or User Manual User Publications often is Consult your editor for titling guidelines specific to your department e Specific references to document titles Always give the title exactly as it appears on the document s cover but eliminate any trademark symbols Don t change an old title to comply with the current guidelines for naming manuals For more information see the Power Mac G5 User s Guide e Generic references to document titles Don t capitalize or use italics for generic references to documents See the user s guide that came with your computer To connect your display follow the instructions in the setup guide See also cross references parts volume document document window Don t use use document or window not both In developer documentation document window is OK in reference to the predefined window type dot Use dot to describe the character that appears in the close button of a document with unsaved changes and for the characters that appear when a user types a password in a dialog Password eeccceed Use dot not bit when you describe an individual screen pixel See also bit bullet pixel dot matrix n dot matrix adj Note hyphenation of adjective dots per inch See dpi double byte characters Note hyphenation Not 2 byte characters C

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