The Microsoft Manual of Style for Technical Publications, Second Edition

by Microsoft Corp., Microsoft Corporation

This is the proven guide that technical communicators, starting with those at Microsoft itself, rely on to make their writing clear, crisp, and consistent. Created by the Microsoft User Assistance team, this definitive reference is used throughout the Microsoft Corporation and other companies for creating manuals, online help, Web publications, and much more. The completely updated and extended second edition covers Internet topics and terms, important Microsoft technologies, and other key advances in computing. All of which makes the Microsoft Manual of Style for Technical Publications, Second Edition the trusted way to make yourself perfectly clear.

Genres: Reference, Writing, Technical, Nonfiction

336 pages, Paperback

First published June 30, 1995

About the author

Microsoft Corporation is a multinational technology company. It was founded in 1975 by Bill Gates and Paul Allen, and it is currently headquartered in Redmond WA. It is the largest software company by revenue.

Reviews

[Betsy]

Microsoft Manual of Style for Technical Publications, 3rd ed. 2004.

Even if you’re not in software development or technical writing, this one would come in handy if you write the occasional “how-to” handout for staff or the public. It has recommendations for how to phrase instructions to minimize confusion, how to describe menus and buttons, etc. The second half of the book is comprised of a Usage Dictionary.

If your audience is multicultural, the Global Content section has interesting advice. For instance:

Art presents many globalization issues. [ ...] We especially careful to avoid images that are offensive in some cultures, such as holiday images and situations, whether work or social, involving men and women. Avoid hand signs; nearly every hand sign is offensive somewhere.

Contents: Documenting the user interface — Content formatting and layout — Global content — Content for software developers — Web content — Indexing and attributing — Tone and rhetoric — Accessible content — Common style problems — Grammatical elements — Punctuation — List of acronyms and abbreviations — Usage dictionary.

[Steve]

I found this book to be very helpful when writing instructions for computer applications. I have the second edition and it is out-of-date, but some of the basics do not change. Definitions for each term are supplied. Recommendations are made for more precise terminology. Especially useful are the help instruction examples. When you write step-by-step instructions, you are pretty much writing a program that a human can follow; this reference helps to keep that program easy and bug-free.

[Linda McMahon]

Essential reference book for anyone who documents software. Has saved me time in many "discussions" about the appropriate term or spelling of a term.

[Mindi]

Even though I really hate Microsoft... they are still pretty much the standard for style in the computer industry as long as you are referencing Windows products when writing.

[Sasha]

This manual of style is actually a glossary. But, MS is still the largest independent software company in the world and everyone uses their software. So, why not standardize on their terminology?