About This Guide

• GNOME-STYLE
• Preface

The goal of the GNOME Documentation Style Guide (GDSG) is to provide a framework for contributors to write good documentation. The GDSG also helps authors to write consistent documentation, so that users can expect certain structures and conventions in GNOME documents.

This style guide discusses basic principles of clear, concise writing so that users can achieve the maximum benefit from GNOME documentation. The guide also provides standards for common terms and concepts. The guide provides recommendations rather than absolute rules. However, in all parts of the user interface, including documentation, consistency is a virtue. When you write GNOME documentation, try to follow these guidelines as closely as possible. Users benefit from the consistent application of the guidelines in this guide.

This style guide is primarily for authors contributing documentation to the GDP in English. Although you can apply many of the guidelines in this book to all languages, there some guidelines that are specifically for English-language usage.