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Documentation Guidelines

As we expand our documentation and the number of people contributing to it, we should keep in mind the following guidelines. These guidelines will help ensure a consistent voice and style, making the documentation easier to read and understand.

Capitalization​

Proper Nouns​

Capitalization of proper nouns including names of software, upstream projects, etc. should follow the capitalization used by their owners; e.g.:

This
  • Flatpak
  • Flathub
  • OSTree
  • AppStream
  • MetaInfo
  • GitHub
Not this
  • flatpak
  • FlatHub
  • ostree
  • Appstream
  • metainfo
  • Github

An exception is when referring to typed commands or code, in which case they should always be written as code, e.g.: flatpak install...

Other Terms​

Terms like “ID” should always be capitalized unless referring to code, e.g. id.

Regional Spelling​

In cases where there are multiple correct spellings depending on regional/country-specific conventions, prefer the upstream project's spelling. If that's not relevant, prefer US-English. For example,

  • AppStream catalog
  • color

Common Terms​

  • We prefer “app” over “application”
  • The string added to a website for verification is the “verification token” (not “code”)
  • Use “native app store clients” to refer to apps like KDE Discover and GNOME Software
  • “MetaInfo” is the data shipped with an app (not “AppData” as that’s the deprecated term)