Documentation Guidelines¶

Style Guide Applicability¶

The style guide applies to all end-user, developer, and administrator documentation that appears on the Mattermost documentation site at https://docs.mattermost.com.

Apply the style guide in the following situations:

• when you create a new document
• when you convert a document from Markdown to reStructuredText
• when you revise a document

When you revise a document, apply the style guide rules to the part that you changed. If you have time to update the rest of the document, then do so. If the scope is significantly greater than you originally anticipated, then do what you can and what makes sense, and then create an issue in GitHub. Give the issue an appropriate title, such as File XXX converted to .rst, but needs updating for style guide.

Write in the Context of Achievement¶

The documentation should help Mattermost users and administrators achieve their goals. Write imperative sentences as much as possible. Imperative sentences begin with verbs and give instructions, information, and advice to help people install, administer, and use Mattermost with success.

Use positive constructs as much as possible, but note that a negative construct can act as a warning that causes a reader to pay closer attention to the content, resulting in higher levels of accomplishment.

Write to Facilitate Scanning¶

Readers need to find information quickly. People don’t read documentation as much as they scan it for solutions to their immediate problem. Writing and presentation styles that seem redundant in essays or other texts are often helpful to people scanning for information.

Write for an International Audience¶

Mattermost documentation is translated into several languages for use in many countries and cultures. For this reason, you must consider cultural differences on a global scale. Names, places, events, and actions should be chosen as carefully as possible to avoid misunderstanding.

Also remember that English is not the primary language of many readers of the documentation. Keep the following advice in mind when writing:

• Choose words with one or very few meanings.
• Use simple verb forms in writing. Most verbs in the simple form are likely to have an equivalent in another language.
• Avoid jargon and slang words.
• Limit difficult words to technical terms where their use is unavoidable.
• Always make sure that your spelling is correct.

Word Usage Guidelines¶

To promote consistency and clarity, follow the word usage and spelling guidelines in the following list.

can, might, may

The word may can have several meanings. To avoid ambiguity, use can or might instead of may. Use can to mean capable of and might to mean that something is possible. Use may only to give permission to do something.

downtime

Use as one word downtime, not down time.

emoji, emojis

Use emojis as the plural form of emoji.

login, log in, log into

Use login as a noun or adjective, and log in and log into as verbs. For example: Log into the Mattermost server using your System Admin login credentials.

setup, set up

Use setup as a noun or adjective, and set up as a verb. For example: Set up your operating system as described in the Ubuntu documentation.

sign-in, sign in, and sign into

Use sign-in as a noun or adjective, and sign in and sign into as verbs. For example: Sign into your Mattermost account using the sign-in credentials that were sent to you.

single sign-on

Single sign-on is abbreviated as SSO. When using the long form in a heading with title case, it’s Single Sign-on.

Gender-neutral Text¶

Avoid constructs where you are forced to write either he or she or his or her. You can use they or their as singular forms instead.

Preferred

The community manager monitors the forum for well-written questions and answers, and posts them to the Contributors channel.

Avoid

The community manager posts questions and answers that they think are well-written.

Do not use

The community manager posts questions and answers that he or she thinks are well-written.

Document Title¶

Use a title that accurately reflects the content of the document. People scan the table of contents looking for answers; it’s often faster than using the built-in search engine.

Use title case for document titles. For more information and an example of capitalization, see Capitalization.

Introductory Paragraph¶

Each page should have an introduction that acts as a short description of the document. The short description should be a single paragraph of no more than three sentences. Keep in mind that the description is displayed in the search results along with the page title. People read the description to help them decide if the document is the one that they want.

Table of Contents¶

If the document contains more than four sections or subsections, add a table of contents to help the user navigate the document, see Table of Contents.

Document Sections¶

To make pages easier for people to quickly scan for the content that they’re looking for, break your document up into logical sections. Each section should have a title, and the title should relate to the content of the section. Use title case for the section title.

A section title is not required if you have only one section.

Language and Spelling¶

Write documents in English. Use American spelling.

Paragraphs and Sentences¶

Paragraphs should express one idea or topic. Long paragraphs are sometimes difficult to read on screen, so try to keep them to five sentences or less. Short paragraphs are easier for people to scan quickly.

Try to keep sentences to 25 words or less in length. Short, single-clause sentences are often easier to understand and easier to translate. Tools such as the Hemingway writing app can be helpful in evaluating readability. Target a readability level of Grade 6.

Commas¶

Use the serial comma unless doing so decreases clarity and understanding of the sentence.

Preferred

The cows ran from wolves, coyotes, and mosquitoes.

Avoid

The cows ran from wolves, coyotes and mosquitoes.

Capitalization¶

Use title case for page titles and section titles.

Title case

Grammar, Spelling, and Mechanics

Sentence case

Language and spelling

Numbers¶

Spell out numbers when the number is the first word in a sentence or is less than or equal to ten, otherwise use numeric digits.

Use commas to make long numbers easier to read.

Preferred

Three cows ran for six kilometers when they saw 2,300,097 mosquitoes chasing them.

Avoid

3 cows ran for 6 kilometers when they saw 2300097 mosquitoes chasing them.

Text Formatting¶

Use highlighting of text to visually set off words and phrases that are important to readers. Content that should be highlighted includes file names, UI controls, and window titles. The following table has a comprehensive list with examples.

Bullet Lists¶

The list items in a bullet list can be either all complete sentences or all sentence fragments. Don’t mix complete sentences and sentence fragments in a single list. Remember that a complete sentence begins with an upper case letter and ends with a punctuation mark.

Numbered Lists and Procedures¶

Create numbered lists and procedure steps using arabic numerals for the top-level list and lower case alpha characters for the first nested list. For example:

1. This is the first step.
2. This is the second step.

1. This is a substep.
2. This is another substep.

3. This is the third step.

Name-value Groups¶

Use a name-value group instead of a hand-created list.

A name-value group is typically a group of terms and their corresponding definitions, but can also be questions and answers, topics and values, or other name-value groups. In HTML output, a name-value group is represented as a definition list.

Preferred

Total Users

The total number of active accounts created on your system. Excludes inactive accounts.

Total Teams

The total number of teams created on your system.

Avoid

Total Users: The total number of active accounts created on your system. Excludes inactive accounts.

Total Teams: The total number of teams created on your system.

Document Linking¶

When creating a link to another document in the Mattermost documentation, create a link with a relative URL. To create relative links in reStructuredText, see Internal Links to Mattermost Docs.

A link with an absolute URL is not as flexible as a relative URL. Relative URLs don’t break when the documentation is moved to another host, or if the documentation is hosted on a server that’s behind a firewall without access to the Internet.

Page Titles¶

Underline page titles using =, with no overline. Underlines should be as long as the title text. For example:

Document Title
==============

Section Titles¶

Underline using - for section titles. For example:

Section Title
-------------

Underline subsections using ~ for the first subsection level, and ^ for the second subsection level. For example:

Subsection One
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Subsection Two
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Table of Contents¶

Insert a table of contents into a document using the following format:

.. contents::
    :backlinks: top

Inline Markup¶

Bold

Use double asterisks. For example: **bold text**.

Italic

Use single asterisk. For example: *italic text*.

Monospace

Use double backquotes. For example: ``monospace text``

Bullet Lists¶

For bullet lists and sublists, use - before the list item. For example:

- list item one
- list item two
  - sublist item one
  - sublist item two
- list item three

Numbered Lists and Procedure Steps¶

Create numbered lists and procedure steps using numbers for the top-level list and lower case alpha characters for the first nested list. For example:

1. This is item one.
2. This is item two.

  a. This is nested item one.
  b. This is nested item two.

3. This is item three.

Name-value Groups¶

To create a name-value group such as a definition list, type the term on a line by itself. On the next line, indent the definition. For example:

Total Users
  The total number of active accounts created on your system. Excludes inactive accounts.
Total Teams
  The total number of teams created on your system.

External Links¶

URLs are automatically rendered as links in Sphinx; however, where possible, it is preferred that hyperlinks are created within the text of a sentence. Hyperlinks within a sentence can be created using the following formatting:

Link display text <URL-of-website>`_, for example:

`Mattermost Manifesto <https://www.mattermost.org/manifesto/>`_

The link renders as: Mattermost Manifesto

Internal Links to Mattermost Docs¶

The Sphinx processor extends reStructuredText to implement references, called roles, to locations within a documentation set. The two roles that are relevant in Mattermost documentation are the :doc: role and the :ref: role.

The :doc: role is used for creating relative links to other documents. The :ref: role is used for creating relative links to arbitrary locations within the documentation set, including within the same document. In both cases, the HTML output is a relative URL for the target location.

The following example uses the :doc: role to link to the Integrations Overview page. The source file is called integrations.rst and is in the overview directory.

For more information about integrating with Mattermost, see :doc:`../overview/integrations`.

Note that the filename extension is not part of the construct. On output, the link looks like this: “For more information about integrating with Mattermost, see Integrations Overview.” The Sphinx processor pulls in the title of the document to use as the link text.

The :ref: role is a two-part construct. One part is the link itself, and the other part is the target. The target has the following form, and should preceed a section title:

.. _arbitrary-text-label:

Bullet Lists
------------

To generate a link to the section, use the :ref: role as follows:

For more information about bullet lists, see :ref:`arbitrary-text-label`.

The Sphinx processor creates a relative link to the section, and uses the section title as the link text. On output, the link looks like this: “For more information about bullet lists, see Bullet Lists.”

Images¶

Use the following construct to insert an image:

.. image:: ../images/choices.png

You can also add the following image options: alt, height, width, scale, align, and target. For example:

.. image:: ../images/choices.png
  :alt: The choices that you can make.
  :height: 100px //number refers to pixels
  :width: 200px //number refers to pixels
  :align: left //left, right or middle
  :scale: 50 //number is a percentage

Inserting an inline image is a bit more complicated. It’s a two-part construct that consists of a label and the image directive. Surround the label text with vertical bars, the | character. For example:

Some of the emoji that you can use are |emoji|.

Then insert the following image directive at the bottom of the document:

.. |emoji| image:: ../images/emoji.png
  :alt: Some of the emoji that you can use.
  :align: middle

Literal Blocks¶

To use a literal block with no syntax highlighting, use the Sphinx code-block directive with the language set to none. For example:

.. code-block:: none

Code Blocks with Syntax Highlighting¶

To create a code block with syntax highlighting, use the Sphinx code-block directive with the language set to the language that you want highlighted. Many languages are available, but in Mattermost documentation the most likely ones are as follows:

• go
• rest
• html
• javascript
• coffee
• bash

The following example is a block of Go code using the :linenos: option, which causes line numbers to be displayed.

.. code-block:: go
  :linenos:

  newPassword := props["new_password"]
      if err := utils.IsPasswordValid(newPassword); err != nil {
              c.Err = err
              return
      }

The example produces the following output:

1
2
3
4
5

newPassword := props["new_password"]
      if err := utils.IsPasswordValid(newPassword); err != nil {
              c.Err = err
              return
      }