Source: https://developers.google.com/style ↗\n\n# About this guide

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  Save and categorize content based on your preferences.\n\n- Home\n- Products\n- Style\n\n\n## Page Summary\n\n- This style guide helps you write clear and consistent technical documentation for software developers and other technical practitioners.\n- Refer to project-specific guidelines first, then this guide, and finally third-party references like Merriam-Webster or the Chicago Manual of Style for questions.\n- While this guide offers recommendations, prioritize clarity and consistency for your specific domain and readers, even if it means deviating from the guidelines.\n- For Android or Google Cloud specific guidelines, look for the respective platform logos within the documentation.\n\nThis style guide helps you write clear and consistent technical documentation for software developers and other technical practitioners.\n\nRefer to project-specific guidelines first, then this guide, and finally third-party references like Merriam-Webster or the Chicago Manual of Style for questions.\n\nWhile this guide offers recommendations, prioritize clarity and consistency for your specific domain and readers, even if it means deviating from the guidelines.\n\nFor Android or Google Cloud specific guidelines, look for the respective platform logos within the documentation.\n\nThis style guide provides editorial guidelines for writing clear and consistent technical

documentation for an audience of software developers and other technical practitioners.\n\nIf you’re new to the guide and looking for introductory topics about our style, then start with Highlights, Voice and tone, and Text-formatting summary. Otherwise, use the guide as a reference document for specific questions. For example, you can look up terms in the word list.\n\n\n## Editorial resources\n\nWe recommend using the following editorial resources.\n\n\n### Reference hierarchy\n\nUse the following references, including this guide, in this order:\n\n- Project-specific style. Follow style guidance specific to your project or product, such as necessary exceptions to this guide or terms that are relevant only to your product.\n- This style guide. If project-specific style guidelines don’t provide explicit guidance, then follow this guide.\n- Third-party references. If the preceding references don’t provide explicit guidance, then see these third-party references, depending on the nature of your question:

Type of question Third-party reference

Spelling Follow Merriam-Webster.com. See also Spelling.

Nontechnical style Follow The Chicago Manual of Style, 17th edition (subscription required).

Technical style See the Microsoft Writing Style Guide. But consider whether Microsoft’s guidance applies; some of it might apply only to Microsoft products and interfaces.\n\nThis style guide. If project-specific style guidelines don’t provide explicit guidance, then follow this guide.\n\n\nType of question | Third-party reference\nSpelling | Follow Merriam-Webster.com. See also Spelling.\nNontechnical style | Follow The Chicago Manual of Style, 17th edition (subscription required).\nTechnical style | See the Microsoft Writing Style Guide. But consider whether Microsoft’s guidance applies; some of it might apply only to Microsoft products and interfaces.\n\nAt multiple stages of this hierarchy, it can be helpful to look to established usage. For example, search your organization’s documentation, or check a broad language corpus such as Google Ngram Viewer.\n\n\n### Other editorial resources\n\nYou can use additional resources to research and inform your thinking, but don’t consider them part of Google developer documentation style.\n\nHere are some other style guides from the tech community:\n\n- Apple Style Guide\n- Red Hat supplementary style guide for product documentation\n\n\n## Annotations used in this guide\n\nFor guidance that applies only to Android or Google Cloud documentation, look for the following logos:\n\n- precedes terms and guidelines specific to Android documentation.\n- precedes terms and guidelines specific to Google Cloud documentation.\n\n\n## Break the rules\n\n> Break any of these rules sooner than say anything outright barbarous. —George Orwell, “Politics and the English Language”\n\n—George Orwell, “Politics and the English Language”\n\nThis guide contains guidelines, not rules. Depart from it when doing so improves your content.\n\nFor example, if we recommend spelling a term as one word, and you determine that the hyphenated version of a term in your domain is more appropriate for your readers, then it’s fine to use that instead. We acknowledge that sometimes there are competing forms of the same word in wide use, especially as new terms emerge, and you might have good reasons for departing from our guidance.\n\nWhen you depart from this guide, be consistent throughout your document.\n