Microsoft Manual of Style for Technical Publications (Paperback)

by Microsoft Corporation (Author) "Understanding the user interface can be a confusing experience for customers..." (more)
Key Phrases: content for software developers, project style sheet, common style problems, Control Panel, Microsoft Windows, Internet Explorer (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
With so many software products to its credit, Microsoft can't help but have an opinion on computer terms and usage. Many topnotch technical companies, writers, and editors consider the Microsoft Manual of Style for Technical Publications to be a standard in the industry. Technical writers and editors often refer to it when they can't find an answer in The Chicago Manual of Style or when researching appropriate style issues to include in their company's in-house style manual.

While this manual of style can't possibly list everything that is created by Microsoft, it does advise how to use and spell both general and computer-related terms and takes a stand on sticky style, technical writing, and design and interface issues. This second edition has been updated to include significant changes in Internet terminology and usage. Alphabetically tabbed pages make it easy to locate topics of interest. A useful appendix defines acronyms and abbreviations and shares any special style rules associated with them. Another appendix lists keyboard characters and the correct names that should be used to describe each one. The enclosed CD-ROM contains an electronic version of the book along with a copy of the Microsoft Press Computer Dictionary. --Cristina Vaamonde --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product Description
Get the reference that defines standards and best practices for technical writers, editors, and content managers who work with Microsoft technologies. Developed by the Microsoft Editorial Standards Group, the newest edition of the computer industry’s leading manual of style has been fully updated, expanded, and optimized for usability. You get coverage on the latest developments—from accessibility and globalization issues to mobile computing, XML, and other emerging standards—as well as Microsoft-specific products, technologies, and initiatives. You’ll find expertly articulated and organized information about general usage, grammar, punctuation, formatting and layout, front matter, and indexing and attributing, as well as focused guidelines for topics such as creating specific document types, including Readme files and case studies; writing for software developers; documenting the user interface; and developing bias-free communications. Comprehensive, easy-to-use, and thoroughly up-to-date, the MICROSOFT MANUAL OF STYLE FOR TECHNICAL PUBLICATIONS, Third Edition, can help you maximize the impact and precision of your technical communications.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 432 pages
• Publisher: Microsoft Press; 3rd edition (June 30, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0735617465
• ISBN-13: 978-0735617469
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 7.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.9 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.1 out of 5 stars See all reviews (40 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #247,740 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

22 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Comprehensive, concise, and logical, April 6, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: The Microsoft Manual of Style for Technical Publications (Paperback)

This book would be excellent to use in developing a company style guide, or it will help you out until you have time to develop a company style guide. It will also help in resolving departmental word-choice squabbles, such as whether to use "click" or "click on". And if it seems odd to tell users to "check the check box," what do you tell them?

I needed this book years ago--now that I have it, I reach for it all the time. While I don't always follow its suggestions exactly, it offers me a non-trendy second opinion on technical style issues. Its straight A-Z dictionary format makes information easy to find, too.

Perhaps a curious note of trivia is suitable here: the on-line help systems in many Microsoft products were not developed according to this style guide. This is unfortunate, as I find this style guide helps me write clear, approachable on-line help better than any other style guide I've seen.

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Sorta' useful book, near-useless CD-ROM, June 6, 2005

By	Phrawm47 "RBV" (San Francisco) - See all my reviews

I frequently document software that uses Windows GUI elements. So I've been using the WinHELP and HTMLHelp versions of the MS MOS for several years: Those earlier online versions of Microsoft's Style Guide made it easier and faster to take a quick look at a GUI naming or usage convention.

Lamentably the CD-ROM that accompanies the new version 3 of the MS MOS is a giant step backwards in usability. That's because the two PDF "e-books" (MOS and Networking Encyclopedia) on the CD-ROM are entirely static -- they contain NO clickable links WHATSOEVER.

What this means is that if you locate an entry in the on-line version's TOC or Index, you must use the "go to page" tool in Adobe Acrobat Reader to go to the page. This is an especially silly situation given that the PDFs meta-properties indicate that Microsoft used Adobe FrameMaker 7.0 (not Word) to produce the Style Guide: FrameMaker creates clickable cross-references by default, meaning that Microsoft manually disabled them as part of producing the Style Guide's PDF! (The third item on the CD-ROM, the Computer Dictionary comes as an HTMLHelp .chm file, so there are no problems with navigation there...)

If you intend to buy the print version of the MS MOS you'll be satisfied. If you intend to buy this book because you want the latest, greatest *on-line* version of the Style Guide, FORGET IT.

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08 July, 2008 UPDATE. After using the PDF for about three years, I'm even more frustrated by Microsoft's incomptence. In the name of "intellectual property" (one of Microsoft's favorite words), the company has created a nearly-useless PDF while failing to truly achieve its misguided security aims.

As I said in my original review, the lack of clickable cross-references means you must instead manually go to a page listed in the TOC or Index. But wait -- the geniuses at Microsoft didn't bother to correlate the PDFs logical and physical page numbers. Yes, if we have full-featured Acrobat we can manually number the pages so that when we tell Acrobat or Reader to go page "x" it actually displays the desired page and not page "x-4" or thereabouts. But why should we have to do that?

But wait, it gets worse. We can't use full-featured Adobe Acrobat (as opposed to reader) to extract pages from the PDF and save them as a separate PDF. BUT we can -- and here's the absurdity -- delete all pages we don't want to extract and save the result of that as a PDF. So we can extract pages, but not directly...

We also can't print *any part* of the PDF. So if we want to print, say, four pages about heading usages we can't do that. The style guidelines are in some way "proprietary" I guess, and so simply must be protected against unauthorized sharing...

Then, too, while looking for a way to print a few pages, I discovered that I couldn't export the PDF as a Postscript or encapsulated Postscript, but I could export it as a Word or Word RTF file. So we can save the contents in some unlocked formats but not others. Brilliant...

In the end, Microsoft's preoccupation with "locking up" the online version of its Style Guide has only succeeded in wrecking the Guide's usability while only partially achieving the desired level of security. How like Microsoft to get it wrong that way...

16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars How to look real good--even if it is Microsoft, November 17, 1999

By A Customer

This review is from: Microsoft Manual Of Style For Technical Publications (Second Edition) (Paperback)

This is an outstanding publication for anyone who uses Microsoft products, particularly Word.

The genius is in its simplicity. Organized alphabetically, with tabbed pages, the index is almost unnecessary. The two Appendii, "List of Acronyms and Abbreviations" and "Special Characters" are helpful, but probably won't get much use here. A CD-ROM comes with the book, but it's faster to pick up the book and go straight to the information you need. (I love books.)

The information is comprehensive, easy to find, easy to read and understand. Several screen shots "show, don't tell". Bonus: there's plenty to disagree with.

Even though it is thoroughly Microsoftesque, it probably will become the standard which serious computer users rely upon. Professionals and novices can use this book on a daily basis. There's a great education in this book. I wish I had written it.

It not only covers the basics (grammar, punctuation and the like), but standardizes many terms and functions relating to computers, the Web, Help systems--even ordinary documents. Macintosh computer users will find great information here, too.

If you want your work to look good, this book should be on your desk.