Microsoft style guide cheatsheet
As technical writers, we often work with multiple products, teams, and stakeholders, and consistency quickly becomes a challenge. This is where a style guide plays a critical role—it defines common rules for language, tone, formatting, and terminology so documentation feels unified and clear. The Microsoft Style Guide (MSTP) is widely used across the industry because it focuses on clarity, inclusivity, and user-first communication. Many companies adopt MSTP as a baseline to maintain high documentation standards at scale. It helps reduce ambiguity, improve usability, and align content across products. Technical writers, content designers, editors, and even developers can benefit from using it as a daily reference.
Use contractions
Use contractions: it’s, you’ll, you’re, we’re, let’s.
Example Replace this: To help you avoid traffic, remember anniversaries, and in general do more, Cortana needs to know what you are interested in, what is on your calendar, and who you are doing things with.
With this: To help you avoid traffic, remember anniversaries, and in general do more, Cortana needs to know what you’re interested in, what’s on your calendar, and who you’re doing things with.
Capitalization
Default to sentence-style capitalization—capitalize only the first word of a heading or phrase and any proper nouns or names. Never use Title Capitalization (Like This).
Examples
Replace these:
Find a Microsoft Partner
Office 365 Customer
Limited-Time Offer
Join Us Online
With these:
Find a Microsoft partner
Office 365 customer
Limited-time offer
Join us online
Skip periods
Skip end punctuation on titles, headings, subheadings, UI titles, and items in a list that are three or fewer words. Save the periods for paragraphs and body copy.
Example
Replace this:
Move a tile.
- Press and hold the tile.
With this:
Move a tile
- Press and hold the tile.
Remember the last comma
In a list of three or more items, include a comma before the conjunction. (The comma that comes before the conjunction is known as the Oxford or serial comma.)
Example
Replace this: Android, iOS and Windows
With this: Android, iOS, and Windows
Revise weak writing
Most of the time, start each statement with a verb. Edit out you can and there is, there are, there were.
Example
Replace this: You can access Office apps across your devices, and you get online file storage and sharing.
With this: Store files online, access them from all your devices, and share them with coworkers.
Acronyms
- For most acronyms, spell out the term first and include the acronym in parentheses.
- On subsequent mentions, you can use the acronym without spelling it out.
- Lowercase all words in the spelled-out form of an acronym except for proper nouns.
- Avoid using an acronym for the first time in a title or heading.
Grammar and parts of speech
- Use present-tense verbs—verbs that indicate the action is happening now, like is and open. Avoid will, was, and verbs ending in –ed, which indicate that text isn’t in the present tense.
- Use active voice (where the subject performs the action) whenever you can.
- Use second person most of the time. Second person often uses the pronoun you, as though you’re speaking to the customer.
- Don’t use gender-specific singular pronouns (he or she) in generic references. Instead, use you or refer to someone’s role.
Numbers
When you write about numbers used in examples or UI, duplicate them exactly as they appear in the UI. In all other content, follow these guidelines.
- Spell out numbers zero to nine.
- Spell out one of the numbers, when two numbers that refer to separate categories must appear together. For example, two 3-page articles.
- Numerals for numbers 10 or greater.
- Use the following format for dates: month day, year, as in July 31, 2016. Don’t use day month year, as in 31 January 2026.
Abbreviations
- In UI, avoid K, M, and B as abbreviations for thousand, million, and billion unless space is limited.
- In other content, spell out thousand, million, and billion, or use the entire number.
Step-by-step instructions
- Write a complete sentence for each step: capitalize the first word and end the sentence with a period.
- Consider using a heading that tells customers what the procedure will help them do.
- If there’s only one step, use the format you use for procedures with multiple steps, but replace the number with a bullet.
- Abbreviate simple sequences of menu interactions with right angle brackets. Don’t use bold formatting for the brackets. Include a space before and after each one.
Example
Select Accounts > Other accounts > Add an account.
Interactions with UI
- Open, for apps, shortcut menus, files, and folders.
- Close, for apps, blades, dialog boxes, windows, files, and folders. Leave, for websites and webpages.
- Go to, for a menu or a particular place in the UI, like search, a ribbon, or a tab.
- Select, for UI options, values, links, and menu items.
- Select and hold, for pressing and holding an element in the UI for about a second.
- Clear, for removing the selection from a checkbox.
- Choose, for an exclusive option in a control where only one value can be chosen.
- Enter, for instructing the reader to type or otherwise enter a value.
- Specify, for instructing a reader to type or select a value, such as in a combo box (in content for technical audiences only).
- Move, for moving something from one place to another by dragging, pasting, or another method.
- Zoom, zoom in, zoom out, for changing the magnification of a screen or window.
- Avoid press, press and hold, and right-click if you can. Try to use an input-neutral verb instead.
- Tap: Use to describe selecting something on the screen by tapping it once with a finger or pen. Don’t use tap on. Don’t use click.
Punctuation
- End all sentences with a period, even if they’re only two words.
- Use only one space after periods, question marks, exclamation marks, and colons.
- Include a colon at the end of a phrase that directly introduces a list.
- Include commas after every item in a series, including the last one.
- When you use a colon in a sentence, lowercase the word that follows it unless it’s a proper noun or the first word of a quotation.
- A sentence that contains a semicolon might be complex. Try to rewrite the sentence as multiple sentences or break it into a list.
- Use question marks sparingly. Customers expect us to give them answers.
- In general, don’t use hyphens.
- Don’t use spaces around em dashes (—).
- Don’t use a slash (/) to indicate a choice or as a substitute for or.
Text-formatting
- Use the Segoe font family.
- Use sentence-style capitalization for everything except proper nouns.
Bits and bytes terms
- In general, spell out bit and byte terms on the first mention.
- In those cases, or after you’ve spelled out the term on the first mention, it’s OK to use abbreviations for -bit or -byte terms. Such as 128 TB.
Special characters
- Don’t use ampersand(&) in place of and.
Numbered lists
- Use a numbered list for sequential items (like a procedure) or prioritized items (like a top 10 list).
Conclusion
Writing great documentation shouldn’t require jumping between dozens of web pages or flipping through a 400-page PDF. This Microsoft Style Guide cheatsheet brings the most practical rules into one quick, usable reference you can apply instantly. It helps technical writers create content that is clear, concise, and truly user-focused—without overthinking the rules. By following these guidelines, you can write documentation that sounds natural, reads smoothly, and respects your users’ time. Keep this cheatsheet handy, and let clarity—not complexity—drive your writing.
For any query, contact me at pankajsharmawriter@gmail.com.