Documentation/Technical style guides and templates

This page contains resources you will need to create quality documentation for Wikimedia projects.

Style and grammar

 * Wikipedia manual of style - This is the primary style guide for Wikimedia projects. You should use this as a reference for any general writing you are doing.
 * MediaWiki technical documentation style guide - This resource is a secondary style guide meant specifically for technical documentation on Wikimedia projects. You should use this to help guide the style and formatting of technical aspects of projects.
 * Inclusive language guide - We want to encourage a culture of inclusivity, and part of doing that is making sure we use appropriate language where we can. This guide provides information about using inclusive language in your technical documentation.

Programming style guides
There are a number of programming style guides used by folks on Wikimedia projects. Whenever possible, defer to the style guide specific to the code you are using.


 * Product Analytics programming style guide - An excellent overview of a variety of coding style guides used by the WMF Product Analytics team.
 * Awesome guidelines - A curated list of programming style guides with a wide variety of programming languages included.

Document types

 * Different technical writing genres

Templates

 * MediaWiki templates - Mediawiki templates are standard wiki pages whose content is designed to be transcluded (embedded) inside other pages. Mediawiki templates make it possible to include the same text across a number of pages.
 * Doc type templates - Take the guesswork out of setting up your documentation. This page contains links to templates for frequently used document types.
 * Text formatting templates - Need to leave a note in your docs? This page provides a number of templates for your needs.

Processes

 * Guidelines for technical documentation tasks

Audiences for Wikimedia technical documentation
Audiences for Wikimedia technical documentation - A comprehensive page covering the types of audiences that use Wikimedia technical documentation and their motivations.

Best practices or writing simple technical English for translation

 * Plain English - This page has information on using simple English.
 * Simplified Technical English - This page contains information about and some guidelines for writing in Simplified Technical English.

Spelling, grammar and writing aids
Many writers benefit from running spelling and grammar checks on their work. Not only can these check for issues with your document, but they can also help you become a better writer by identifying your more common errors.

Some Open Source options:


 * https://www.languagetool.org/
 * https://editsaurus.tylerwalters.com/
 * https://grammark.org/dist/#/