Microsoft® Manual of Style, Fourth Edition

Accessible writing

Many of the following suggestions for maximizing accessibility also help make documentation clearer and more useful for everyone, and better for localization purposes:

• Provide clear, concise descriptions of the product and initial setup, including a section or card that gets the user up and running with the basic features.

• Put key information near the beginning of the content.

• Use a bulleted list or headings to emphasize important points.

• Keep paragraphs short or create small sections or text groupings.

• Minimize the number of steps in a procedure. Individuals who have cognitive impairments may have difficulty following procedures that have many steps. Keep the steps simple, and keep the user oriented.

• Keep sentence structure simple. ...