Editor's checklist
This is a summary of rules to apply when writing new or updating existing articles. See other articles in the Contributor's Guide for detailed explanations and examples of these rules.
Metadata
ms.date
: must be in the format MM/DD/YYYY- Change the date when there is a significant or factual update
- Reorganizing the article
- Fixing factual errors
- Adding new information
- Don't change the date if the update is insignificant
- Fixing typos and formatting
- Change the date when there is a significant or factual update
title
: unique string of 43-59 characters long (including spaces)- Don't include site identifier (it's autogenerated)
- Use sentence case - capitalize only the first word and any proper nouns
description
: 115-145 characters including spaces - this abstract displays in the search result
Formatting
- Backtick syntax elements that appear, inline, within a paragraph
- Cmdlet names
Verb-Noun
- Variable
$counter
- Syntactic examples
Verb-Noun -Parameter
- File paths
C:\Program Files\PowerShell
,/usr/bin/pwsh
- URLs that aren't meant to be clickable in the document
- Property or parameter values
- Cmdlet names
- Use bold for property names, parameter names, class names, module names, entity names, object or
type names
- Bold is used for semantic markup, not emphasis
- Bold - use asterisks
**
- Italic - use underscore
_
- Only used for emphasis, not for semantic markup
- Line breaks at 100 columns (or at 80 for about_Topics)
- No hard tabs - use spaces only
- No trailing spaces on lines
- PowerShell keywords and operators should be all lowercase
- Use proper (Pascal) casing for cmdlet names and parameters
Headers
- H1 is first - only one H1 per article
- Use ATX Headers only
- Use sentence case for all headers
- Don't skip levels - no H3 without an H2
- Max depth of H3 or H4
- Blank line before and after
- PlatyPS enforces specific headers in its schema - don't add or remove headers
Code blocks
- Blank line before and after
- Use tagged code fences - powershell, Output, or other appropriate language ID
- Untagged fence - syntax blocks or other shells
- Put output in separate code block except for basic examples where you don't intend the for the reader to use the Copy button
- See list of supported languages
Lists
- Indented properly
- Blank line before first item and after last item
- Bullet - use hyphen (
-
) not asterisk (*
) to reduce confusion with emphasis - For numbered lists, all numbers are "1."
Terminology
- PowerShell vs. Windows PowerShell
- See Product Terminology
Cmdlet reference examples
Must have at least one example in cmdlet reference
Examples should be just enough code to demonstrate the usage
PowerShell syntax
- Use full names of cmdlets and parameters - no aliases
- Use splatting for parameters when the command line gets too long
- Avoid using line continuation backticks - only use when necessary
Remove or simplify the PowerShell prompt (
PS>
) except where required for the exampleCmdlet reference example must follow the following PlatyPS schema
### Example 1 - Descriptive title Zero or more short descriptive paragraphs explaining the context of the example followed by one or more code blocks. Recommend at least one and no more than two. ```powershell ... one or more PowerShell code statements ... ``` ```Output Example output of the code above. ``` Zero or more optional follow up paragraphs that explain the details of the code and output.
don't put paragraphs between the code blocks. All descriptive content must come before or after the code blocks.
Linking to other documents
- When linking outside the docset or between cmdlet reference and conceptual
- Use site-relative URLs when linking to Microsoft Learn (remove
https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us
) - don't include locales in URLs on Microsoft properties (eg. remove
/en-us
from URL) - All URLs to external websites should use HTTPS unless that's not valid for the target site
- Use site-relative URLs when linking to Microsoft Learn (remove
- When linking within the docset
- Use the relative filepath (e.g.
../folder/file.md
)
- Use the relative filepath (e.g.
- All paths use forward-slash (
/
) characters - Image links should have unique alt text
Met ons samenwerken op GitHub
De bron voor deze inhoud vindt u op GitHub, waar u ook problemen en pull-aanvragen kunt maken en controleren. Bekijk onze gids voor inzenders voor meer informatie.