Style guide

General

Case

All text is to be written in sentence case. This includes all paragraphs, headings, and page titles.

GitBook renders some text in BLOCK CAPITALS, such as group (aka chapter) titles in the table of contents on the left of the screen. However, you should use sentence case when editing this text.

Proper nouns and abbreviations should be capitalized according to the prevailing form used on the Wikipedia page of the topic in question.

Import the MusicXML file. ✔️ MusicXML is capitalized

Customize the user interface (UI). ✔️ UI is capitalized and user interface is not

Available in braille and Modified Stave Notation. ✔️ MSN is capitalized and braille is not

Contractions of everyday speech should not be capitalized.

A quarter note (aka crotchet) is a musical duration. ✔️ aka is not capitalized

UI labels

When writing instructions for the user, text that appears in MuseScore's user interface should be copied verbatim, including any capitalization, and highlighted in bold without enclosing quotation marks.

Press the Not now button. ✔️ Not now is bold and capitalized like in the application

Hyperlinks

Where appropriate, hyperlinks may be added to key words or phrases in ordinary text, which should be written to make sense without the link. In general, the full URL should not be displayed.

Watch the tutorial video. ✔️ Text makes sense without the link

Watch the tutorial here. ❌ Text wouldn't make sense if the link was removed

Watch it at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z4Ecaaqwg8U. ❌ Don't show the URL

Plain domain names should be captalized like the brand name. The top-level domain (TLD; e.g. .com, .org, .co.uk, etc.) should be omitted unless there's a good reason to include it.

Find us on Facebook and YouTube. ✔️ Omit .com TLDs for these popular sites

Listen on audio.com. ✔️ TLD is part of the website's branding

Visit MuseScore.org. ✔️ TLD is necessary to distinguish from MuseScore.com

Download the installer from MuseHub.com. ✔️ Referring specifically to the website

Get the sounds in MuseHub. ✔️ Referring to the app (but linking to the website)

Keyboard shortcuts

Keyboard shortcuts should be formatted as follows:

Press Shift+1—9. ✔️ en-dash indicates range

Press Ctrl+Shift++/- (Mac: Cmd+Shift++/-). ✔️ slash indicates alternatives

Modifiers should be written in this form and in this order for each platform:

Windows & Linux: Win+Ctrl+Alt+Shift+Fn+… ✔️

Mac: Ctrl+Cmd+Option+Shift+Fn+… ✔️

In Linux-specifc instructions, the Win key should be written as Super.

Keys that type printable characters should be represented by that character.

. , ; ' [ ] / \ - = ` etc. ✔️

All non-printing keys should be referenced by their (possibly abbreviated) name rather than by a symbol.

Space Backspace Del Ins Esc Return Up Down Left Right PgUp PgDn Home End Menu Caps Lock ✔️

Typed characters

Typed sequences should usually be formatted as inline code, even if it's just a single character.

To enter a double flat, type bb. ✔️ Inline code (single element)

Occassionally, it may be preferable to show the actual keys pressed, formatted as keyboard shortcuts rather than as inline code.

To enter a double flat, type B B. ✔️ Keyboard keys (space between each key)

Structure

Pages

You're currently viewing the Style guide page, which is a subpage of About the handbook.

Page titles

Page titles should be relatively short. Ideally the title should fit on one line in the Summary on the left of the screen, although this may not always be possible. Bear in mind that page titles may be significantly longer when translated to other languages besides English.

Tips to keep page titles short:

• Avoid saying "score" (e.g. "Selecting elements", not "Selecting elements in the score")

• Avoid saying "MuseScore" (e.g. "Upgrading", not "Upgrading MuseScore Studio")

Subpages

When subpages are used, only one level of subpages may be used. Never create a subsubpage.

Parent pages should have very short titles because its title appears in the URLs of all its subpages.

In general, we prefer to use groups rather than subpages, to avoid nesting in the Summary.

Groups

Groups are like chapters. They are CAPITALIZED in the Summary on the left of the screen.

Groups should have very short names. This is because the group name appears in the URLs of all pages within the group.

It is possible to edit the group slug to make it shorter than the actual group name. However, in general, this should not be done. Instead, the group name should be made as short as possible.