Style and spelling for coverage
This page is for writers and sub-editors who want their copy to match how the project writes, or who need to decide how to treat technical terms. Your house style wins where it differs; this page tells you what the project does and why, so you can choose.
Contents
- Spelling
- Names of products and features
- Interface terms
- Code, commands and files
- Numbers, versions and dates
- Terms to explain for general readers
Spelling
The project writes American English in its interface and documentation: license (with an s), color, behavior, organization, customize (Brand and naming rules). Quote the project's text as written even if your house style is British; spell your own text as your house style says.
Names of products and features
| Write | Notes |
|---|---|
| Exponential | Capital E, no article |
| Exponential Velocity, Velocity | Product name, capitalized |
| Exponential Intelligence | Product name; not "Exponential AI" |
| Exponential Layouts, the layouts editor | Product name; the editor is a common noun |
| the help system, the help | Common nouns |
| admin4, admin3 | Lowercase design names as the project writes them |
| AdminUI | As written |
| the Content Security Policy, the audit trail | Feature names as common terms |
Interface terms
Use the words the reader sees on screen. The project's own help style prefers interface terms such as "object", "content class", "draft" and "trash" (Brand and naming rules). Write names of menus and buttons as they appear, in bold if your style allows: Setup, Send for publishing, Edit on GitHub.
Code, commands and files
- Code identifiers, file names, package names and commands in code style if your medium has it:
eZContentObject,SECURITY.md,expai,./console exp:install --apply. - Never translate or "correct" code names (Why it is called Exponential).
- Package names are lowercase as in
composer.json.
Numbers, versions and dates
| Item | Style |
|---|---|
| Versions | 6.0.14, without "v"; the "v" belongs to Git tags (Version numbers in print) |
| Counts | With the date they were counted (Exponential by the numbers) |
| Dates | As precise as the source: "1 January 2024", "December 2023", "2022" (Verifying dates) |
| Speed figures | With their conditions: "0.36 ms per cached page" |
Terms to explain for general readers
| Term | Plain explanation |
|---|---|
| Content management system (CMS) | Software for editing and publishing a website's content without programming |
| Content model, content class | The types of content a site has (article, event, product) and their fields |
| Open source, GPL | Anyone may use, study, change and share the code |
| Fork | A copy of a code base that someone continues separately |
| Siteaccess | One way into an installation: a site, a language or the administration |
| Multisite | Several websites run from one installation |
| Draft | A version not yet published |
| Web server | The program that answers a browser's requests |
| Right to left | Scripts such as Arabic and Hebrew, written from right to left |
More terms: Glossary for journalists.
Related pages
- Brand and naming for media
- Naming quick reference for news editors
- Making your coverage accessible
- Free documentation: this page is free to copy, translate and improve under the GNU FDL 1.3.
Become an Exponential Partner
Partners share their information, provide funding, contribute back and develop the products with us, and that is how Exponential grows. A partner website and dashboard are planned for mid-2027: please become a partner today to speed up our growth rate and land new features faster.