1 *Style guide for the Ardour manual*
8 The Ardour manual should be consistent across different media, and it should
9 be easily updatable when Ardour's behaviour changes.
10 The markup should be semantic - looks are determined in the CSS, and only
11 there. If you feel you must compromise the markup in order to obtain a
12 certain look: don't do it. Accept the look.
13 Alternatively, edit the CSS, but be careful not to make matters worse
20 <b>,<i>,<u>,<font> or any other purely visual elements are not used in
22 What you really mean is an <em>phasis or a <strong> emphasis.
23 If you feel that some special terms should always be green and underlined, the
24 approach of choice is this:
25 <span class="my_important_keyword">foobar</span>
27 .my_important_keyword {
28 text-decoration: underline;
30 background-color: #eeffee;
33 If you add a new class with semantic meaning, document it below, under
34 "Custom classes", and be sure to explain it to the reader at
35 _manual/01_welcome-to-ardour/02_about-ardour-documentation.html.
38 2. Format and Validation
39 ========================
41 The Ardour manual has been converted to valid XHTML 1.0. That means it must
42 be valid XML, with all tags closed properly. The reason for this extra
43 complication is that XML can be more easily checked and automatically
44 refactored than plain HTML, which eases maintenance.
46 Watch out for the ampersand "&" and angle brackets "<" and ">". They will
47 render your XHTML invalid, and must be replaced by their named entities
48 "&", "<", and ">".
54 We use the class attribute for some aspects of styling (such as to float an
55 image left or right in a text paragraph), and also for more fine-grained
56 semantic markup than core XHTML allows.
58 Any XHTML element can include a class attribute. If you need to add a class
59 attribute to a word or a few words which don't have an element of their own,
60 use <span class="my_new_category">foo bar</span>.
61 If you need to apply a class to several block-level elements such as
62 paragraphs or lists, enclose them in a <div>..</div>. Wherever possible,
63 create semantic classes rather than visual ones.
66 make an element float left in the surrounding paragraph.
69 make an element float right in the surrounding paragraph.
72 use for important notes that should be visually distinct from the
73 normal text flow, or asides. Currently rendered in a gray box.
76 use for potentially dangerous situations involving data loss, malfunction,
77 or sound quality issues. Currently rendered in a red box.
80 use as additional classes to mark a section as relevant for these operating
83 Check _manual/01_welcome-to-ardour/02_about-ardour-documentation.html, it
84 serves as a style and markup guide.
91 4.1 Main structural elements
92 ----------------------------
95 A <h1/> heading is added by the Ruby framework, so it should not be used in
96 the manual page itself. If you feel you need another <h1>, start a new
98 Heading levels must not be skipped. Any sub-heading must be exactly one
99 level below its predecessor. Do not abuse headings to style a head line.
102 Every snippet of text should be enclosed in a block level element. The
103 default choice is <p>, the plain paragraph.
110 encloses a newly introduced term that is being explained. Use for the first
111 occurrence of the main concept of every manual page, or the first occurrence
112 of a new concept after a sub-heading if necessary.
113 Keep in mind that <dfn> tags might be used to generate an index of keywords
114 - don't pollute it too much.
117 is used to explain an abbreviation such as <abbr title="Linux Audio
118 Developers Simple Plugin API">LADSPA</abbr>. Browsers will usually pop up the
119 definition when the user hovers over the word.
120 On each page, use only for the first occurrence of every abbreviation. Avoid
121 a redundant explanation in the text - the expansion can easily be extracted
122 via CSS for printing.
123 Use only in the text body, not in headings.
126 is used to emphasize a word. Commonly rendered as italics.
127 Use only if its a truly ad-hoc, one-off situation. For anything else,
128 consider adding a new semantic markup with <span class="foo">.
131 is used to strongly emphasize a word. Commonly rendered in bold.
135 A line-break can sometimes be used to structure a paragraph, or to split a
136 longish heading. Never use spurious <br/>s at the end of paragraphs or to
137 control the spacing of sections. If you're unhappy with those, fix the CSS
138 (which fixes the entire manual in one go!)
145 Use the unordered list for information snippets that do not have an implied
146 order. The ordered list should always be used when a sequence of actions is
147 described. Within the lists, each item must be enclosed in <li> tags.
148 Lists cannot be included in <p>aragraphs. Close the paragraph first.
151 Definition lists are for technical terms <dt> and their definition <dd>. Do
152 not abuse them for anything else.
159 is used when an entire paragraph is quoted. Must contain a
160 cite="http://mysource.net/foo.pdf" attribute. Do not abuse to indent a
164 For inline citations, the <cite>W3C</cite> recommends to <q
165 cite="http://www.w3.org/TR/xhtml1/dtds.html">use the cite and q
169 4.4 Keyboard/Controller interaction
170 ------------------------------------
173 Any keys or key combinations, mouse buttons, or controllers should be marked
176 "Press <kbd>F</kbd> to fit all tracks to the height of the Editor window."
177 "Move <kbd>Fader 1</kbd> on your MIDI controller to bind it.
179 Since modifier keys are not cross-platform and Ardour makes a point of
180 abstracting them, do not hard-code "Alt", "Cmd" and friends, use
183 So if you want the user to press Ctrl-N on Linux, that's actually <kbd
184 class="mod1">N</kbd>. It will render as "Ctrl+N" for you, and as "Cmd+N" for
185 your Mac-using friend. Nice, uh?
187 For anything you want the user to type, use <kbd> as a block-level element.
188 See above for other <kbd> classes to denote menu items, selections, mouse
189 events and controller actions.
191 Keys and mouse key names should always be capitalized. We do not need to
192 distringuish between "x" and "X", because the latter would be "Shift-X".
193 In case you forget, the stylesheet takes care of this.
195 CSS Classes used with <kbd> are:
197 .mouse: mouse buttons
199 .lin, .win, .mac: add nice prompts to that command line
200 .input: inline text to be entered by the user
201 .menu: path to an Ardour menu or other GUI item
202 .option: path to an option, with (X) at the end.
203 .optoff: path to an option, with ( ) at the end.
204 .button, .fader, .knob: external controllers (OSC or MIDI).
207 is only used for program code, or the content of configuration files etc. Do
208 not abuse to style keys or user input, use <kbd> instead.
211 is only used for the textual output of any code, never for anything the user
219 The image tag must contain a 'src="/images/yourimage.png"' element and a
220 descriptive 'alt="A short textual description of the image content"'
222 Images are usually placed as block-level elements, i.e. outside of a
232 * Avoid any typographical quotation marks to highlight terms or express any
233 kind of subtle inflection, use semantic markup instead.
234 * The hyphen is used to for compound words such as this well-advised example.
235 * Do not hyphenate words at line breaks.
236 * For breaks in thought — such as this splendid example — use
238 * For ranges of values, use the en-dash: Monday – Friday, 0 –
240 * Use a non-breaking space (" ") between a number and its unit.
246 * The Ardour manual is written in Americal English spelling.
247 * Use SI units with standard abbreviations. Give imperial units only as
248 additional information, if at all.
251 5.3 Headline Capitalization
252 ---------------------------
254 Capitalization follows
255 https://developer.gnome.org/hig-book/3.6/design-text-labels.html.en#layout-capitalization
258 * Capitalize all words in the headline, with the following exceptions:
259 Articles: a, an, the.
260 Conjunctions: and, but, for, not, so, yet ...
261 Prepositions of three or fewer letters: at, for, by, in, to ...
262 * Keep headlines short and concise.