This stylesheet is maintained (and frequently updated) by the Production Department and is available online at:
ftp://ftp.oreilly.com/pub/stylesheet/styles.fm
For questions and comments regarding this stylesheet, please send mail to stylesheet@oreilly.com.
Authors, please consult with your editor, editorial assistant, or production editor if you have questions specific to your book. If you'd like to use different conventions, please confer with your editor.
This stylesheet contains information for all authors, including those writing in Word, XML, or other formats. It is very important that you read the author's guide about writing in Microsoft Word if you are writing your book in Word.
Our general style reference is The Chicago Manual of Style, 14th Edition (though some O'Reilly styles differ).
See The Chicago Manual of Style, 14th Edition.
An example of a chapter cross-reference: see Chapter 27.
An example of a section cross-reference: see "Treatment" later in this chapter.
An example of a section cross-reference in another chapter: see "Acceptable Gifts" in Chapter 29.
Every figure, table, and example should be preceded by a specific in-text reference (for example: see Figure 99-1; Example 1-99 shows; Table 1-1 lists, etc.). Figures, tables, and examples should not be introduced with colons or phrases like "in the following figure," or "as shown in this table." Since figures float, lack of specific in-text references may cause incorrect placement of figures.
Any word groupings within a figure should have an initial cap on the first word only, with the exception of proper nouns. Generally, we don't use periods at the end of these word groupings.
Figure, table, and example numbers should be numbered as follows: 1-2 (note hyphen, not en-dash between numbers). The first number is the chapter number. This will be soft-coded in production if not during the writing process.
Maximum line length for code varies slightly between book formats. For standard non-Nutshell books, the maximum line length for code is 82 characters, with 86 characters available in captioned examples. In Nutshell books, standard line length for code is 73 characters, with 77 characters available in captioned examples. Pocket references have even smaller code line length--check with your editor for this information. Please keep code within the code margins that appear in the Word template and indicate proper linebreaks and indents for all code. Indent using spaces, not tabs.
Try to minimize the use of footnotes, as they cause difficulties in page layout. Whenever possible, delete footnotes, work them back into the text as parenthetical comments, or tag them as Notes.
Table footnotes are lettered (a b c etc.) and appear directly after the table. They should be kept to a minimum.
The Knife Ran Away
with the Spoon
and this one is not:
The Knife Ran Away with
the Spoon
(Authors: don't worry about this convention--production will take care of it.)
Typically, we use three types of lists: numbered lists, for ordered steps or chronological items; variable lists, for terms and explanations/definitions; and bulleted lists, for series of items. Following are examples of each type of list.
The following list of step-by-step instructions is an example of a numbered list:
1. Save Example 2-1 as the file hello.cs.
2. Open a command window.
3. From the command line, enter csc /debug hello.cs.
4. To run the program, enter Hello.
The following list of defined terms is an example of a variable list:
The following series of items is an example of a bulleted list:
Frequently, bulleted lists should be converted to variable lists. Any bulleted list whose entries consist of a short term and its definition should be converted. For example, the following bulleted list entries:
are correctly variable list entries:
`
), which must be
preserved.
The following table outlines the basic font conventions used in O'Reilly books. It also lists the specific Word style tags you should use for these fonts.
Type of element in document | Result in final document | Style name(s) in template |
---|---|---|
Filenames, file extensions (such as .jpeg), directory paths | Regular italic (Times) |
technical italic, fix |
URLs, URIs, email addresses | online item, fiy | |
Emphasized words (shouting!) | emphasis, fi | |
First instance of a technical term | technical italic, fix | |
Registry keys | Constant width (Courier) |
literal, fc |
Language and script elements: class names, types, namespaces, attributes, methods, variables, keywords, functions, modules, commands, properties, parameters, values, objects, events, XML and HTML tags, and similar elements. Some examples include: System.Web.UI, a while loop, the Socket class, and the Obsolete attribute | Constant width (Courier) |
literal, fc |
Replaceable items (placeholder items in syntax); "username" in the
following example is a placeholder: login: username |
Constant italic (Courier Italic) |
replaceable, fci |
Placeholders in paths, directories, GUI items, URLs, or other text
that would be italic anyway: http://www.<yourname>.com |
http://www.<yourname>.com | No style; enclose in angle brackets |
Keyboard accelerators (Ctrl, Shift, etc.), menu titles, menu options, menu buttons | Regular text | No style or font convention; leave as regular text |
Superscripted items (not footnote markers: insert footnotes for these) | Superscript2 | superscript |
Subscripted items | Subscript3 | subscript |
These conventions may vary slightly for each project; please consult the production editor or freelance coordinator if you have any questions. Please note: Word authors should refer to the documentation accompanying the Word template; Frame authors should refer to the Tools Department's Frame documentation at http://www.oreilly.com/oreilly/frame and the FrameMaker cheat sheet, available from the Tools Department or your production editor.
It's very important to follow tagging conventions for terms. The method for applying conventions will vary depending on the format: Word, Frame, SGML, or troff. (Don't just make something "bold" or "italic," either; use the proper tagging method. For instance, if you use just "italic" in Word, that change won't make it into conversion--you have to use the proper font tag.) Please consult with your editor or the Tools Department for instructions specific to each environment.
NOTE: If you're an author, and you want to use a font convention that is slightly different for one of the following items, check with your editor first--some things can change; some can't.
For instance, URLs will not be anything but italic, but you might come up with a different font convention for function names or menu items. If you do use something that differs from the following list, please write it down on your printout of this stylesheet, which should be submitted with your manuscript.
Or, if you have a "new" element, please consult with your editor, then write it on your printout and submit it with your manuscript.
AacknowledgmentsActionScript ActiveX control Addison Wesley >br>ADO.NET a.k.a. a.m. or A.M. Alt key Alt-N anonymous FTP appendixes applet (or Java applet) AppleScript AppleScript Studio (ASS) ARPAnet ASCII at sign autogenerate awk |
Bbackground processesbackquote backslash Backspace key backtick backup (n) back up (v) backward bandwidth BeOS Berkeley Software Distribution (BSD) Berkeley Unix (older books may have UNIX) BHOs bioinformatics bitmap bit mask Bitnet bit plane bitwise operators Boolean (unless referring to a datatype in code, in which case s/b lowercase) Bourne-again shell (bash) Bourne shell braces or curly braces brackets or square brackets browsable built-in (a, n) button bar |
Ccannot or can't (not "can not")Caps Lock key caret or circumflex CAT-5 CD-ROM C language (n) C-language (a) checkbox client/server client side (n) client-side (a) co-class code set colorcell colormap Command key (Macintosh) command line (n) command-line (a) Common Object Request Broker Architecture (CORBA) compact disc compile time (n) compile-time (a) CompuServe copyleft copyright CPU criterion (s), criteria (p) cross-reference C shell <CR><LF> Ctrl key Ctrl-Alt-Delete Ctrl-N curly braces or braces |
Ddatabasedata block Data Encryption Standard (DES) datafile datatype or data type (be consistent) data is disk Debian GNU/Linux Delete key design time (n) design-time (a) DNS DocBook Document Object Model (DOM) Domain Name System dot dot-com double-click double-precision (a) double quotes down arrow downlevel (a) download drag-and-drop drop-down (a) |
Ee-bookse-business e-commerce Emacs empty-element tag end-of-file (EOF) end-tag end user Enter key equals sign Escape key (or Esc key) Ethernet exclamation mark Exim |
Ffailback (n)failover (n) fax filename file manager file server filesystem file type FireWire foreground FORTRAN Fortran 90 forward (adv) FreeBSD Free Documentation License (FDL) Free Software Foundation (FSF) frame type frontend ftp (Unix command) FTP (protocol) FTP site |
GgatewayGb (gigabit) GB (gigabyte) GBps (gigabytes per second) GHz gid GIMP GNOME GNU Emacs GNU Project GNU Public License (GPL) GNUstep grayscale greater-than sign or > GUI, GUIs |
Hhardcodedhardcode (v) hardcopy hash sign or sharp sign high-level (adj) hostname hotspot HTML HTTP hypertext |
IIDsIDE inline inode interclient Internet internetwork Intrinsics I/O IP (Internet Protocol) IPSEC ISO ISP |
JJabberJabber client Jabber server Jabber applet JAR archive JAR file JavaScript Java™ (must appear with ™ symbol on copyright page and first time in book) JavaBeans™ (must appear with ™ symbol on copyright page and first time in book) |
KK Desktop Environment (KDE)Kb (kilobit) KB (kilobyte; denotes file size or disk space) Kbps (kilobits per second) keepalive (n or a) Kerberos keyclick keycode keymaps keypad keystroke keysym keywords kHz (kilohertz) Korn shell |
Llocal area network or LANleft angle bracket or < lefthand (a) leftmost less-than sign or < leveled (not levelled) Linux LinuxPPC listbox login, logout, or logon (n or a) log in, log out, or log on (v) lower- and uppercase lowercase lower-level (a) lower-right (a) Linux Professional Institute (LPI) |
MMacintoshMac OS Mac OS 9 (note the use of spaces) Mac OS X (note the use of spaces) mail-handling (adjective) manpage markup Mb (megabit) MB (megabyte) MBps (megabytes per second) McGraw-Hill menu bar metacharacter Meta key Meta-N MHz (megahertz) mice or mouses (be consistent) Microsoft Windows Microsoft Windows NT Microsoft Windows XP Microsoft Windows 2000 MKS Toolkit MS-DOS multiline multimedia multitasking multithreaded multitier multiuser My Services |
Nnamespacename service the Net NetBSD NetInfo .NET newline newsgroups NeXTSTEP nonlocal nonpartitioned nonstandard Novell NetWare nonzero |
OObjective-Cobject linking and embedding (OLE) object-oriented programming (OOP) object request broker (ORB) offline offload onboard ongoing online open source (mention URL http://opensource.org/ first time) open source software (OSS) OpenBSD OpenMotif OpenStep OpenWindows Option key (Macintosh) Oracle7 Oracle8 Oracle 8.0 Oracle8i (italic "i") Oracle9i (italic "i") Oracle Parallel Query Option O'Reilly & Associates, Inc. OS/2 OSA OSF/Motif OS X |
Ppacket switch networksPaint Shop Pro pagefile parentheses (p) parenthesis (s) Pascal password pathname pattern-matching (a) peer-to-peer (or P2P) percent (spell out if the number is spelled out) period Perl Perl DBI Plug and Play (PnP) plug-in (a,n) p.m. or P.M. Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP) pop up (v, n) pop-up (a) POP-3 Portable Document Format (PDF) Portable Network Graphics (PNG) Portable Operating System Interface (POSIX) POSIX-compliant Post Office Protocol (POP) postprocess PostScript Prentice Hall process ID progress bar pseudoattribute pseudoterminal pseudo-tty public key (n) public-key (a) pull-down (a) |
QqmailQt Quartz Quartz Extreme QuarkXPress QuickTime quotation marks (spell out first time it appears; can be "quotes" thereafter) |
Rrandom-access (a) RCS read-only (a) read/write real time (n) real-time (a) Red Hat Linux Red Hat Package Manager (RPM) redirection reference page or manpage remote-access server rename Rendezvous (Mac OS X Zeroconf networking) Return (key) RFC 822 rich text right angle bracket or greater-than sign (>) right-click righthand (a) rmail roll back (v) rollback (n) Rubout key runtime (n, a) |
SSambasaveset screen dump screenful screensaver scrollbar Secure Shell (SSH) Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) sed scripts semicolon server-dependent server side (n) server-side (a) servlet SGML sharp sign or hash sign shell; lowercase even in shell name (Bourne shell) shell scripts Shift key Simple API for XML (SAX) single-precision (a) single quote br>Smalltalk SMP (a, n) source code SOAP spacebar spellchecker split screen square brackets or brackets standalone standard input (stdin) standard output (stdout) start-tag startup file status bar stylesheet subprocesses subshade SuSE Linux system administrator system-wide |
TT1Tab key TCP/IP Telnet (the protocol) telnet (v) terabyte TEX texinfo text box text-input mode thread pooling (n) time-sharing processes timestamp time zone titlebar titlebutton Token Ring toolbar toolkit tool tip top-level (a) toward troubleshoot |
UUltrixUniversal Serial Bus (USB) Unix (UNIX in many books, esp. older ones) up arrow upper- and lowercase uppercase upper-left corner up-to-date URLs U.S. Usenet user ID (n) user-ID (a) username |
Vv2 or Version 2VAX/VMS VB.NET versus (avoid vs.) vice versa Visual Basic .NET Visual Basic 6 or VB 6 Visual C++ .NET Visual Studio .NET VoiceXML Volume One VS.NET |
Wthe Web (n)web (a) web client webmaster web page web server web services (unless preceded by a proper noun, as in Microsoft Web Services) web site white pages whitespace wide area network or WAN wildcard Windows 95 Windows 98 Windows 2000 Windows NT Windows XP Wizard (proper noun) wizard (a, n) workaround workgroup workstation World Wide Web (WWW) wraparound writable write-only (a) WYSIWYG |
XX clientX protocol X server X Toolkit XView X Window series X Window System x86 xFree86 XHTML XLink XML XML Query Language (XQuery) XML-RPC XPath XPointer XSL XSLT |
YYahoo! |
ZZeroconf (short for "Zero Configuration"; see http://www.zeroconf.org/)zeros Zip Code |