We want Firefox Support to be usable by most Firefox users. This means we're writing for a general audience rather than someone very familiar with computer terminology. Our target reader is someone who does not know how to use about:config, or how to add a toolbar button, without instruction. Each article should not only provide answers, but instructions, and assume the user has not changed the default values of settings. In general, try to write articles in such a way that your mom would understand. As such, we've adopted the following practices to help keep articles clear and consistent.

• Write articles for Firefox 2.0 and 3.0 users. Firefox 1.5.x has reached the end of its support life and out-of-date support articles can be confusing.
• It's often surprising how seemingly direct instructions can have multiple interpretations. When describing actions, try to avoid language that could be interpreted in different ways. Generally, a long description is often more confusing than a clear, brief one, so keep things short and simple.
• The word "user" itself is a technical term. Try to avoid phrases, like "If a user has lost his bookmarks." Word your sentences as if you were speaking directly to the user, like "If you've lost your bookmarks..."
• The title of the article describes the question being asked or the problem being inquired about.
  • Good: Toolbar keeps resetting
  • Bad: corrupt localstore.rdf
• For technical reasons, article titles cannot contain the following characters:
  

  :

  /

  ?

  #

  [

  ]

  @

  !

  $

  &

  '

  (

  )

  *

  +

  ,

  ;

  =

  .

  <

  >

• Give a brief, one-paragraph summary of the problem, and what is being done (in the article) to fix it. This is your introduction. There's no need to name it as such (or "Background").
• Users only need one answer to their question. There are cases in which there is more than one way of accomplishing a task. In such instances, try to pick the most user-friendly method. In general, the order of preference is:
  1. The graphical user-interface (menus, check-boxes, buttons, etc.) distributed with Firefox.
  2. If it's a preference that the user is likely only to change once, use about the about:config method
  3. Extension
  4. User script (user.js, userChrome.css, userContent.css, etc.)
  
  If none of the above are possible, there's usually one method of accomplishing a task anyway.
• When providing step by step instructions, use a numbered list rather than bullets.
• Include expected results when giving instructions (e.g. Choose the Firefox (Safe mode) menu option. A dialog will appear.)
• Use full sentences when describing how to access the user interface.
  • Good: At the top of the Firefox window, click on the Tools menu, and select Options..."
  • Bad: Go to Tools > Options...
• Some suggested practices may breech net etiquette. Make a short and polite note in these instances. This is not the appropriate forum to speak didactically on topics of etiquette or user behavior and preferences.

Multimedia

Screenshots

Don't be shy about including screenshots, they are often the most helpful part of the article for users. Specifically choose screenshots that will help clear up any possible ambiguities in the article text or confirm that the user is seeing the correct dialog menu after a series of steps. The following provides some guidelines as to what makes the most useful screenshots.

• Screenshots needs to present Firefox in its most familiar form, which means using as many default settings as possible, including the default Firefox theme, and default operating system theme.
• Crop what is needed, but make sure the cropped image is still identifiable. If you need to create an image of the full screen, use a resolution of 800x600 (just so the image doesn't needlessly take a lot of space).
• When highlighting sections, draw red lines around the section.
  • Good:
    
  • Bad:
    
• If it doesn't make the image unreadable, decrease the image size.
• The preferred format is PNG-24 for images not resized. JPG for resized screenshots.
• To prevent long page load times, try limit the total screenshot content to 200K.

Videos

• Videos needs to present Firefox in its most familiar form, which means using as many default settings as possible, including the default Firefox theme, and default operating system theme.
• Provide a text version for those without hi-speed connections, who cannot view the video.
• The preferred format is Flash.