About the guide
The Apple Style Guide provides editorial guidelines for text in Apple instructional materials, technical documentation, reference information, training programs, and user interfaces. The intent of these guidelines is to help maintain a consistent voice in Apple materials.
Writers, editors, and developers can use this document as a guide to writing style, usage, and Apple product terminology. Writers and editors should thoroughly review the guide to become familiar with the range of issues involved in creating high-quality, readable, and consistent materials. Apple developers and third-party developers should follow these guidelines for user-facing text.
You can also download the guide as a PDF.
Other editorial resources used at Apple
In general, follow the style and usage rules in:
Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary
The Chicago Manual of Style
Exceptions to guidelines in these resources are noted in this guide. In cases where resources conflict with each other, follow The Chicago Manual of Style for style and usage questions, and Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary for spelling guidance.
Guidance on style, usage, and spelling in the Apple Style Guide is based on U.S. English conventions. For localized content, consult resources specific to the language or region.
Some departments at Apple (Marcom, for example) have supplemental style guides.
For information about the user interface, see Apple’s Human Interface Guidelines.
Conventions used in this guide
Modifiers consisting of two or more words are often hyphenated when they precede a noun, but not when they follow the verb as a compound predicate adjective. This guide distinguishes the differences as follows:
An entry followed by adj. in parentheses gives the form to be used when the adjective immediately precedes the noun it modifies.
An entry followed by pred. adj. in parentheses gives the form to be used when the adjective is a predicate adjective. For example:
user-friendly (adj.), user friendly (pred. adj.)
If a hyphenated compound has no pred. adj. entry, hyphenate the compound wherever it appears in a sentence.
How to request revisions
If you’re an Apple employee or a registered Apple developer, you can request additions or revisions to the Apple Style Guide by filing a bug report using bugreport.apple.com. Otherwise, you may email feedback to ASGFeedback@group.apple.com. (We regret that we can’t respond to feedback.)