U Edit

UIUI UI is an acronym for User Interface - the layout of the page the user interacts with. Think ‘how are they doing that’ and less about what they are doing. UI

Initialism for User Interface. Use uppercase.

Don’t use UI to generically refer to UI elements. Instead, use the specific UI element term.

Examples

Warning: Not recommended: In the Link UIUI UI is an acronym for User Interface - the layout of the page the user interacts with. Think ‘how are they doing that’ and less about what they are doing., enter your sitemap link.


Tip: Recommended: In the Link box, enter your sitemap link.

For more information about spelling out abbreviations, see Abbreviations.
For more information, see UI elements.

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UK UK

Initialism for United Kingdom. Use uppercase.

Don’t use as a synonym for Great Britain (GB) or England.

For more information about spelling out abbreviations, see Abbreviations.

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un- un-

In general, don’t hyphenate words beginning with un- such as unable and undo, unless absolutely necessary, to avoid confusion. For example, hyphenate in cases such as un-fitting, or where un- is followed by a proper noun such as un-American.

For more information about hyphenation, see Hyphens.

For word usage of specific terms, see The American Heritage Dictionary.

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unarchive unarchive

Don’t use. Instead, use extract.

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unavailable unavailable

Use to describe a UI element such as a menu item, dropdown list option, or button that the user can’t interact with due to certain conditions. Also, use unavailable to describe the unavailability of a product or service.

In general, describe how the user should interact with the UI rather than describing the state of the UI. Use appears dimmed for describing its appearance. Also include how the user can enable it and interact with the element.

Examples

Tip: Recommended: If the editor permissions are unavailable, contact your site administrator.


Tip: Recommended: The Update button is unavailable unless you change the post contents.

For more information, see UI elements.

See also dimmed, disable, disabled, shaded.

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uncheck uncheck

Don’t use to refer to the action of clearing a check mark from a checkbox. Instead, use clear for checkboxes, and deselect for other UI elements.

Examples

Warning: Not recommended: Uncheck the Crop thumbnail checkbox.


Tip: Recommended: Clear the Crop thumbnail checkbox.

For more information, see UI elements.

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unclick unclick

Don’t use. Instead, use clear for checkboxes, and deselect for other UI elements.

For more information, see UI elements.

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uncompress uncompress

Don’t use. Instead, use extract.

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undelete undelete

Don’t use.

See restore.

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undeploy undeploy

Don’t use. Instead, use remove or withdraw.

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under under

Don’t use to refer to item menus or other UI elements.

Examples

Warning: Not recommended: Under the Text menu, select Encoding.


Tip: Recommended: In the Text menu, select Encoding.

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underline, underscore underline, underscore

Use underline to describe text formatting that puts a line under the characters. Use underscore to refer to the underscore character ( _ ).

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undo undo

Use as a verb to describe undoing any particular action.

Don’t use undo as a noun.

Examples

Warning: Not recommended: After an undo, you can redo by pressing press Ctrl+Y.


Tip: Recommended: After undoing an action, you can redo by pressing press Ctrl+Y.

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unhighlight unhighlight

Don’t use. Instead, use clear for checkboxes, and deselect for other UI elements.

For more information, see UI elements.

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uninstall uninstall

Use as a verb to describe the action of removing programs, apps, other software, and hardware from a device.

Don’t use uninstall as a noun.

Examples

Warning: Not recommended: After the uninstall of the program, restart your computer.


Tip: Recommended: After uninstalling the program, restart your computer.

See also delete, remove.

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UNIX UNIX

No spelled-out term. Use uppercase.

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UNIX epoch time UNIX epoch time

Use rather than UNIX time or epoch time to refer to a point in time represented as a number of seconds since the UNIX epoch (00:00:00 UTC on January 1, 1970), ignoring leap seconds.

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unmark unmark

Don’t use to refer to the action of clearing a check mark from a checkbox. Instead, use clear for checkboxes, and deselect for other UI elements.

For more information, see UI elements.

See also uncheck.

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unmount unmount

Use as a verb to describe the action of making a disk or disk image unavailable.

OK to use in developer documentation and for a technical audience. Avoid using in user documentation and for a general audience; instead, use eject.

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unselect unselect

Don’t use to refer to the action of clearing a check mark from a checkbox. Instead, use clear for checkboxes, and deselect for other UI elements.

For more information, see UI elements.

See also uncheck.

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unset unset

Don’t use. Instead, use clear for checkboxes, and deselect for other UI elements.

For more information, see UI elements.

See also uncheck.

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untar untar

Don’t use. Instead, use extract.

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unzip unzip

Don’t use. Instead, use extract.

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update update

Use as a verb to describe installing a version of a product with a newer, minor version of the same product, but not upgrading it to then next major version. Use as a noun to describe the process of updating software.

Not up-date or up date.

Don’t use update as a synonym for upgrade.

See also upgrade.

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upgradable upgradable

Not upgradeable.

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upgrade upgrade

Use as a verb to describe replacing an installed version of a product with a newer, major version of the same product. Use as a noun to describe the process of upgrading software.

Not up-grade or up grade.

Don’t use upgrade as a synonym for update. Do not use to mean migrate or port.

See also update.

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upload upload

Use as a verb to describe the action of transferring files from a local device to a website, server, or to the cloud.

Describe what the customer is transferring and where the customer is transferring it to. In grammatical terms, use both a subject (the thing to be uploaded) and an object (the thing the subject is uploaded to) with the verb upload.

See also download, load.

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uppercase uppercase

One word. Not upper case or upper-case. Don’t use uppercase as a verb. Don’t use uppercased.

When using both uppercase and lowercase together as a noun or to modify a noun, spell out both words. Don’t use a suspended hyphen (as in upper- and lowercase).

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upper left, upper right upper left, upper right

Hyphenate as adjectives. Use instead of top left and top right.

Example

Tip: Recommended: The upper-left corner

In general, avoid using directional language such as left, right, up, down in instructions to locate UI elements or other content. Directional language proves to be difficult for accessibility or for localization. People with cognitive impairments, as well as people using assistive technologies such as screen-reading software might have difficulty interpreting directional language. If a particular UI element or other content is difficult to convey, include a screenshot or illustration.

For more information, see Writing documentation for an international audience and Procedures and instructions.

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upsize upsize

Don’t use. Instead, use scale up.

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uptime uptime

One word. Not up time or up-time.

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upward upward

Not upwards.

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URI URI

Initialism for Uniform Resource Identifier. Use uppercase.

For more information about spelling out abbreviations, see Abbreviations.

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URL URL

Initialism for Uniform Resource Locator. Use uppercase. Plural is URLs.

Write a URL instead of an URL, as the most common pronunciation starts with a consonant sound. For more information, see Articles.

For more information about spelling out abbreviations, see Abbreviations.
For more information about styling and formatting URLs, see the Linking section.

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US US

Initialism for United States. OK to use as an abbreviation for United States. Use uppercase.

Not U.S., U.S.A., or USA.

For more information about spelling out abbreviations, see Abbreviations.

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usable usable

Not useable.

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USB USB

Initialism for Universal Serial Bus. Use uppercase.

Don’t spell out. Use only as an adjective.

Example

Tip: Recommended: USB drive

For more information about spelling out abbreviations, see Abbreviations.

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user user

Use you when addressing the reader instead of user. If your documentation audience consists of users, avoid using this term. It is OK to use user in developer documentation and for a technical audience.

Examples

Warning: Not recommended: The user can click the Save button to save changes.


Tip: Recommended: You can click the Save button to save changes.

For more information, see Grammatical person.

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user base user base

Two words. Not userbase.

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user interface user interface

See UI.

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username username

One word. Not user name or user-name.

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UTF UTF

Initialism for Unicode Transformation Format. Use uppercase.

Include the hyphen in the names of Unicode encodings, such as UTF-8, UTF-16, and UTF-32.

For more information about spelling out abbreviations, see Abbreviations.

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utility utility

Don’t use.

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utilize, utilization utilize, utilization

Use with caution. Don’t use utilize when you mean use. It’s OK to use utilize or utilization when referring to the quantity of a resource being used.

Examples

Warning: Not recommended: To select a template to display the page, utilize the query string.


Tip: Recommended: To select a template to display the page, use the query string.


Tip: Recommended: The program will resume execution when the CPU utilization falls under 90%.

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UX UX

Initialism for User Experience. Use uppercase.

For more information about spelling out abbreviations, see Abbreviations.

See also UI.

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