Writing User Documentation for ACF

Guidelines on User Documentation for ACF

Many users of Alpine Linux devices may use only the ACF Web interface. Therefore, it is beneficial to have a clear, consistent way of documenting procedures with ACF. These guidelines can be used to write concise documents that use ACF instead of the command line.

Basic suggestions

• Write names and labels as they appear in ACF, such as "DNScache" instead of dnscache.
• Avoid using extra nouns such as "menu option," "tab," "section," etc. for simplicity. The formatting below should be sufficient.
• Specify the entire navigation, so that the user can follow the instructions no matter where he starts.

Formatting

Here is an example of the suggested formatting:

System: Local Backups > Status > Commit Changes: Commit

Below is the formatting for common items in user documentation. All navigation strings should be in italics (or in plaintext, use forward slashes /NAVIGATION > EXAMPLE/).

• Menu Choices, Tabs, Buttons, Links
  • Any text the user needs to click on should be in bold (italic) typeface (or in plaintext, use asterisks *BUTTONNAME*). The text should then be followed by a greater-than symbol ">".
  • Links may be preceded by a label and a colon ":".
• Section Headings
  • Headings should be followed by a colon ":".
• Check Boxes
  • Check boxes should be followed by [X] for selected, and [_] for unselected.
• Fields
  • Field names have no special formatting.
• Drop-down Boxes
  • Use a greater-than symbol ">" between the label of the box and the option to choose.

Examples

System: Local Backups
System: Local Backups > Status > Commit Changes: Simulate a commit [X]
System: Local Backups > Status > Commit Changes: Simulate a commit [_]
System: Local Backups > Config > System Info: Media for Commit > usb
System: Local Backups > Config > Edit Included Files: Included item(s)
System: Logfiles > Status > /var/log/messages: Tail