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 ":".
- Any text the user needs to click on should be in bold (italic) typeface (or in plaintext, use asterisks
- 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