UI
Initialism for User Interface. Use uppercase.
Don’t use 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. to generically refer to UI elements. Instead, use the specific UI element term.
Examples
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.
For more information about spelling out abbreviations, see Abbreviations.
For more information, see UI elements.
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.
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.
unarchive
Don’t use. Instead, use extract.
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
For more information, see UI elements.
See also dimmed, disable, disabled, shaded.
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
For more information, see UI elements.
unclick
Don’t use. Instead, use clear for checkboxes, and deselect for other UI elements.
For more information, see UI elements.
uncompress
Don’t use. Instead, use extract.
undelete
Don’t use.
See restore.
undeploy
Don’t use. Instead, use remove or withdraw.
under
Don’t use to refer to item menus or other UI elements.
Examples
underline, underscore
Use underline to describe text formatting that puts a line under the characters. Use underscore to refer to the underscore character ( _ ).
undo
Use as a verb to describe undoing any particular action.
Don’t use undo as a noun.
Examples
unhighlight
Don’t use. Instead, use clear for checkboxes, and deselect for other UI elements.
For more information, see UI elements.
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
UNIX
No spelled-out term. Use uppercase.
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.
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.
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.
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.
unset
Don’t use. Instead, use clear for checkboxes, and deselect for other UI elements.
For more information, see UI elements.
See also uncheck.
untar
Don’t use. Instead, use extract.
unzip
Don’t use. Instead, use extract.
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.
upgradable
Not upgradeable.
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.
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.
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).
upper left, upper right
Hyphenate as adjectives. Use instead of top left and top right.
Example
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.
upsize
Don’t use. Instead, use scale up.
uptime
One word. Not up time or up-time.
upward
Not upwards.
URI
Initialism for Uniform Resource Identifier. Use uppercase.
For more information about spelling out abbreviations, see Abbreviations.
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.
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.
usable
Not useable.
USB
Initialism for Universal Serial Bus. Use uppercase.
Don’t spell out. Use only as an adjective.
Example
For more information about spelling out abbreviations, see Abbreviations.
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
For more information, see Grammatical person.
user base
Two words. Not userbase.
user interface
See UI.
username
One word. Not user name or user-name.
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.
utility
Don’t use.
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
UX
Initialism for User Experience. Use uppercase.
For more information about spelling out abbreviations, see Abbreviations.
See also UI.
