Latest changes to the Splunk Style Guide

This table shows the history of updates to the Splunk Style Guide since its publication on December 2, 2019:

2021

Date	Chapter or topic	Change
December 3, 2021	Example names and domains	Updated information about fictitious IPv4 and IPv6 subnets and address ranges.
November 12, 2021	Formatting links in Splunk documentation	Updated link to the Support and Resources page owned by the Splunk Customer Success.
November 3, 2021	Use plain language	Added a section called "Choose clarity over concision" that describes how to use indicating nouns to identify knowledge objects and special elements.
November 1, 2021	A word about Splunk docs	Added a bullet point under the "User-focused" section to not document the documentation. Added a bullet point under the "Goal-oriented" section to avoid documenting the UI.
November 1, 2021	Best practices for linking to third-party websites	Renamed page from "Links to third-party websites" to "Best practices for linking to third-party websites". Updated example of an essential link.
November 1, 2021	Best practices for including links	Consolidated bullet points about linking to Splunk documentation that used to be in "Formatting links in Splunk documentation" on this page.
November 1, 2021	Formatting links in Splunk documentation	Changed name of page from "Links to Splunk materials" to "Formatting links in Splunk documentation". Reformatted the page into separate sections. Added code repositories. Deleted page called "Links to Splexicon entries and download files" and included the details on this page. Included examples of linking to third-party websites on the page. Updated broken links and added more examples.
October 27, 2021	Usage dictionary	Updated entry for "out-of-the-box".
October 18, 2021	Usage dictionary	Added entry for "wizard".
October 8, 2021	Types of images Formatting links in Splunk documentation	Added information about when to use a video instead of a GIF and an example of how to link to a Splunk video.
October 8, 2021	Best practices for including videos	Added topic.
October 7, 2021	Formatting reference	Added formatting guidelines for Hexadecimal values.
October 7, 2021	Usage dictionary	Added "hex".
October 1, 2021	Recommendations	Added topic.
September 27, 2021	Types of images	Added an example of a complex diagram.
August 30, 2021	Include alt text in images Formatting reference Formatting links in Splunk documentation Best practices for linking to third-party websites Definition lists Using numbers in text Manual names, topic titles, and section headings	Updated references of "Splunk Cloud" to "Splunk Cloud Platform".
August 23, 2021	Include alt text in images	Clarified alt text guidance and added new examples.
August 11, 2021	Best practices for including tables	Clarified guidance around formatting text in table cells.
August 6, 2021	Usage dictionary	Added entry for "Splunk Cloud Platform". Updated references of "Splunk Cloud" to "Splunk Cloud Platform".
August 3, 2021	Usage dictionary	Added "capability", "feature", and "functionality".
June 23, 2021	Usage dictionary	Added "more".
June 11, 2021	Phone numbers and Example names and domains	Revised fictional phone number examples for the US and Australia.
June 10, 2021	Usage dictionary	Added "read-only".
June 8, 2021	Write unbiased documentation	Removed a line in the table that says to avoid "Native".
June 7, 2021	Usage dictionary	Added "Premium Solutions".
June 4, 2021	Usage dictionary	Added "n/a".
June 3, 2021	Numbered lists	Added guidance for marking substeps in a numbered list.
May 26, 2021	Splunk product terminology	Added a new section with usage guidelines for cloud-only product suites. Updated "Splunk Cloud" to "Splunk Cloud Platform".
May 25, 2021	Manual names, topic titles, and section headings	Added guidance about numbers in titles and headings.
May 25, 2021	Using numbers in text	Changed name from "Numbers or numerals?" to "Using numbers in text". Added guidance and examples for hyphenated numbers, ordinal numbers, and numbers in headings, along with organizational changes to the page.
May 25, 2021	Quotation marks	Added sections about logical quotation, straight quotes, and single quotes in code examples.
May 6, 2021	Include alt text in images	Added and clarified guidance for including alt text.
April 28, 2021	Usage dictionary	Added "dark mode", "dark theme", "light mode", and "light theme".
April 27, 2021	Best practices for including images Types of images Write accessible documentation	Added guidance about screenshots needing to be in the UI light theme with the screen zoomed to 100%.
April 23, 2021	Usage dictionary	Added "cog", "gear", "fail over", and "failover".
April 22, 2021	Usage dictionary	Added "standalone".
April 21, 2021	Usage dictionary	Added more incorrect examples to "log in" and "login".
April 7, 2021	Measurements	Added "kibibyte".
April 1, 2021	Usage dictionary	Added "Boolean".
March 17, 2021	Usage dictionary	Added "JSON".
March 17, 2021	Usage dictionary	Added "query" and updated the "search" entry.
March 17, 2021	Formatting links in Splunk documentation	Added a table row on linking to configuration file topics.
February 22, 2021	Write unbiased documentation	Added a topic about writing unbiased and inclusive documentation.
February 17, 2021	Include alt text in images	Renamed the "Include alt text" topic to "Include alt text in images".
February 17, 2021	Write accessible documentation	Renamed the "Write docs for everyone" topic to "Write accessible documentation".
February 10, 2021	Example names and domains	Added additional names for greater diversity.
January 5, 2021	UI text style guidelines	Added a "Numbers" section with guidance to use numerals in UI text.

2020

Date	Chapter or topic	Change
December 3, 2020	Usage dictionary	Added "multifactor authentication".
December 3, 2020	Formatting links in Splunk documentation	Updated guidance about linking to subheadings. Now okay to link to an H2 or H3, and treat it the same way as linking to a topic.
November 30, 2020	Formatting reference	Changed name of page to "Formatting reference". Added explicit guidance for all elements in documentation rather than generalizations. Added more examples and some sidebar comments.
November 30, 2020	Formatting text chapter	Deleted the "Bold", "Italics", and "Monospaced font" topics from chapter.
November 30, 2020	Best practices for linking to third-party websites	Clarified the difference between essential and supplemental links. Added new guidance about linking to essential sites.
November 30, 2020	Usage dictionary	Updated formatting in "File paths". Removed guidance that says not to use directional language in UI text.
November 30, 2020	Titles and headings chapter	Clarified guidance around how to use heading and text together in "The order of headings" and "Headings and text together" sections.
November 18, 2020	Possessive pronouns	Added guidance to avoid possessive pronouns in UI text.
November 13, 2020	Usage dictionary	Added "SSH", "URI, URL", and "URN".
November 13, 2020	Measurements	Added tebibyte (TiB).
November 12, 2020	Titles and headings chapter	Deleted topics on writing tasks, prerequisites, supertasks, next step sections, and see also sections. Changed "Content structure" chapter name to "Titles and headings".
November 11, 2020	Formatting reference	Added formatting guidance for URIs and URLs.
November 9, 2020	Usage dictionary	Update definitions for "ad hoc", "drilldown", and "lookup". Added "app". Added examples to "command-line" and "real-time".
July 22, 2020	Usage dictionary	Updated "master" and "install". Added "slave" and "deploy".
July 20, 2020	Usage dictionary	Updated "blacklist" and "whitelist".
May 26, 2020	Usage dictionary	Added "AM" and "PM".
May 22, 2020	Usage dictionary	Clarified guidance for "*nix*, "Linux", and "UNIX".
May 22, 2020	Usage dictionary	Added "blacklist" and "whitelist".
April 13, 2020	Usage dictionary	Added "into". Also added a correct usage example to the Manual names, topic titles, and section headings topic.
April 13, 2020	Usage dictionary	Added "reenable" and revised the entry for "reenter".
March 24, 2020	Usage dictionary	Clarified "multivalue field". Updated "plugin" as a noun or adjective.
March 19, 2020	Example names and domains	Updated IP address blocks to be ranges.
March 9, 2020	Numbers or numerals? Time	Added guidance around duration of time.
March 5, 2020	Write in indicative or imperative mood	Updated title and guidance to emphasize writing in indicative and imperative mood and to avoid writing in subjunctive mood. Added new examples.
February 19, 2020	Usage dictionary	Added "spin up, spin down".
February 18, 2020	Formatting reference Brackets	Clarified language and examples for square brackets around .conf file stanza names.
February 5, 2020	Usage dictionary	Added "directory".
January 31, 2020	Usage dictionary	Added "drilldown" as an adjective.

2019

Date	Chapter or topic	Change
December 23, 2019	Usage dictionary	Added "tarball".
December 12, 2019	Commas and decimals	Added clarification to use standard American-style formatting for commas and decimal points in numbers.