Qt Writing Guidelines

The Qt Writing Guidelines contains information about writing Qt documentation in a consistent way. Though there are exceptions, maintain the consistency level outlined in the guidelines or the existing Qt documentation.

This guideline is maintained by the Qt Documentation Team, with members across the different Qt Group sites. Visit their page at: Contributing to Qt Documentation

Language style

Say the text out loud. If it sounds weird, then it is weird...and may need editing.

Qt uses the Microsoft Writing Style Guide in the Qt documentation. Essentially, use clear and direct language in American English. We write to a diverse audience and we need to communicate Qt topics in an approachable and understandable manner.

Here are some specifics for Qt:

Use active voice, not passive. Passive does not make a sentence formal, but unnecessarily weakens the sentence. See Verbs
Use the pronoun you in to address the reader when appropriate. See Nouns and Pronouns.
Use because instead of "since" or "as". See Use simple words, concise sentences.
Use a serial comma, also known as the Oxford comma. See Commas.
Use the correct spelling and case for Qt Products. See Qt Terms and Concepts.
Be consistent with forming lists (\list). Use the same tone or mode and be consistent about ending with periods.
Use US spelling and avoid latin abbreviations. See Use US spelling and avoid non-English words. Here is a summary :


Use	Instead of
that is	i.e.
for example	e.g.
and so on.	etc.

Translated Documentation

New in Qt 6.8, the Qt Reference Documentation is available in translated formats. Think about how easy the text is easily translatable. If the text is too complicated, then it may be poorly translated by translation tools.

Using QDoc to write documentation

These QDoc guidelines complement the QDoc Manual

Style Guidelines - proper use of commands, code blocks, markup, and indentation
Linking Guidelines
QDoc Project Templates
Checklist for Adding Documentation for a New Module
Documentation Structure page contains a map of how the directory structure of a repository or module

Writing API documentation

We document Qt APIs in the sources and use QDoc to generate the HTML for the doc.qt.io site and an offline version for Qt Creator.

C++ and QML documentation follow a similar style, but there are differences. See the following pages for documenting APIs.

For designing Qt APIs, visit:

API Design Principles

Quoting and marking code

Make sure your snippet compiles and runs.

It is best to include code snippets using the \snippet <filename> command. We are striving to include compilable and usable code in the Qt documentation.

If the code is inside a source file, then we can use code common to snippets and examples.

See the QDoc Manual about the other commands relating to including sources in documentation. See Including External Code

Markup with the \c command is beneficial to state that text is an input or output. See Text Markup

The previous guideline about using \code and \endcode is no longer preferred, though it is still possible to use these commands.

For quoting input or output text (from the terminal, for example), use the various quotation commands. See Including Code Inline

Writing section titles

Consistency is key...write sections in sentence-case, but maintain consistency with existing pages.

Section titles are written as arguments to \section1 and \section2 commands.

Write section titles in sentence-case as indicated by the Microsoft Writing Style Guide. See Formatting titles.

The previous guideline of using title-case is no longer valid, but maintain consistency within the page for readability and neatness.

Task-based titles

The section title could be about performing tasks or a description of a sub-system.

Here are some suggestions:

Sections about performing tasks, use verbs in progressive form: Building..., Using..., Creating..., Connecting..., and so on.
Sections about a sub-system or a description, use nouns: Coordinate systems, Chart types, Dynamic properties, and so on.

Linking issues

QDoc uses section titles as link targets, and a common issue is mis-linking to unwanted sections.

Choose unique section and page titles to avoid linking problems. Search for already existing titles, run QDoc, and check the HTML output for missing or misdirected links.

Using QDoc \note and \warning

Only noteworthy statements belong in a \note.

QDoc has a \note command that creates a stylized Note: in the documentation. Similarly, \warning creates a Warning: .

Use them sparingly but be aware of their intended use and consequences.

Notes and warnings break the flow of the paragraph or section, creating an aside or detour from the usual topic.
\note is only for short statements. See \note command in the QDoc manual.
Reserve \warning for critical information that lead to serious consequences.

Think of the hierarchy of information. When highlighting several important content, only have the most important statement in a \note. Notes that are not critical may not be that important.

Instead, integrate the sentence or statement into a paragraph. A one-line paragraph dangling in a page is better than the overuse of notes.

Documenting examples

Qt Examples are an important part of the Qt Framework. They show how the framework is to be used and inspire developers about possibilities with Qt. These pages help with creating examples, documenting examples, and how to contribute examples into the Qt repositories.

Qt Examples Guidelines - do's and don'ts for examples

Writing Example Documentation and Tutorials - writing example documentation and tutorials
Contributing Examples to Qt - configuring an example for integration into the Qt repositories
Qt Examples in Qt Creator - ensuring that the example works within Qt Creator

Including images

The requirements for images in Qt documentation is outlined in QUIP-21.

QUIP-21 Using images in Qt documentation

Linting with Vale

Vale is a linter that detects improper use of language and can make suggestions in-place. Vale has command-line interface and is also available for Qt Creator and VS Code.

For more information about Vale, visit Setting Up Vale.