Please use the form below to provide your feedback. Because your feedback is valuable to us, the information you submit in this form is recorded in our issue tracking system (JIRA), which is publicly available. You can track the status of your feedback using the ticket number displayed in the dialog once you submit the form.

General Principles of Couchbase Style

      +

      Write in American English

      Use American English spelling, not British or Canadian English. The Vale automated spellcheck uses an American English dictionary.

      If you need to check the spelling of a word, refer to the Merriam-Webster’s Collegiate Dictionary, Eleventh Edition.

      If Vale flags a product name or other technical industry term as incorrect:

      • If it’s a phrase or single word that must have specific capitalization, add it to the Vocab\Couchbase\accept.txt file.

      • If it’s a phrase that needs a specific arrangement of hyphens or spaces and the capitalization doesn’t matter, add it to the Couchbase\Terminology.yml Vale Style.

      Write in the Present Tense

      Do not write in past tense or future tense.

      Acceptable Not Acceptable

      Select Deploy. Couchbase Capella deploys your cluster.

      Select Deploy. Couchbase Capella will deploy your cluster.

      After you selected Deploy, Couchbase Capella deployed the cluster.

      For more information, see Present tense in the Google Developer Style Guide.

      Write in Second Person

      You can address the user as "you."

      Do not use the first person. Vale flags the use of any first person plurals (we, our, us, let’s) in your text. Do not use any third person gendered pronouns.

      For more information, see Second person in the Google Developer Style Guide.

      Acceptable Not Acceptable

      You can change the Description for your cluster from the Settings page.

      We can change the Description for a cluster from the Settings page.

      Let’s change our cluster’s description.

      A Project Owner can create, modify, and delete buckets. You can create a maximum of 30 buckets. a

      A Project Owner can create, modify, and delete buckets. He can create a maximum of 30 buckets.

      A Project Owner can create, modify, and delete buckets. He/she can create a maximum of 30 buckets.

      Use Active Voice

      Passive voice weakens your writing and can make it harder to parse meaning. Stick to the active voice as much as you can.

      Start sentences with verbs, or directly address the user to avoid passive voice.

      Make sure to also use strong verbs. Avoid:

      • Forms of be, such as is, are, am, was, were, etc.

      • Occur

      • Happen

      Acceptable Not Acceptable

      Couchbase Server uses scopes and collections to categorize and organize documents.

      Documents are categorized and organized by scopes and collections.

      Before you can store any data, you must create a Bucket.

      Buckets must be created before you can store any data.

      Tips for Active Voice

      Here are some tips to help you with active voice:

      • Think about what’s actually doing the action you’re describing. Emphasize the actor.

      • Find or push back for more information if you cannot identify the actor. Ask the developer what’s actually doing what in a scenario.

      • If the sentence doesn’t make sense in active voice or you lose the correct emphasis, you can use the passive voice.

      For more information about active voice, see Active voice in the Google Developer Style Guide.

      Use Plain Language and Contractions

      Plain language means avoiding jargon or overly technical phrases when a simpler word works best.

      Use contractions, except for negative constructions. For more information, see Contractions.

      Acceptable Not Acceptable

      You can set a Bucket name.

      You can configure a Bucket name.

      Before you can use your Capella cluster from your VPC, run the following commands.

      Before you can access your Capella cluster from your VPC, run the following commands.

      Search Service indexes are not the same as Index Service indexes. If you deploy the Index Service, Query Service, and Search Service on the same cluster, you can use the Search Service through the N1QL query language. For more information, see Search Functions.

      The indexes that the Search Service creates and uses are entirely separate from and different to those of the Index Service. However, if the Index Service and Query Service are also deployed on the cluster, the facilities of the Search Service can be called on by means of the N1QL language — which provides the principal interface to the Query and Index Services. This is principally done through the use of Search Functions.

      Use Simple Sentences and Short Paragraphs

      Do not write a wall of text. Break things up with separate paragraphs, headings, and lists. Try to make your text easy to scan and read.

      Keep sentences under 25 words. Vale flags longer sentences and sentences that have more than two commas.