Updates: UX Writing Style Guide

Guidelines | May 2025

The UX writing style guidelines are for everyone working on products, whether you’re debating the best word to use for a button or just want to double-check that you’re capitalizing a heading correctly. We’ve published updates to many of these resources.

• Active and passive voice: How to write succinctly and clearly—and sound like everyday conversation
• Buttons and hyperlinks: When to use a button versus a hyperlink, and how to use them effectively 
• Capitalization: Styles for capitalization to help drive the user’s attention and improve their comprehension 
• Dates and times: Formats for date ranges, data grids, milestone events, timestamps, and more
• Empty states: How to communicate when there’s no specific information to be displayed
• Hint text for search and form fields: Tips for writing frictionless, predictable, and easy-to-understand hint text 
• Word list: A new, at-a-glance reference for common words and how to use them effectively

In addition, there are now even more specific UX writing guidelines for each of the individual IDS components. For help with UX writing, join the UI-UX Design channel in the IDS Microsoft Team.