Actian Content Guidelines

UI writing standards for the Actian Data Intelligence platform. Source of truth for writers, designers, and product teams.

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The most commonly referenced sections. Each covers when to use a component, style and copy rules, behavior guidance, and Do / Don’t examples.

Global guidelines

Voice, tone, active voice rules, and the full list of words and phrases to avoid

Verb + object formula, term pairs (Cancel vs Close, Create vs Add), and stepper labels

Labels, helper text, required fields, toggle vs checkbox vs radio, and date inputs

Empty, error, maintenance, and success state copy patterns with examples

Validation messages

Validate on blur, not keystroke. Say what's wrong and how to fix it - no "Invalid"

Column header format, empty cell conventions, status vocabulary, and bulk action labels

Title matching, button pairs, destructive modal pattern, and no nested modals rule

Toasts, tooltips, popovers, and notification copy - length and action rules

Pre-ship checklist

Run through this before any UI copy review:

Sentence case on all UI text (buttons, labels, headings, tooltips, banners)
No “please,” “sorry,” “ensure,” “execute,” “abort,” “sign in,” or other banned words
Buttons use verb + object (“Create report,” not “Report”)
No terminal punctuation on buttons, labels, menu items, or column headers
Placeholder text models input - never repeats the label
Error messages say what went wrong and how to fix it (no “Invalid”)
Empty states include a headline, body sentence, and one CTA
Destructive actions confirmed with title that names the action (“Delete connection”)

All sections