Writing & StyleStyle guide

Capitalizing Product Names in Technical Documentation

Capitalizing Product Names in Technical Documentation records the relevant Microsoft Style Guide convention while keeping it explicitly house-style scoped rather than presenting it as a universal grammar rule.

Quick answer

Use the established capitalization of product, service, app, and trademark names; Microsoft style generally treats them as proper names rather than applying ordinary sentence-case lowercasing.

Key details

Core IssueMicrosoft style treats brand, product, and service names as proper names and usually uses their established title-style capitalization.
RegisterMicrosoft technical and professional documentation

Important caveats

Scope Boundary

This is Microsoft house style; always preserve an official product’s documented spelling and capitalization when exact product naming matters.

Further guidance

Content

Use the established capitalization of product, service, app, and trademark names; Microsoft style generally treats them as proper names rather than applying ordinary sentence-case lowercasing.

Purpose

Help readers recognize official products and avoid silently altering trademarked or branded names.

Sources and evidence

Sources are shown with the role they play in this guide. Historical or style-sensitive claims are kept within the evidence boundary described above.

  1. Formatting common text elements — Microsoft Style Guide (opens in a new tab)Microsoft · Microsoft technical-style conventions for error messages and common text elements
  2. Capitalization — Microsoft Style Guide (opens in a new tab)Microsoft · Microsoft technical-style guidance for sentence-style headings, acronym expansion capitalization and capitalization after colons

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