Writing Self-Contained Include Files
Writing Self-Contained Include Files records a distinct Microsoft Learn authoring convention and keeps it scoped to that documentation environment rather than presenting it as a universal writing rule.
Write Microsoft Learn include content as complete sentences or phrases that can stand independently of the surrounding article text.
Key details
Important caveats
Scope Boundary
Microsoft warns against fragments that depend grammatically on surrounding article text because they can create localization problems. This page is about include-file wording, not general paragraph style.
Further guidance
Content
Write Microsoft Learn include content as complete sentences or phrases that can stand independently of the surrounding article text.
Purpose
Keep Microsoft Learn source readable, accessible, reusable, and predictable while following current contributor-platform conventions.
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.
- Markdown reference for Microsoft Learn — Contributor guide (opens in a new tab)Microsoft · Current Microsoft Learn contributor reference for Markdown authoring, including headings/navigation, conceptual images and icons, includes, lists/checklists, nonlocalized strings, alerts, comments, tables, and other Learn extensions.