Punctuation

Use the Oxford comma

In a list of three or more items, put a comma before the conjunction.

• Incorrect: Applications, Firewall and Edge DNS
• Correct: Applications, Firewall, and Edge DNS

The last comma removes an ambiguity that the reader would otherwise have to resolve. Without it, the final two items can read as a pair.

Portuguese takes the opposite convention: in a simple enumeration, no comma goes before e.

Prefer a period to an em dash

An em dash replaces a period, a colon, or a comma, and one of those three is almost always clearer. Reach for them first.

• Before: The cache answers the request—the origin never sees it.
• After: The cache answers the request. The origin never sees it.

When a dash is genuinely the right mark, write it with no space on either side.

Dashes used for emphasis are the pattern to avoid, and Word choice covers that family in full. This is a rule for writing, not a defect for review: nobody flags a single em dash.

Use an en dash for a range

An en dash joins the ends of a range of time or quantity, with no space on either side.

• Incorrect: 50 - 70%
• Correct: 50–70%

Write the range with words when a preposition already opened it: from 50% to 70%, never from 50–70%.

Hyphenate a compound modifier

Two words that modify a noun together take a hyphen, with no spaces.

The hyphen disappears when the words are not modifying a noun: the bucket is read only.

Do not hyphenate a word that starts with auto, such as autoscale and autodial, unless the unhyphenated form is genuinely unclear.

Do not use ellipses or exclamation points

An ellipsis asks the reader to supply the rest of the thought. Documentation states the thought.

An exclamation point adds volume, not information. It also reads as promotional, which Documentation voice rules out.

The one exception is quoted output. When Azion Console or a command prints either mark, quote it exactly.

Leave headings and URLs unpunctuated

• No end punctuation on a heading, a title, or a sidebar label.
• No colon inside a heading. Cache settings: an overview becomes Cache settings.
• No period at the end of a URL, because readers copy the trailing character.

Punctuate a list item by its length

• An item of four words or more ends with a period.
• An item of three words or fewer takes no end punctuation.
• Every item in one list follows the same choice, so mixed lists get rewritten rather than mixed.

A table cell follows the same rule: a cell that is a sentence ends with a period, and a cell that is a value or a fragment does not.

Use a colon to introduce, and avoid the semicolon

A colon introduces a list, a procedure, or a code block. Capitalize after a colon only when a list follows; keep running text lowercase.

• Correct: You need three things: an account, a token, and a domain.
• Correct: To create the bucket:

Avoid the semicolon. A semicolon joining two clauses is two sentences, and a semicolon joining a step to its result is the outcome sentence that Procedures already requires.

Set spacing and symbols

Portuguese differs on dashes

Portuguese takes a space on each side of a dash that separates a clause. Apart from this and the serial comma, this page holds in both languages.

Prefer restructuring the Portuguese sentence to using a dash at all. Bilingual pages covers what else changes in a pair.