Content

Content Checklist

Before you publish your content, there are a few things you’ll want to make sure of. Use this checklist to double-check that your content adheres to our guidelines.

The title is clear, concise, and makes the topic clear (Answers: “What is this?”)

Your content has a specific business goal or purpose

• Before writing, think about what the purpose or goal of your content is, who the target audience is, and where in the customer journey they are when they reach your content.

The information provided is useful to the reader (Answers: “Why is this important?”)

The voice and tone are representative of Safe Software

• Safe’s voice is friendly, confident, and fun.
• To identify what tone to use, think of your audience, their emotions, and where your content is being used.

Your content is written in an active voice, not a passive one

Your writing uses plain language as much as possible

• Consistency and clarity are key. Remove any unnecessary words and try to shorten sentences where possible.
• If a phrase you’ve written is too complex, try reordering your sentence. Ordering sentences by stating the object first, action second is a simple way to make a phrase less complicated.

Sections are broken up for visual appeal (it isn’t just a wall of text)

All grammar is correct

Product and company names are spelled correctly

Relevant in-text links have been added

Useful call-to-actions have been added

Technical content has been reviewed by an expert

Another Safer has proof-read your content as a whole

Voice & Tone

Understanding and incorporating a consistent voice and tone into your content will help to establish the personality of your company.

Purpose

When writing content that represents a company or brand, it is essential to consider the voice and tone of your message. Doing so will help to reinforce a consistent experience for readers.

We want our readers to feel as if they are interacting with another person (or character, or mascot), not that they are being given the high-level bullet points on a topic from a corporate perspective. We want to start a conversation and encourage discussion. A great way to do this is by making a reader feel comfortable through our words and actions.

“Don’t just give your customers something to talk about, give them someone to talk about” - Jay Baer

Voice

Everyone has their own unique voice but speaks in different tones depending on the situation. For example, a person will speak differently with their boss than with their children or best friend. Someone said to think of voice as climate (an overall description of variables) and tone as weather (variables that change depending on circumstance).

Here are a few characteristics of Safe Software’s voice:

Friendly

Our goal at Safe Software is to help others. By being friendly and talking about what we do in simple terms, we can help customers feel as if they can approach us with any of their problems or questions. This means no sneaky tricks or tactics.

Confident

We are confident in our ability to provide a powerful, useful data integration platform. Our content should highlight our expertise and knowledge when it comes to data. As content creators, we invest time in fully understanding a topic so we can be comfortable writing simply, but intelligently.

Fun

We don’t just want to help our customers with their data problems, we want them to have fun doing it, too! Our content should be something that others enjoy reading in addition to being informative.

Tone

The tone of your content will vary depending on the medium, audience, and purpose.

To identify your tone, you should consider:

Audience

Our audience tends to be highly involved in data and technology, so they’re quite familiar with complex, technological issues. It is important that they feel confident that they’re working with experts based on the content they read. If you’re unsure of a tech topic, feel free to ask another Safer.

Note: We work with users around the world, which means there is potential for miscommunication and other language barrier related problems. While technical jargon shouldn’t be an issue, sayings or idioms that are unique to the English language should be avoided (eg. “The cat’s in the bag”, “Easy as pie”, etc.).

Emotion

Where in the customer journey is your reader? What emotions might they be experiencing when they’re reading your content? Their emotions and the goal of your content can help you identify what tone to use.

• If they are thinking about buying, they may feel unsure or confused.
• If they’re a new customer, they may feel excited or eager.
• If they’re an existing customer with an issue, they may feel frustrated or defeated.

Our content should be written with understanding and care to help reassure the reader that we are a company that they can rely on.

“I've learned that people will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.” - Maya Angelou

Channel and Content-Type

Where is your content being posted?

• If it’s a blog article, it may be okay to inject content with your own personal flair (it’s a blog, it should be a bit personal!)
• If it’s on our main website, it will be important to write concisely yet creatively (we want to capture people’s attention)
• If it’s a teaching platform, then being more technical and using appropriate jargon will be necessary (they’re here to learn, not to be “wow-ed”)

Here are additional things to think about when deciding on your tone:

• It should feel authentic, not forced.
• Watch out for attempts to be funny (if you’re unsure, it’s safer to remove the joke).
• Don’t forget about context, busy-ness, and readability.
• Try to remove adverbs and filler words to make your writing clear and concise.

Syntax

The way we use words to form sentences and paragraphs are based on the rules of syntax. By having syntax guidelines for our content writers to follow, we can attempt to build a more consistent and cohesive experience for our readers.

Basics

Here is a list of basic rules to follow when it comes to syntax:

• Keep your writing clear and concise. It’s better to be direct than convoluted.
• Avoid using “we” or “I” and instead use “you”. Your writing should be conversational, but it should focus on the reader’s needs.

• Use an active voice in your writing instead of a passive one.

  Active: Monkeys adore bananas.
  Passive: Bananas are adored by monkeys.

• Use variations in sentence length. It can make reading your content more interesting without requiring you to add extra content or a punchline. It’s that simple!
• Sentences should be no longer than 25 words.

Plain Language

Writing in simple, plain language, is the best way to ensure everyone can understand what you’re talking about. At Safe, this means finding a balance between using your words creatively (without being too complex) and using technical jargon (without sounding like a scientific journal article). To check if your writing is simple, ask yourself, “Would someone unfamiliar with this topic understand what I’m saying?”

If you feel like a phrase you’ve written is too complex, try reordering the contents of your sentence. Ordering sentences by stating the object first, action second is beneficial. Phrases like “Jimmy (object) threw the ball (action)” are easier to understand and conceptualize than phrases like “The ball was thrown by (action) Jimmy (object)”. And, as a bonus, the first phrase uses fewer words which is always nice.

While you won’t always be able to use the most simple jargon, you can use in-text links to point a reader towards a page with more information about a term. For example, data integration and spatial data are both terms that we have distinct pages for.

Think of what we’re doing as combining two languages: the English language and the language of data. Someone may not be as familiar with the English language, but understand technical data terminology, or they may be very familiar with the English language, but have had no exposure to the language of data. We want our content to make sense to both these types of readers.

Here are some guidelines for using plain language when writing content for Safe:

• Write short, clear sentences and paragraphs. Split up sentences and paragraphs to separate ideas. Try to cut out any filler words that aren’t necessary.

  Better:

  Build repeatable data conversion and transformation workflows.

  Worse:

  Build data conversion and data transformation workflows that can be used repeatedly.

• Explain acronyms when first used. Our content contains many acronyms, and outlining what they stand for can help both you and the reader understand exactly what you’re talking about.

  Better:

  Shapefiles (SHP) are a commonly used GIS format.

  Worse:

  SHP is a commonly used GIS format.

• Avoid double negatives. No one doesn’t not like double negatives. Sound confusing? This is why you shouldn’t use double negatives.

  Better:

  Include annotations in your workflow to document your process.

  Worse:

  Don’t not include annotations in your workflow to document your process.

• Begin with the objective. We want to highlight the solutions we provide. We can make this clear by stating the reader’s problem or objective first, and then telling them how FME can help. Always try to structure a sentence as “object/objective, action” rather than “action, object/objective”.

  Better:

  Structure data the way you need it using FME transformers.

  Worse:

  FME transformers can help you structure data the way you need it.

• Use specific verbs where possible. When writing microcopy and call-to-actions (CTAs), be clear and direct about the action that a user will be taking. Be as accurate and descriptive as possible.

  Better:

  Watch the Recorded Webinar

  Worse:

  Learn More

Writing Clearly With Confidence

When we write, we should make it easy for readers to understand exactly what we’re talking about and provide truthful evidence that supports our message. Here are some ways that we can ensure clarity and confidence in our content:

• Use Specific Subjects, Not Dummy Subjects. Avoid using dummy subjects like “it”, “this”, “here”, “there” and other similar words as a replacement for more specific subjects like “data integration”, “the BigQuery database”, or “in FME Flow”. Dummy subjects should be used sparingly.

  Better:

  Transform data in FME Form before you write it to the database of your choice.

  Worse:

  Transform it here before you write it to your database.

• Use Stats, Not Descriptors. Numbers that prove our strength are more trustworthy than vague statements. We want people to know the facts and not have to question what we say. This is best done using quantitative values rather than qualitative descriptors.

  Better:

  FME supports over 450 formats and applications.

  Worse:

  FME supports many formats and applications.

  Better:

  By automating this process with FME, the City of Austin now saves 900 hours of manual effort each year.

  Worse:

  The automation of the FME processes saves the team a great deal of time and manual effort.

• Avoid Weasel Words. Do not use words or phrases like “might”, “sort of”, “maybe”, “virtually” or “almost”. They will make you sound unsure or untrustworthy. Statements are more clear without weasel words and reduces a reader’s need to question your statement (“What does virtually mean?”, “How close is almost?”)

  Better:

  FME can transform, convert, and connect data to over 450 formats and applications.

  Worse:

  FME can convert data to virtually any format or application that's important to you.

• Remove Negativity. Keep statements positive as much as possible to focus on the good that FME can do. Write about what we can do, what we will do, and what users should do to solve their data challenges.

  Better:

  Each FME release contains new features suggested in the Ideas Forum.

  Worse:

  Not all ideas in the Ideas Forum will make it into FME.

Content Organization

Introduction, body, conclusion. That’s the standard way we’ve all learned how to write content, and for the most part, that’s how you should be thinking about structuring your content when writing for Safe.

Introduction

A web page introduction’s purpose is to help a user make sure they’ve reached the page they’re looking for. This is accomplished by properly using elements like headings and subheadings that are above the fold of a page. Use keywords and terms upfront so they’re obvious to the reader as soon as they land on a page. Doing so will also help with search engine optimization (SEO).

In cases where your content is about a topic that may be unfamiliar to the reader, a more in-depth introduction may be necessary.

For example:

Power the Flow of Data with FME

FME (aka. Feature Manipulation Engine) is a data integration platform with the best support for spatial data worldwide. Easily address the question of “where?” and convert data precisely for your needs. Build your own custom workflows that improve data accessibility and solve compatibility issues, without needing to code anything.

In cases where your content is quite specific, your page title may say all that needs to be said.

For example:

Convert DWG to SHP

Body

The rest of your content should provide details and supporting points regarding your main message. Before writing these details, think about what the purpose or goal of your content is, who the target audience is, and where in the customer journey they are when they reach your content.

Should your content be explanatory? Is it meant to convince readers to buy? Asking yourself these questions ensures that your content stays focused and concise.

These considerations will help you identify the tone your content should use.

The body of your content is where you may use different styles for displaying your content.

If you have short points to make, perhaps a grid with icons is the best type of display.

This can also help readers quickly scan your key points.

If you do this, try to make sure each point is approximately the same length as the other.

Both content and visual consistency are important on safe.com!

Alternatively, if you have a longer story to tell, then alternating sections with a relevant image or video may be a better display choice. For example, when you’re explaining how a customer was able to solve a specific data issue with FME.

Or, maybe you’re trying to describe the product. In this case, supporting imagery may say more than your words can.

Conclusion

Our pages shouldn’t end with a direct conclusion. They ultimately should try and lead the reader to a new part of safe.com where they can discover more information that is relevant to them. Most of our pages will end with a single call to action (CTA) or a list of related resources for this reason.

It’s important to remember that readers may not make it through the full page before wanting to leave your page (don’t worry — it’s normal). Make sure to include CTAs throughout your content so readers will always have an opportunity to be directed to other content and resources.

Page and Content Length

The amount of content you create for a page will depend on the purpose of the page. With safe.com, our ultimate goal is to provide the necessary information to help a reader. We avoid adding unrelated content in an attempt to lengthen a page.

If you want to write a longer page, perhaps for SEO purposes, think carefully and creatively about what additional information may help the reader. Perhaps providing examples or customer stories as proof-of-concept will both lengthen your page, while proving to a reader what’s possible with FME.

If you find that your content is getting too long or is branching out to cover too many topics, consider splitting your content into two or more pages. While long pages may help with SEO, we don’t want our readers to experience “information overload”. Splitting content may also allow you to dive deeper into a specific topic.

Overall, it’s about finding a balance. There is no exact right or wrong way to write content for a web page. While our pages need to be found easily in search engines, they also need to provide value to our readers in an effective way.

Visual Structure

While what your content says is the most important thing about writing, how your content appears at first glance is important, too. Being able to visually scan a page and get a sense of what it’s about quickly is something we all value and appreciate.

Here are some ways to help make content more visually appealing:

• Divide it up. Shorten your sentences and start new paragraphs instead of trying to put everything together. This helps both page visitors who are reading and visitors who are just skimming.
• Add relevant images and videos. Different media can help make a web page a bit more interesting while also offering a different method for sharing information. For example, when buying a product, seeing what you’re actually purchasing is important. Images and videos may also be useful when showing an output, or comparing data before and after a conversion or transformation.
• Stick to the design guide. The Visual Language guide for safe.com should always be followed. Not just for consistency across the website, but also because it follows the best practices of UX. Don’t take font styling or type into your own hands.

Writing About…

FME

When people first learn about FME, they’re often a bit unsure about what the product does. This means a reader may be experiencing feelings of confusion or may be overwhelmed by the new technical jargon. It’s our job to help ease these readers into the world of FME.

Here’s what you can do to make writing (and reading) content about FME easy:

• Stick to the FME Platform messaging guide. “Connect, transform, automate” are the key terms used to describe FME. Read through and pull from the messaging guide (accessible in the Product Marketing section of Safe Source) where you can when writing about FME to ensure content on the website aligns with other marketing content.
• Talk to an expert! FME can do a lot of different things, and knowing everything and all their details is near impossible. Connect with a technical expert to ask questions or to get feedback on your content to guarantee technical accuracy.

Some extra rules on phrasing and capitalization that are important to follow include:

• When referencing FME as a platform, just use “FME”. If you feel that your content needs added clarity, you can use “the FME Platform”, but opt for just “FME” as much as possible.
• When referencing a specific FME product, continue to use its full name when referring to it (not just when it’s first mentioned)

Safe Software

When writing about who we are as a company, feel free to have fun with what you say. This is where we can show off our personality and quirks. We don’t want readers to just see Safe as a tech company as we are truly so much more than that.

Here are a few tips for writing about Safe Software:

• When writing about the company, feel free to use the pronouns “we”, “us”, or “our”
• We often refer to staff members as “Safers”
• Using puns is kind of our thing, but try not to make them too obscure
• When first referencing the company in text, use “Safe Software”. Afterwards, you may reference the company as just “Safe” if you’d like (eg. Safe Software is a leader in the world of data integration. Here at Safe we…”)

Data Topics

There are many data integration challenges that FME can solve, and it isn’t always easy to write about everything FME can do.

If you’re writing about a specific data topic, the most important thing to do first is research. Learn more about what terms and jargon are commonly used when speaking about your topic. “Learning the language” of a topic is a simple way to make sure that your page is unique and serves a specific purpose.

Acronyms are a common occurrence when writing about data. For high level content, data acronyms can be used without explanation. For specific, detailed content, a data acronyms meaning should be defined the first time it’s used. See Acronyms for more information.

Check out Product Marketing’s Shared Folder, specifically the GoToMarket and Messaging Guides subfolder, for more information about specific data topics. If you have additional questions, contact a Product Marketing team member.

Grammar & Mechanics

Grammar describes the more technical aspects of writing. It’s important for all Safers who are writing content to be familiar with the Grammar & Mechanics rules we follow to ensure consistency across all platforms.

In addition to following this guide, it is a good idea to use tools like Grammarly while you’re writing. Ask your supervisor about obtaining a license.

Acronyms

Acronyms are commonly used when writing about FME and other data topics.

General Topics

When writing high-level that’s intended for a general audience, you don’t need to outline what an acronym stands for. High-level content should be as concise as possible. Outlining what acronyms stand for in this context will take away from the purpose of the content. Instead, use in-text linking on the acronym so a reader can learn more if they desire.

Specific Topics

If writing about a specific topic where your goal is to provide in-depth details, define the acronym the first time you use it. When doing so, use the full phrase with the (acronym in parentheses). If you happen to use the acronym again within the same page or piece of content, only use the acronym without the full definition. If the acronym is a data format like KML or DWG, the (meaning of the abbreviation) should go in the parentheses.

Ensure that all letters of an acronym are capitalized. Do not separate letters with a period unless the acronym is a company or product that styles their name that way.

High-level

Specific

Adjectives & Adverbs

Adjectives and adverbs are often used with the intention of making content more interesting. Usually, however, they do just the opposite. Here are some quotes that have been said about the use of adjectives and adverbs:

• “The road to hell is paved with adverbs.” - Stephen King
• “If you are using an adverb, you have got the verb wrong.” - Kingsley Amis
• “Adjectives are the sugar of literature and adverbs the salt.” - Henry James

The consensus: adjectives and adverbs should be used sparingly, if at all.

Instead of using adjectives and adverbs, aim to be as specific as possible in your writing. You can do this by using supporting data to back your arguments rather than using vague buzzwords or overused descriptors. Some common adjectives and adverbs to look out for include:

Capitalization

Title Case

Title case should be used for headings, sub-headings, column headers, and button text.

Capitalize all words except for:

• Conjunctions (and, or, but, nor, yet, so, for)
• Articles (a, an, the)
• Prepositions (in, to, of, at, by, up, for, off, on)

Sentence Case

Sentence case should be used for body text, captions, and error messages.

Only capitalize the first letter of the first word in a phrase or sentence. Also properly capitalize proper nouns like names, places, or products. If mentioning a product, double-check that you are casing, spacing, and spelling the product name correctly.

FME & Safe Software

Here are some FME and Safe Software related capitalization rules to follow:

• FME should always be capitalized, along with the first letter of FME products (FME Form, FME Flow, FME Flow Hosted, FME AR, FME Data Express)
• FME specific features to capitalize include:
  • Navigation
  • Transformer Gallery
  • Visual Preview
  • Data Inspector
  • Quick-Add

  • FME Workbench
  • Automations
  • Schedules
  • Jobs
  • FME Flow Apps
• Any references to resources that aren’t uniquely named for FME or Safe Software should not be capitalized, such as live chat or blog.
• When referring to safe.com, do not capitalize any letters (“https://” and “www.” should also not be included).
• When referring to partners, “partners” should be lowercase unless used in the phrases “Safe Partner” or “Safe Software Partner” or “Authorized Partner”.

Header

Sentences

Dates & Times

Date

• Type out the full name of the month when possible. If constrained for space, you may use the 3-letter abbreviation for that month.
• Format the date as “Month ##, Year”.
• Don’t use ordinal indicators like st, nd, or th on dates.

Time

• Use the 12-hour clock and am or pm to indicate time. Include a space between the time and am or pm.

• Indicate the time zone when referencing a time that applies to a global audience (eg. when a contest closes, or when our experts will be available on live chat).

  • Use PST/PDT unless the time being referenced only affects a certain region. In that case, use the time zone of that region (eg. ECT or ACT).
  • Consider adding an additional common time zone for extra clarity, especially if the information you’re providing is targeting a global audience (PST is useful for North Americans, while CET would be useful for Europeans).
• A time zone is not needed if the time indicated is specific to a location (eg. an event schedule).
• If referencing a time range, use an en-dash instead of the word “to”

If using both date and time, separate them with the word “at” or “from”.

Eg. July 4, 2020 at 8:30 am
July 4, 2020 from 9:00 am – 12:30 pm

Emphasizing Words

Styling words with emphasis can be an effective way to draw attention to important points in your content. It’s also a good way to make skimming a web page easy. Words on safe.com are emphasized by:

• Bolding words
• In-text linking

Rule 1: In-text linking is the most important way words can be emphasized because they encourage users to visit other safe.com pages. Therefore, before bolding your content, it’s important to first identify where links should be added in text.

Rule 2: Use bolded words sparingly. Try to only bold one word or phrase per paragraph. If there is an in-text link being used in a paragraph, it may be best to not bold anything at all. Only bold 1-3 words at a time.

Rule 3: Never use more than one emphasis type on the same words. An in-text link should never be bolded.

Examples

When using examples in your content, you can:

• Use phrases like “for example”
• Use the abbreviation “eg.” in (parentheses)

Lists

Lists are a great way to state key points quickly and concisely. Here are some rules we follow for writing lists:

• Use no more than 2 levels of indentation (try to stick to 1 as much as possible).
• Introduce lists with a lead-in sentence that ends with a colon.
• Try to be consistent with how each bullet point is phrased when possible. For example, beginning each point with a verb.
• Use sentence-style capitalization for each point.
• If one point ends with a period, all bullet points should end in a period. If periods aren’t necessary, they don’t need to be included.

There are two kinds of lists you can use:

• Bulleted - use bullets when items are related, but sequence doesn’t matter, such as when writing product features

1. Numbered - use a numbered list when sequence matters, such as when writing instructions.

Numbers

Use numerals to represent numbers rather than spelling out the number in titles, headings, and buttons. Numerals are easily noticed and understood by the reader and can help them understand your content faster (especially if they are skimming through your content).

For body content or other content written in sentence case, stick to the rule of spelling out the numbers 1-9 and using numerals for any number that is 10 or higher.

Use commas every 3 numerals when writing numbers that are 4 or more digits long.

Places

Countries

Many countries follow different naming conventions and there is no single rule or standard for how to refer to all nations. Some conventions to be aware of include:

• The United States of America (the USA), the United States (the US), the States, or America. We most often use “the United States (the US)”.
• Using “the” before a nation name in sentences (eg. “the Philippines”, “the Czech Republic”).
• Britain vs. United Kingdom vs. the countries within the UK. Use the specific country name rather than just “UK” or “United Kingdom” (England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland).

If you are unsure about spelling or phrasing, it is always best to do a quick search online to verify naming conventions.

Cities

When referencing a city directly, the city name should be followed by the state (if it’s in the United States) or country. However, if multiple cities are being referenced as a list in a sentence, country or states names are not required.

If you have a list of cities from around the world, follow the pattern of “City, Country” for all locations, no matter if they are in the USA, Canada, or any other country.

Punctuation

Other Symbology

Make sure to use the proper accents where applicable. Particularly with names. We work with many customers across the globe, and it’s important that we use their names correctly (eg. Aurélien Quiblier, TrønderEnergi Nett AS, Iñaki Diaz de Cerio)

Spelling

When it comes to spelling, we opt for using Canadian rules with some exceptions. Being “the Canadian data integration platform” is a part of our brand, and we help to emphasize this in our spelling. Spelling rules to follow include:

Exceptions:

• License - We have many free licenses available and use “s” in license
• Neighbor - In FME Form, we use the American version of neighbor (no “u”)
• Dialog - In FME Form, there is a dialog window (“og” not “ogue”)

If you are ever unsure about how to spell something, always double check. This is especially important when referencing a company or their product.

Users

When we speak about FME users, we should call them just that — FME users. FME has often been used as a description or as a verb (eg. FME-er or FMEing), however FME should be kept as-is without any additional suffixes for consistency. Suffixes on “FME” are colloquial and may not be understood by those who aren’t as familiar with the English language.

“FME user(s)” should be used when speaking about a broad audience. However, as much as possible content should be direct and use “you” so the reader feels like they are being spoken to directly.

Word Choice

Filler Words

Writing often contains filler words. This is largely due to the fact that we don’t typically speak as concisely as we write. We want our content to be as concise and clear as possible and filler words make that difficult. Here is a list of filler words to watch out for:

Redundant Phrases

Similar to filler words, phrases can often be lengthier than necessary. Here are some examples of redundant phrases and how you may shorten them to keep your writing clear and concise: