A consistent whitepaper is one that instills confidence in end users. It all starts with a template. It doesn’t matter if you are creating a book, a help file, or a website. A template is essential.

Once you have your template designed and under control, you must follow a style guide to create a complete and consistent document.

Here are some helpful tips:

Start all your ordered (numbered) and unordered lists with an action verb. “Enter your password” is better than “The system will ask you to enter your password. Please do so.”

A large number of user actions in software documentation target a user who clicks a button to display a certain screen. Follow the same pattern using the same type of compound sentence to describe those two related actions.

For example: “Click the Next button to display the configuration screen.”

You can also use the same first-this-followed-by-that pattern within a hardware context:

Other: “Measure the voltage before connecting wires to ensure safety.”

Decide whether you want to use “check box” or “check box” and stick with it. Don’t switch back and forth between those two uses.

The same goes for the “drop down box” and the “drop down box” or the “drop down list”.

Table titles generally precede tables, while figure titles follow figures. Make sure you are consistent with how you use table titles and figure titles.

There are no absolute and stylistic hits or misses in this business and there is no such thing as “too much” consistency when it comes to technical writing. Most importantly, make a number of formatting and style decisions and stick to them.