Starting in 2010 I’m going to lay down arms and accept the media status quo–at least as tech industry spellings are concerned. At this point, I think it’s more harmful than helpful to spell those words differently, and I want articles I write for my sites to be as media friendly as possible. I’ll be following the AP‘s style, which is taken from their Stylebook (hey, shouldn’t that be style-book or Style book?!).

AP Style for Internet and Information Technology Terms

ASCII

For American Standard Code Information Interchange. Uppercase acronym.

download

One word. Also, upload.

CD-ROM

For compact disk as read-only memory. Uppercase acronym, with hyphen.

cyberspace

One word, lowercase.

database

One word.

domain name

Two words, lowercase.

dpi

For dots per inch. Lowercase acronym.

DVD

For digital video disk. Uppercase acronym.

e-mail

Lowercase, with hyphen. Also, e-book, e-business, e-commerce, e-shopping.

end user, end-user

Two words as noun, hyphenate as adjective.

FAQ

For frequently asked questions. Uppercase acronym.

freeware

One word, lowercase.

FTP

For file transfer protocol. Uppercase acronym, lowercase spelled out.

GIF

For graphics interchange format. Uppercase acronym, lowercase spelled out.

gigabyte

Abbreviate GB.

home page

Lowercase, two words.

HTML

For hypertext markup language. Uppercase acronym, lowercase in URLs. Generally spell out in sentence.

hyperlink

One word, lowercase. Also, hypertext.

Internet

Always capitalize.

intranet

No capital, one word.

IP address

For Internet protocol address. Uppercase acronym.

IT

For information technology. Uppercase acronym. Generally spell out in sentence.

Java

Capitalize. Also, Javascript.

JPEG, JPG

For joint photographics expert group. Uppercase acronym, lowercase spelled out.

kilobyte

Abbreviate KB. No space used with number, as 400KB. Also, kilobit, abbreviate Kb, or Kbps for kilobits per second.

listserv

One word, lowercase.

login, logon, logoff

Lowercase, no hyphen.

Macintosh

Capitalize. Also, Apple Macintosh, Mac.

megabyte

Abbreviate MB.

megahertz

Abbreviate MHz.

online

No hyphen.

OS

For operating system. Uppercase acronym, lowercase spelled out.

portal

Lowercase.

PDF

For portable document format. Uppercase acronym. Also, Adobe Acrobat PDF.

Pentium processor

Capitalize, with Roman numeral, as Pentium III processor. Also, Intel Pentium processor.

plug-in

Hyphenate.

RAM

For random access memory. Uppercase acronym, lowercase spelled out.

ROM

For read-only memory. Uppercase acronym, lowercase spelled out, with hyphen.

search engine

Two words, lowercase.

shareware

One word, lowercase.

URL

For Universal Resource Locator. Uppercase acronym, capitalize when spelling out.

Usenet

One word, capitalize.

Unix, UNIX

Capitalize for generic use, uppercase acronym for trade name.

World Wide Web or Web

Always capitalize.

Web site

Two words. Also, Web page, Web browser, the Web.

webmaster

One word, lowercase. Also, webcast

workstation

One word.