Guidelines for Error Messages and Other Event Messages

The guidelines presented here are intended to help developers write clearer and more useful error messages.

In particular, these guidelines have been designed to address three common problems:

• Users often misunderstand popup errors.
• Administrators cannot easily understand NT Event Log messages.
• Product support staffs receive many calls as a result of confusing error messages.

Contents

• Basic Guidelines
• Make Your Messages Searchable
• Style Considerations
• Message Length
• Dialog and Popup Message Guidelines
• Use Windows NT Event Logging
• Bad Words, Good Words, and Word Rules