Create style rules

Who has access?
- Grammarly Business admins
- Grammarly Business account managers
- Grammarly Business group managers
- Grammarly Business users (view only)

The Style Rules page of the Style Guide section allows you to create custom rules around the proper use, spelling, and formatting of specific words, terms, and phrases in order to ensure teamwide consistency. 

Topics covered in this article:

• Getting started
• How to add style rules in bulk
• Example style rules
• Can I see how often the style rules are being used?
• How can I change the style guide logo?
• Can I limit the style rules to certain websites?
• How do I come up with new style rules?
• How do I create additional style rule sets?
• What access do team members with the admin or account manager roles have?
• What access do team members with the group manager role have?
• What access do team members with the user role have?

Getting started 

1. To create style rules, go to the Style Rules page. You can add new rules one by one by clicking Add rule in the upper-right corner of the page or upload several rules at once by clicking Import list:
   
   
2. To get a better understanding of how it works, we suggest you start by clicking Add rule. Here you will see the three parts that make up a rule:
   • Original text - an incorrectly spelled word or phrase that you’d like to change (Tip: you can press Tab to enter several instances).
   • Rule - a substitute for the original text. Leave this field empty if there is no substitute for the original text.
   • Explanation - some context for your team to understand the suggestion.
     
     
3. Once the necessary fields are filled out, click Save to add the new rule to your style rule set.
   
4. That’s it! Your team members will now see suggestions from the style rule set as they type:
   
   

Note: Style rule suggestions are not available in the Grammarly Keyboard at this time.

 

How to add style rules in bulk

You can upload style rules as a CSV or Excel file by following these steps:

1. Go to the Style Rules page, click Import list in the upper-right corner of the page, and click Download CSV:
   
   
2. Open the downloaded file and add your style rules to it. It is important to keep the original formatting of the file intact.
3. Go back to the previous window and click Next.
4. Click Choose file and select the file with your style rules.
5. Click Import rules.

Note: If you’re having trouble uploading the file, please make sure that it does not contain non-English characters and try again.

 

Example style rules

These are some example categories of style rules:

Product or company names

Original text	Change to	Explanation of the rule
Acmeco	AcmeCo	This is the preferred spelling of our company name.

Always capitalized (or lowercase) terms

Artificial Intelligence

artificial intelligence

If you spell out artificial intelligence, don’t capitalize the a and i.

Abbreviations

ML	machine learning	Always spell out machine learning.
&	and	Always spell out and.
BTW, btw	by the way	Avoid using abbreviations in correspondence with the clients

Jargon to avoid

synergy, synergies

This term doesn’t resonate with customers. Avoid in public-facing material.

Terms with specific uses

smartphone, smartphones

Use “smartphone” only when talking about phones specifically. When talking about phones and tablets, use “mobile device.”

Preferred terminology

employee	team member	“Team member” is our preferred term
employees	team members	“Team member” is our preferred term

Can I see how often the style rules are being used?

To check the number of times each style rule was viewed, accepted, and dismissed, go to the Style Rules page and click on any rule. These metrics are also shown under the Viewed and Accepted columns on the style rule set page.

How can I change the style guide logo?

The style guide logo appears on the suggestion cards from all style rule sets. To upload your custom image, go to the Style Rules page and click on the logo next to Style Rule Sets:

 

Can I limit the style rules to certain websites?

You can specify a list of URLs where you’d like the style rule suggestions to appear. You may find this useful if your style rules are geared toward external communication (for example, writing publicly on Twitter) but less important for internal communication (for example, Slack messages).

To create an allowed list, go to the Style Rules page, click on the three dots in the upper-right corner of the page, and choose Settings:

Under the Show suggestions for this rule set on: section, add the URLs of the websites where you would like your style rule suggestions to appear and confirm the selection by clicking Save. On all other websites, style rule suggestions will be hidden unless the user clicks the Grammarly widget in the lower-right corner of the text field.

Formatting tips:

• google.com (no “www”): Use this format to include all associated URLs, including www.google.com, mail.google.com, docs.google.com, etc.
• docs.google.com: Use this format to include only the page found at a specific URL.

 

How do I come up with new style rules?

• Take a moment to brainstorm some common writing issues among your team members. These might include customer or product names that are often miswritten, special terms that get used incorrectly, or words that your company prefers not to use.
• When you specify the original text, consider adding a few versions of it if your team tends to miswrite it in different ways.
• When setting up a new style rule, be sure to account for all forms of the word or phrase, including plurals and different tenses.
• As you and your team begin interacting with the suggestions generated by your style rules, you’ll likely want to make adjustments. You can change, add, or delete a style rule at any time.
  

 

How do I create additional style rule sets?

To create additional style rule sets, follow these steps:

1. Go to the Style Rules page, click on the three dots in the upper-right corner of the page, and select Create Rule Set.
2. In the window that appears, insert the style guide name, assign it to the whole team or a group of users, and click Save:

For more information on how to use multiple style rule sets, please see this detailed guide.

 

What access do team members with the admin or account manager roles have?

Team members with the admin or account manager roles have editing permissions for all style rules functionality: they can create, edit, or remove style rules assigned to the whole organization, or to specific groups. They can also see statistics associated with any existing style rule.

 

What access do team members with the group manager permissions have?

Team members with the group manager permissions can create and edit only the style rule sets assigned to the user group they have permissions to manage. Group managers can view the style rules assigned to other groups or to the whole organization but can’t make any changes to them. They also won’t see any statistics associated with the style rules that are not applicable to their groups. Group managers can duplicate any existing style rule set. However, it can be assigned only to the user group they have permissions to manage.

Note: The group manager permissions are available only to Grammarly Business customers on the Enterprise Tier.

 

What access do team members with the user role have?

Team members with the user role can view the style rules assigned to them but can’t make any changes. They also won’t see any statistics associated with the style rules.