Active voice makes content clear by indicating who or what performs the action, even when the subject is implied. Minimize passive voice in your writing.

Review the following table for examples rewritten to use active voice:

Do this	Don't do this
Select Print to print the document.	When the Print button is selected, the document is printed.
The forwarder sends data to the receiver.	Data is sent to the receiver.

When is it okay to use passive voice?

Write in passive voice carefully and sparingly. The following examples describe situations where you might choose to use passive voice instead of active voice:

• When you want to avoid placing blame on the user, such as in an error message.
• When defining the actor in the sentence is irrelevant or awkward.