Describing the content supports readers to determine if a document is relevant for them without starting to read the document. There are two kinds of descriptions:

• Short description: typically one to three sentences long, plain text
• Description: any length and employing any structure and graphics that fit

Short descriptions are used to provide additional information in dynamic lists and in search results. In case that the title of a document is not enough to understand the contents of a document, the short description is quite handy. Since this information is displayed in the context of other documents and their titles and short descriptions, this information should be similar worded and structured.

Descriptions are typically rendered on top of documents. They describe what the document is all about. This is not the same as a summary which should support readers to get the most relevant facts or to help them reminding the contents of the document. Although the descriptions may also be displayed in the context of other documents, it poses no restriction on its contents, structure and layout options.