Acronyms
While they may be commonplace for you and your department, acronyms can be confusing to visitors without a brief explanation of their meaning. Certainly there are acronyms that are easily recognizable, but for your department's web pages, and the acronym's initial use, you should take the time to type out the full name then enclose the acronym in parentheses. For the remainder of the page you can use the acronym without the need for an explanation.
Washington State Department of Natural Resources (DNR)
Tacoma Fire Department (TFD)
Dates
To provide proper ADA-compliance, all dates must be typed out in full using the "month date, year" format. Alternately, if you would like to list the day of the week then follow the "day, month date, year" format. Both examples are listed below for your reference.
Font Colors
There are three colors used for text and links on the website. By default, your non-linked content will be displayed using the default font color displayed in the table below. The link color is used for all links within a page that a user has not visited and visited link color refers to those links that have been visited by the user.
| Default Font |
#222222 |
|
| Linked Text |
#0A49D1
|
|
| Linked Text - Visited |
#660033 |
|
Font Family
The only acceptable font family for page content is "Tahoma, sans serif." This is the default font family when you are editing your page's content. However, if you happen to paste content from a text editor like Word, then you may inadvertently apply a different font family. To correct this, ensure that you paste your content using the
Paste Plain Text tool while editing the page.
Email
The word email should be typed as one word with no hyphen. It may be capitalized if it is the first word of a sentence.
Headings
Please refer to the
Headings page within this guide for more information on the proper way to format page headings.
Italics
Italics should only be used for titles of published works (books, magazine, comics, plays, films, etc.), scientific names, court cases, named vehicles, and the emphasis of certain words.
In my backyard there is a single Acer capillipes.
Numbers
All numbers from one through ten should be written out, except when displaying a time of day, street numbers, or dollar amount. Any number greater than ten should be displayed numerically.
If you begin a sentence with a number, then it must be written out.
Phone numbers should follow the following format, (253) 573-2506.
Ordinal numbers should be written out.
Ninety-nine percent of my time is happily spent helping you.
We are going to meet at 2 PM.
There are 15 steps to the process.
We can visit the zoo but first we have to go to the store.
Online, Offline
Both are one word with no hyphen.
Time of Day
Time of day should be typed with AM and PM in uppercase with no periods. On-the-hour times should omit the ":00."
The meeting begins at 3 PM and is supposed to end by 3:45 PM.
Website, Web Page, Web, Internet
- Website should be one word with no hyphens and lowercase unless it begins a sentence or is in a heading.
- Web page should be two separate words and lowercase unless it begins a sentence or is in a heading.
- web and internet should be be lowercase (changed 2016).
ZIP Code
ZIP Code is an acronym from the USPS that stands for
Zone Improvement Plan (ZIP) Code. ZIP must be uppercase and Code must be capitalized.
Questions
The Media and Communications Office is here to help. If at any point you need assistance with the content of your pages, feel free to contact Goldin Doles at (253) 573-2506 or via
email.