Content Formatting

Capitalization

Most capitalization in the system uses sentence case. Titles, buttons, navigation etc. all use sentence case capitalization, which means only the first letter of the first word is capitalized. Always capitalize the first letter of proper nouns.

Headings and page titles use headline style, which means the first letter of each word (with the exception of and, but, the) are capitalized.

Avoid acronyms and abbreviations. Use acronyms only if the acronym is more commonly understood than the full name (e.g. NATO).

Acronyms and abbreviations should always be capitalized. Acronyms do not require a period after each letter.

Dates, Numbers and Addresses

Spell out dates in full, starting with the full month name (e.g. September 12, 2018). For timestamps on posts, dates can be spelled out (e.g. one day ago, one week ago).

Spell out numbers up to ten. Use regular digits for any other number, and round to one or two decimals depending on the unit. (e.g. 2.35).

Addresses should always start with the building number, then street name, and the street type abbreviated (e.g. 140 O'Connor St.) If an apartment or unit number is required, it should be included before the building number and use a dash in between (i.e. 6–90 Elgin St.)

In addresses, use the short form of province and territory names (e.g. ON) and spell out country names.

Time

Use the 12-hour clock (e.g. 6:00 p.m. or 3:00 a.m.). Relative time intervals can also be used (i.e. 4 minutes ago, one week ago).

Units of Measurement

Use the metric system.

Ampersands

Do not use ampersands in system messaging and text. Instead, spell out the word "and".

Commas, Ellipses, Colons

Do not use the Oxford comma. Use commas only when they improve the flow and clarity of the sentence.

Avoid ellipses, except to indicate omitted text.

Use colons to introduce lists.

Avoid dashes. It is better to break a complex sentence into two sentences.

Slashes and Hyphens

Slash marks are used to show alternatives (e.g. and/or). When joining conflicting elements, use a hyphen (e.g. designer-writer).

Bold and Italics

Bold can be used to show emphasis. In this system, bold is favoured for certain header types (see headers). Avoid italics as they can be difficult to read.

Quotation Marks

Always use quotation marks around direct quotes. Using the <q> tag, you can add curly quotation marks to the text. Curly quotation marks are better for legibility of a page.