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Digital Standards

Formatting

Block quotes

Use block quotes when you want to highlight a single sentence or phrase from within the body of your writing. Block quotes use formatting to draw the reader’s attention. Use block quotes sparingly to create the biggest impact.

“We are changing the way the City website serves our residents” – Digital Transformation Team, Office of Innovation and Technology

Capitalization

Unnecessary capitalization can come off as overly formal and unapproachable. We follow these capitalization guidelines:

  • Don’t write in all capital letters. IT’S HARD TO READ AND CAN SEEM LIKE SHOUTING.

  • Don’t capitalize federal or government.

    • Working for the federal commission was very rewarding.
    • City government makes important decisions.

  • Don’t capitalize a job title unless it directly precedes a proper name.

    • Write to Chief Technical Officer, Jane Doe.
    • Write to the chief technical officer.

  • Do capitalize the word city when referring to the City of Philadelphia as an official organization.

    • The City will announce pool openings on Friday.
    • There are several City employees at the event.

  • Don’t capitalize “city” when it is used in an inclusive or general sense.

    • Philadelphia was selected as the host city for the 2016 Democratic National Convention.

  • In headlines, page titles, and subheadings, follow sentence capitalization rules.

    • How to pay your taxes

  • In titles, don’t capitalize coordinating conjunctions (for example, “and,” “but,” “or”) or prepositions with four or fewer letters.

  • Do capitalize proper nouns, even if they’re not the first word in a heading.

    • Celebrate summer in Philadelphia
    • World War II
    • Acme Explosives Company

Contractions

Use common contractions like it’s, can’t, shouldn’t, and you’ll. Contractions are part of everyday conversation, so readers find them easy to understand.

Too many uses of it is, cannot, and should not seem archaic and formal. We can move away from this without compromising our reliable and professional tone.

Emphasis

  • Bold text calls attention to key information.

  • Italics are used under specific conditions, like indicating the title of a book. Avoid using italics to emphasize an idea or to create a sarcastic tone.

  • Underlining usually indicates links online, so it should not be used for emphasis.

Links are most effective when they are specific and descriptive.

Link text

Link text should give users a clear idea of what they will find if they follow the link. Do not place an HTML link directly in the text. It’s often most helpful to place a link at the end of a sentence. Good link text is especially useful for people using screen readers, since they’ll often skip from one link to another as a way of skimming content.

No “click here”

Don’t use “click here” as the label for a link. It’s not descriptive, so it’s harder for people to find the linked content through a search engine. It’s an outdated term, since mobile devices involve tapping, not clicking.

When you create a link, think about where you are sending the user and why. Make sure that you have picked the most relevant and authoritative destination so users will get the best information available as quickly as possible. For example, if you’re citing a statement from the Department of Public Health, link to the Health statement instead of an outside news story that quotes the statement.

You should also be consistent when determining what will happen when someone follows a link. Phila.gov follows these guidelines for opening new tabs or windows in a user’s browser:

Do not set a link to open a new browser tab or window. This applies to any web page link, whether the link goes to another phila.gov page or to an external website.

If the link will begin a new process (for example, starting a registration process for a license, paying a bill, or ordering something), do set the link to open in a new tab. This allows people to complete that new process while still referencing the original page.

Indicate when linking to a website outside of phila.gov

When you are linking to a website outside of phila.gov, open the link options and select “This website is not part of phila.gov.” This will add an external link indicator so users know they’ll be going to a new website. If the link is at the end of a sentence, don’t include any punctuation in the link text. The external link indicator should appear before the punctuation.

When linking to a form or document, link to the phila.gov document page that houses that form, not the form itself. Document pages provide important context for files and group related forms together. Plus, a link to a document page won’t break if the file is updated.

Include (PDF) in the link text if you must link directly to a PDF

Occasionally, you may need to link directly to a PDF instead of a document page. In these cases, include (PDF) at the end of the link text. This way, the user will know that the link will download or open a file, instead of taking them to another web page. If the PDF is hosted on another website, remember to include the external link indicator.

Because we use a .gov domain, it is important not to imply that the City endorses or favors any specific private-sector supplier. To avoid this perception, ensure that links to third parties meet a clear user need. Never include a link in return for cash or services. This includes requests for reciprocal linking.

Excessive linking can be confusing and overwhelming. If a resource, topic, or organization is referenced multiple times on one page you only need to link to it the first time. For example, if you refer to the Office of Property Assessment three times in a content item, link to it the first time but not the second or third times.

Lists

The first word of every list item should be capitalized.

There are two types of lists: bulleted and numbered. Bulleted lists are also called unordered lists online, while numbered lists are called ordered. Only use an ordered list if the order or number of items matters, as in a list of steps.

Bulleted/unordered lists

Most lists should be unordered.

At the end of each bulleted list item, only include a period if the item completes the sentence following the introductory phrase.

  • When you go to the store, please buy:
    • Bread
    • Milk
    • Apples.

Numbered/ordered lists

Only use an ordered list if the order or number of items matters, as in a list of steps.

Plurals of lowercase letters

  • Use apostrophe + s to form plurals of lowercase letters.

    • Don’t forget to dot your i’s.

  • Use + s to form plurals of uppercase letters, numbers, and symbols. You don’t need an apostrophe for those.

    • Don’t forget to cross your Ts.

PDFs

Usability expert Jakob Nielsen explains that PDFs are good for distributing documents and forms that need to be printed. However, PDFs have several limitations.

PDFs are:

  • Hard to read on computer and mobile screens.

  • Not always accessible to people with disabilities.

  • Not easily shared on social media.

  • Often presented without context. It may not be clear who provided a PDF or whether it is the most current version.

For these reasons, avoid using PDFs for content you want people to read online.

White space

Whenever possible, use lots of white space. White space makes it easier to read a page.

White space, or negative space, refers to the unmarked parts of a page. This includes the space between lines, columns, and images.

Break up walls of text. Keep paragraphs at four sentences or less to ensure sufficient white space.

Common usage Punctuation