Digital style guide

Dates

Always follow this format for dates

✔ Thursday 7 November 2017

✔ 7 November 2017

Always include the year

❌ Thursday 7 November

When space is an issue, you can use the shortened version of months

✔ 7 Nov 2017

Use 'to' in date ranges

✔ 2011 to 2012

❌ 2011-2012

Use ‘/’ for financial years and school years

✔ We spent a lot of money in 2017/18.

When referring to today, include the date

✔ The minister announced today (14 June 2012) that…

Do not use an apostrophe for decades

✔ He grew up in the 60s.

❌ He grew up in the 60’s.

Measurements

Use metric measurements but add imperial in brackets where this is helpful

✔ The distance was 16km (10 miles).

Use the abbreviated form for common units of measure

✔ The hospital is 5km further out.

Spell out less common units of measure and give the abbreviation in brackets at first mention

✔ The car sped by at 120 kilometres per hour (kph). The speed limit was 60kph.

Do not use a space between the numeral and the abbreviated unit of measure

✔ It weighs 3500kg.

❌ It weighs 3500 kg.

Always spell out miles, inches, hectares and acres

Use sq ft, sq metres, sq miles, sq kilometres for areas

Money

Use the £ symbol

✔ £75

Only use decimals if pence are included

✔ £75.50

✔ £75

❌ £75.00

Write out penny and pence in full

✔ Calls used to cost 1 penny but are now 4 pence.

Do not use £0.xx million for amounts less than £1 million

✔ £400,000

❌ £0.4 million

✔ £1.4 million

Do not abbreviate ‘million’

✔ They spent £4 million.

❌ They spent £4m.

Do not abbreviate ‘billion’

✔ This cost £1.4 billion.

Numbers

Most of the time, use ‘one’ rather than ‘1’.

✔ We built one new school this year.

In some cases, using ‘1’ makes more sense.

✔ In step 1 of the instructions...

Spell out a number when it begins a sentence

✔ Eight people entered the building.

Write all other numbers as numerals

✔ There were 8 people in the building.

The same rules apply to ordinals

✔ First, he answered the 2nd question.

Keep expressions that normally use spelled-out numbers unchanged

✔ This started a third-party investigation.

✔ They bought a second-hand car.

For numerals over 999 use commas

✔ 3,000,000

Do not use ‘k’ to abbreviate thousands

✔ £400,000

❌ £4k

Use a 0 when there’s no digit before a decimal point

✔ 0.25

❌ .25

Write out and hyphenate fractions

✔ one-half

Use % for percentages

✔ Turnover increased by 60%.

❌ Turnover increased by 60 percent.

Use 'to' in ranges

✔ There will be 500 to 900 spectators.

Times

Use am or pm, without a space

✔ We will open at 9am.

Use a full stop to separate hours and minutes 

✔ We will close at 5.30pm.

Use ‘to’ in time ranges

✔ The surgery is open Monday to Friday, 2pm to 6pm.

Use noon and midnight, not 12am or 12pm

✔ We will take a break at noon.