Third party wrapper guidance

Presenting content

Fonts

All text should be in Arial using the styles supplied where possible and appropriate.

Presenting content

We split content into bite-sized chunks, use plenty of headings and white space and avoid lengthy pages.

We use bullet points to make it easier to understand content. We avoid:

  • italics
  • too much use of bold in sentences
  • USING CAPITAL LETTERS – this means we are SHOUTING AT OUR CUSTOMERS

Bullet points

Use bullet points to make text easier to read:

  • always use a lead-in sentence
  • bullets should always make sense running on from the lead-in sentence
  • use lower case at the start of the bullet
  • don’t use full stops within bullet points – where possible start another bullet point or use commas, dashes or semicolons to expand on an item
  • don’t put ‘or’, ‘and’ after the bullets
  • there should be no full stop after a bullet point
  • don’t use numbered bullets unless it is process – there is a steps format for you to use
  • use links in bullets (including downloads) if necessary

Capitalisation

DON’T USE BLOCK CAPITALS FOR TEXT AS IT’S HARD TO READ.

Lower case is preferable but use capitalisation for:

  • proper nouns, like Monday and Biggleswade (but note that seasons don’t need capitals)
  • referring to particular departments such as Customer Services, buildings or individual people: ‘Councillor Ann Smith, Chairman of the Council’ or ‘Richard Carr, Chief Executive’
  • use lower case when talking in general terms about ‘housing officers’ or ‘environmental health officers’
  • use upper case for Council when referring to the councillor decision making body, ‘the Council met to set the budget’, but at all other times use lower case, ‘if you want to speak to a council officer’
  • titles of specific policies, acts or bills, e.g. Local Development Framework, Welfare Reform Act 2012, Housing Reform Bill (but use ‘the policy’, ‘the act’ or ‘the bill’ after the first time you use the full act or bill title)

Headings and titles

Cap up the first letter of the first word. Then, use lower case e.g.

View and comment on planning applications

not

View And Comment On Planning Applications

Use upper case for names of places and people e.g. A helping hand for people in Dunstable