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Online Style Guide

To make all of our pages consistent in style and navigation, we follow the following rules:

General

• Never use ALL CAPS for emphasis- Convert to upper and lower case letters
  • If the text is in a paragraph for emphasis, bold it.
  • If the text is a heading, use the appropriate heading tag.
• Never use the <u> tag as this could be confused with a hyperlink
  • If the text is underlined because it is the name of a book, etc, italicize it. (exception: when demonstrating proper bibliographic format, as the HUA department does)
  • If the text is underlined because it is a heading, use the appropriate heading tag.
• When entering copy, always use "web site" not "website", "e-mail" not "email", and "homepage" not "home page".

See also: Editorial Style Manual for Writers

Links

• Don't print a URL on a page. Always find the title of the page it links to and use that for the linking text.
• mailto links: The text of the link should be the person's e-mail address. Do not use a mailto link around someone's name. Otherwise, if people print out the page, they will not know the person's e-mail address.
• People's names: If you wish to link someone's name, it should point to that person's personal or professional homepage.
• Click Here: Do not use the words "click here" for links. For handicap accessibility, links should be understandable out of context. Instead, rephrase the text so that you can link text describing what the person will get when they follow the link.
• Anchor links: Do not use links to text on the same page in a sidebar menu. All links in a group should work consistently.
• Links to download files: Use the <small> tag to let the user know what kind of file they will be downloading and how large it is. i.e. (100K PDF file)
• Links off-site: Links going to sites outside the wpi.edu domain should open in a new window. To do this add target="_blank" to the href.

Bottom Navigation Buttons

• If the page is a third level page or deeper, or part of a linear series of pages such as a photo album, add a back button using <!--#set var="back" value="Appropriate URL Here"--> before calling the header file. Only use a back button if the button would not duplicate the destination of another bottom navigation button (such as the home or table of contents button).
• If the page is part of a linear series of pages such as a photo album, add a forward button using <!--#set var="forward" value="Appropriate URL Here"--> before calling the header file.
• If the page is part of an online booklet, add a table of contents button using <!--#set var="toc" value="Appropriate URL Here"--> before calling the header file.
• If the page is long, add a top button using <!--#set var="top" value="y"--> before calling the header file.
• If the page is the homepage of a site, use <!--#set var="homepage" value="y"--> before calling the header file so it does not add a home button.

Maintained by webmaster@wpi.edu
Last modified: Feb 03, 2005, 16:34 EST

Web Development Office - Worcester Polytechnic Institute
100 Institute Road, Worcester, MA 01609-2280
Phone: +1-508-831-5963 - Fax: +1-508-831-5320 - webmaster@wpi.edu