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Introduction
The new PHE report template has been designed to meet the requirements of Accessibility legislation from 23 September 2020.
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If pasting copy from another document, select ‘Paste | Keep text only’ from the Paste Options button on the Home tab or after right-clicking.
Download the new template
Download the new template by clicking on the image below.
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The PHE ‘boilerplate’ page
This page contains standardised content about Public Health England along with contact details and so on.
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No other content should be changed on this page. The digital team will add the copyright year, month published and Gateway number.
How to open and use the Styles panel
Much of the standard Word toolbar is locked and greyed out in the template to ensure that only a limited number of pre-set PHE styles are available to format your document.
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If you're having trouble getting rid of a previous style, highlight the affected text and select Clear All at the top of the list, which should remove all formatting.
Front page main title
The front page should have a clear title titled as Front page main title.
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There is also a Front page sub-title style, if a sub-title is required.
Front cover image panel
The shaded area on the cover can be used for an image providing:
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If no image is available or a cover image is not required, delete the image box by highlighting it and clicking Delete.
Table of contents
The table of contents should be the last thing you finalise in a document.
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NOTE: When you update he entire table entries might appear for Title page and Content pages, which you don't want. There is no automatic way to exclude these. You'll have to carefully highlight those lines and delete them. Carefully, because if you over-extend the highlighting and press Delete you might delete the entire table. Simply click Alt + z to restore the table and try deleting the lines again.
Add header text
Header text must be added to the document. Usually this is the title of the document or an abbreviated version of it, since best practice is to keep the header text on one line.
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- double click on the header area at the top of any page,. containing the greyed-out text reading 'Main title goes here as running header' – this makes the header section editable
- write the desired header text
- double-click anywhere on the main part of the page and the header section closes, now displaying your title – you can change it at any point be repeating these steps
Portrait and landscape orientation of pages
The template automatically generates new pages in portrait layout, but you can insert landscape pages as required. To insert a landscape page:
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- when you want to revert to Portrait layout, repeat the process and select the 'Portrait' option and 'This point forward'
Page breaks
To create a page break:
- click the cursor where you want the page to break
- go to the Insert tab in the top menu
- click the Page Break icon
Headings
We use the heading styles to give a document a logical structure which helps users of assistive technology to navigate it. Headings are pre-set in the style panel:
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- use the headings in sequence – a Heading 3 needs to be preceded by a Heading 2
- headings should be clear and concise and fit into a single line in the table of contents
- headings must be written in sentence case i.e. with the first letter of the first word in capitals and all the rest in lower case (unless they are proper names, for examples of species or organisations)
- a page break will automatically be added before each new Chapter header
- the styles are set up to create a space before and after headings or paragraphs – do not add extra paragraph returns to increase the space between headings or paragraphs
PHE style dos and don’ts
- use sentence case
- don’t manually create headers (use the preset styles)
- avoid using italics for emphasis (and only use for valid scientific terms such as scientific binomials, such as Escherichia coli)
- use single quotation marks for publication titles or hyperlinks for online publications
- do not italicise quotes – use the blockquote style for quotes longer than a few sentences
- do not use footnotes at the foot of page – incorporate footnote text into the main body of the document
PHE uses the GDS style guide with certain exemptions, for example third party content, non-branded publications and some Easy Read and translated materials.
Text boxes
Do not use manually generated text boxes. Use the style panel options:
Bullet points
Pre-set styles have been created for bullet points. Remember bullet points:
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To add bullets within bullets i.e. 2 or more sub-bullets hanging from a bullet list, use the sub bullet point styling.
Numbered bullet list
A numbered bullet list should be used when summarising the steps in a process. For example, to make a cup of tea:
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If you need to insert some text and then pick up a numbered list where you left off, create the new numbered list, then right-click it and select ‘Restart at...' or ‘Set numbering value’ and add the value you want to restart the numbers at.
Links
When creating hyperlinks:
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Alternatively, paste the destination URL into the document and click a space and the link should automatically become live.
Email addresses
To add a live email address, cut and paste the address into the template, then click the space bar. The link should automatically become live but if it doesn't, highlight the text and select Hyperlink from the Style menu.
Images, charts and other visual content
Charts and tables
Tables should only be used to present data (in effect, that means number data). Use as simple a table structure as possible.
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Read our guide to making charts and tables accessible.
Images
Images should only be used if they help to demonstrate the meaning of your content. They shouldn’t be used just for decoration.
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If an image is relevant to the text, use alt text.
Alt text
Alternative text – ‘alt text’ – must be applied to any charts, figures or images. Alt text provides a description for people who can’t see the screen and use assistive software to listen to pdfs.
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- right-click on the image
- select Edit alt text... to open the Alt Text pane on the right side of the document
- type 1 to 2 sentences to describe the image and its context to someone who cannot see it
Colour contrast
All text in the template, including that in charts and tables, should strive for the maximum contrast between the text and the background.
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The highest contrast i.e. the most readable format, is black text on a white background.
Check your document for accessibility
To check your completed PHE template document for accessibility:
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TIP: Do a quick ‘save as PDF’ test to view whether any of the content is disrupted by the conversion to PDF.
Using citation software
If you have a citation tool such as EndNote or Mendeley, the template may not accommodate the citation assembly within the doc.
If so, assemble the bibliography or references ‘offline’ and then import into the template and format appropriately.
Contact the Publications team
For all queries, contact Publications@PHE.gov.uk.
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