This is a list of elements which the Gateway team check and, if necessary, correct on every Word document submitted for publication as a PDF to the PHE website.
Accessible graphs and visual elements
- The key information contained in visual elements – graphs, graphics, infographics and flow charts – must be summarised in the text.
- Do not rely on colour to convey information. The important visual information must be understandable in black and white before you add colour. Paste graphs into the Colblindor website to check. ‘Get it right in black and white’.
- If using coloured text or text on a coloured background, it must comply with WCAG colour contrast requirements.
Acronyms
Spell out all acronyms on their first appearance, including PHE which must be referred to on its first appearance as 'Public Health England (PHE)'.
The first use of 'COVID-19' in every document should spell it out before the acronym, thus: 'coronavirus (COVID-19)'
Alt text
Government Digital Service advice on alt text is:
Describe what’s happening in the image in the body text and leave the ‘Alt text’ field empty. In the context of PHE content, 'image' can be taken to mean graphs, maps and any other visual element.
If a good description of the graph or map is in the main body text, then adding it to alt text would only result in duplication and ‘auditory clutter’ for screen reader users.
Avoid abbreviations
Spell out e.g. as ‘for example,’ (unless space constraints, in which case write ‘eg’)
Spell out i.e. as ‘that is,’ (unless space constraints, in which case write ‘ie’)
Spell out ‘etc’ as ‘and so on’.
No ampersands. Spell out ‘&’ as ‘and’.
Body copy
For normal text use ‘Body Copy’ in the new template and ‘PHE Body Copy’ in the old template.
Body copy should be Arial 12 point with line spacing set to ‘At last 16 pt’.
Use a single space after full stops, not double space.
All text left justified, no indents for new paragraphs.
Bold and italics
No italics except for scientific names (eg E.coli).
Do not use italics for quotations, footnotes or any other purpose.
Italicised species names are allowed in document titles and headings.
Avoid bold, although it can be used sparingly for emphasis.
Do not use bold to create headings, use the correct heading style.
Bullet points
All sets of bullet points must be introduced by a lead-in line which is the first half of a sentence, so that each bullet point completes the lead-in sentence. Any bullet longer than a sentence is a text paragraph. Sets of bullet-pointed paragraphs will be changed into freestanding text paragraphs. Ensure that:
- there is a 1-line space between the lead-in sentence and the first bullet point
- all bullet points start with lower case letters and have no punctuation at the end
- the bullets are left justified ie not indented
Capitals
Never capitalise whole words for emphasis. Capitalised words can be mistaken for acronyms, a sequence of capitalised words is difficult to read.
If emphasis is absolutely necessary, use bold (sparingly).
COVID-19
COVID-19 is an abbreviation.
- It must always be spelt in capitals.
- The first use of 'COVID-19' in every document should spell out the word 'coronavirus' before giving the acronym, thus: 'coronavirus (COVID-19)'
Government Digital Service has a style guide devoted entirely to COVID-related content.
Dates
23 March not ‘23rd of March’.
Forward slashes must not be used in dates. So:
- '2/10/19' should be written out as '2 October 2019'
- similarly, year periods must not use forward slashes but use the word 'to': thus 2019/20 must be written out as '2019 to 2020'
Flow charts
Flow charts need a text alternative. A simple summary, or pointing to the data somewhere else, isn’t enough.
PHE's Fetal anomaly screening: care pathways page has several good examples of flow charts accompanied by text alternatives.
Footnotes
Use superscript numbers1. The footnote text should be in 10 point font.
Headings
Sentence case. Remove unnecessary capital letters and ampersands. Don't end headings with a colon.
Maintain heading hierarchy: Chapter heading, heading 2, heading 3, heading 4.
Do not use bold text as a heading.
Numbers
All numbers as digits, not spelled-out, so 3 not ‘three’, except for ‘one’, which stays ‘one’ unless part of a numbered set of steps or the context demands the digit.
It is best practice not to start a sentence with a number, so this sentence - '17.0% of adults turning 70 during quarter 3 were vaccinated by the end of March 2021' - should be turned into either:
'Of adults turning 70 during quarter 3, 17% were vaccinated by the end of March 2021'
or
'Seventeen per cent of adults turning 70...' etc
Use commas with numbers in thousands: 3,778 not 3778.
Use ‘to’ rather than a hyphen to indicate duration: ‘27 to 48’ not ‘27-48’.
Replace forward slashes with ‘to’. Thus 2019/20 or 2019/20 should be ‘2019 to 2020’.
Properties/metadata (File > Advanced Properties)
Ensure that:
- The correct title is entered in the ‘Title’ field. 2.
- The ‘Author’ is always Public Health England.
- Add main subject tags with semi-colon separators into the ‘Keywords’ field.
References
We put all academic references in a numbered list at the end of the document.
We follow Government Digital Service requirements:
References should be easy to understand by anyone, not just specialists.
They should follow the style guide. When writing a reference:
- do not use italics except for binomial nomenclature (eg Shigella sonnei) but not for journal titles
- do not use bold
- use single quote marks around titles of papers
- write out abbreviations in full: 'page' not 'p.,' 'Nutrition Journal' not 'Nutr J.'
- use plain English, for example use ‘and others’ not ‘et al’
- do not use full stops after initials or at the end of the reference
If the reference is available online, make the title a link and include the date you accessed the online version thus:
Corallo AN and others. ‘A systematic review of medical practice variation in OECD countries’ Health Policy 2014: volume 114, pages 5-14 (viewed on 18 November 2014)
We number references, to help with linking to them from the main text, see next section.
Linking to references at the end of a document
References with the main text to one or more of the academic references in the numbered list of references at the end of the document should be in the following format:
- full-sized numbers
- in round brackets
- within the sentence ie not after the full stops
- with a space between the text and bracket
For example: 'Studies show that incidence of of infection are restricted to certain localities (9).'
If multiple references need to be referred to, put them in the same bracket, with commas separating them (5, 6, 7).
If a consecutive series of references is required, use the word 'to' instead of a hyphen (9 to 15) not (9-15).
Reference numbers like this, within the text, must hyperlink to the respective number in the References section, using Word's Bookmark functionality.
Running header
Use the document title or a lightly edited version, in Arial 10 pt grey, preferably on only 1 line.
Speech marks
Single speech marks for the name of a publication.
Double speech marks for direct quotations (which are never in italics).
Spellings
'Data set' and 'data sets', not 'dataset' and 'datasets'.
Government is not capitalised unless at the start of a sentence or referring to the name of a specific government, for example, the Government of Nepal.
Tables
Keep tables as simple as possible. Do not use colour. Solid margins / borders.
Format the table in ‘Layout’ > ‘Table properties’ > ‘Table’ tab, to make cell height 0.1cm and width 0.15cm.
Highlight the header row and in ‘Layout’ > ‘Table properties’ > ‘Row’ tab, tick ‘Repeat as header row at the top of each page’.
Table of contents (ToC)
In the template, right click and select ‘Update field’ to activate.
Carefully delete entries in the ToC for the document title, ‘Contents’ and ‘About PHE’.
Title page logo
The PHE royal crest is always top left of the front page, above any text line.
Never manipulate it or use it without the strapline when co-branding.
Sources
Government Digital Service style guide
Government Digital Service COVID style guide