The aim of the template is to ensure consistency of style and formatting across all PDFs which UKHSA publishes.
PHE Publishing checks all documents comply with guidelines and requirements in the following areas:
- Formatting - complies with the layout, colours and formatting of key elements, for example, page margins, font, headings and bullet points.
- Text and style - complies with Government Digital Service style guidelines
- Visual elements - graphs, infographics and other visual elements comply with accessibility best practice
- Tables - we have adopted a standardised approach to tables to ensure they are as simple and clear as possible and correctly tagged for accessibility
Formatting
Use the headings
Text and GDS style
We are mandate to conform to GDS style guidelines of plain and accessible English. In practice this means we check all texts for:
How to use the template
Going through the template in order:
Style menu
To access the style menu, go to the Home tab, go along to the Styles grouping, and at the bottom right there is a small arrow. Click this to open the Styles menu. These are the styles you are mandated to use. To apply them, highlight the text you want to apply a style to, then select the appropriate styling from this list, for example Body copy or heading 3.
Tip: A
Title page
Use the main, secondary and subtitle styles as
Contents
When the document is finished, click the line below to activate the table of contents.
Remove the title and contents entries.
If you need to edit it, right click the table, select ‘Update field’ then ‘Update page numbers only’, unless you need to completely rebuild it, in which case select ‘Upate entire table’.
Chapter heading
Text should be Arial 12pt (as here) and can be accessed from the style panel as ‘body copy’.
Left margin 1.5cm, right margin 18cm.
Secondary Heading/s?
Bullet points
Bullet points should:
- Have a lead-in line ending in a colon, followed by a line space
- no intial capital (unless Proper Noun)
- no end punctuation
- be used for short clauses, not sentences or paragraphs
Table format
Light grey to indicate header row.
Header row text in bold.
Header row tagged by going to Layout > Repeat header rows.
Text left aligned. Data right aligned (use the Alignment buttons under the Layout tab).
Arial 12pt | Arial 12pt | Arial 12pt | Arial 12pt | Arial 12pt |
Alpha | 123 | ABC | ABC | 123 |
Beta | ABC | 123 | ABC | ABC |
Gamma | ABC | ABC | 123 | ABC |
Accessible graphs
Do not rely on colour alone to convey information.
Check coloured elements are distinguishable in black and white, using the online black and white tool (cut and paste your graph into the example space then select Monochromacy radio button).
- Instead of colour, line graphs can use markers or dots and dashes to distinguish lines.
- Bar charts are best using shades of one colour. Shades of blue are optimal.
To be optimal size and allow all text to be 12 point, graphs are often best on landscape pages.
Note, creating landscape pages often knocks the page numbers out. If your new landscape page number is 2, highlight it, right click it, select ‘Format page numbers’ and then ‘Continue from previous section’ to restore its place in the sequence of page numbers.
References
All links must be embedded in relevant title or text. Use plain English, ‘and others’ instead of ‘et al’. Spell out journal names in full. No full stop at end of reference.
- Public Health England. ‘COVID-19: vaccine surveillance strategy 2021’
- Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency. ‘Coronavirus vaccine – weekly summary of Yellow Card reporting 2021’
- Lopez Bernal J, Andrews N, Gower C, Robertson C, Stowe J, Tessier E and others. ‘Effectiveness of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Oxford-AstraZeneca vaccines on covid-19 related symptoms, hospital admissions, and mortality in older adults in England: test negative case-control study’. British Medical Journal. 2021;373:n1088
- Public Health England. ‘Public Health England vaccine effectiveness report – March 2021: Public Health England; 2021’
- Pritchard E, Matthews PC, Stoesser N, Eyre DW, Gethings O, Vihta K-D and others. ‘Impact of vaccination on SARS-CoV-2 cases in the community: a population-based study using the UK’s COVID-19 Infection Survey’. medRxiv. 2021:2021.04.22.21255913
- Public Health England. ‘Public Health England COVID-19 vaccine surveillance report: 20 May 2021(week 20)’ Public Health England; 2021