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Introduction

The new PHE report template has been designed to meet the requirements of Accessibility legislation from 23 September 2020.

The template has been designed to restrict the creation of non-accessible content.

The PHE Publishing team cannot accept any submissions in the previous ‘non-accessible’ PHE template after 23 September 2020. Any exception to this – such as when a report is already ‘in progress’ in the previous template – will require prior agreement with the Publishing team.

It is easier to write your document straight into the template than using a standard Word document and then copying and pasting into the template.

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. 

The PHE ‘boilerplate’ page

This page contains standardised content about Public Health England along with contact details and so on.

It has been moved to form the final page of each report (as you create pages above it, the boilerplate page will move down accordingly).

 

On this page you can:

  • add a version control reference (or delete, if not required)
  • add a 'prepared by' reference (or delete, if not required)
  • add a contact (or delete, if not required)

No other content should be changed on this page. The digital team will add the copyright year, month published and Gateway number.

Style 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.

To access the Styles menu, click on the small arrow at the bottom right of the Styles tab, or use the keyboard shortcut Ctrl+Alt+Shift+S.

This should open the Styles menu or panel. Click it at the top and drag it over to the left side of the page where it should lock into place.

Note how the styles are in alphabetical order.

To apply a style to some text - for example, to create bullet points, to make a heading 2 or 3, to apply italics or bold - highlight the relevant text and click on the appropriate style in the Styles menu.

To change a style, highlight the relevant text or paragraph and select the new style.

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.

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:

  • click the Layout tab
  • click on the small arrow in the bottom right-hand corner of the ‘Page setup’ menu to open the page setup window

  • on the Margins tab, change the orientation to landscape
  • on the ‘apply to’ dropdown menu, select ‘This point forward’

  • when you want to revert to Portrait layout, repeat and select the 'Portrait' option

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:

The cover page has 2 header levels:

  • front page main title
  • front page second level (subhead)

Within the template pages, 4 headers are available:

  • Chapter heading
  • Header 2
  • Header 3
  • Header 4

So:

  • 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
  • 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

Table of contents

The table of contents should be the last thing you finalise in a document. 

Do not manually create a table of contents. The template automatically generates a table of contents as you work through the document.

The table of contents has been set up so that any text with the style Heading 1 and Heading 2 will be automatically included in the table of contents when it is updated.

To update the table of content right-click anywhere on it to open a dialogue box and select Update field.

This opens a further dialogue box with two options:

  • if your table of contents is mostly finished and you just want to alter a few page numbers, select Update page numbers only
  • if you have made major changes to the document and, therefore, to the contents, select Update entire table

Text boxes

Don't use manually generated text boxes. Use the style panel options:

Bullet points

Pre-set styles have been created for bullet points. Remember bullet points:

  • should be introduced by a sentence ending in a colon
  • should continue the sense of the introductory sentence
  • should not have a full stop or other punctuation at the end
  • should not be a punctuated paragraph or contain more than one sentence

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:

  1. boil the kettle
  2. put the teabag in the cup
  3. pour on boiling water
  4. stir and add milk

To restart the numbering, right-click in the paragraph and select ‘Restart at 1’ or ‘Set numbering value’.

When creating hyperlinks:

  • the text containing the link should be a specific description of the destination page
  • don’t display the full URL and don’t use directional text such as ‘click here’
  • don’t link to another doc such as a PDF, link to the page it sits on
  • create your hyperlink in Word as normal and then apply Hyperlink in the style panel

Alternatively, paste the destination URL into the document and click a space and the link should automatically become live.

Email

To add a live email address, cut and paste it into the template then click the space bar. The link should become live but if it doesn't, highlight the text and select Hyperlink from the Style menu.

Front cover image panel 

The shaded area on the cover can be used for an image providing:

  • it is relevant to the subject matter or content
  • you have copyright permissions to use the image
  • it is a professional image of sufficient resolution
  • it does not display information (such as a graph or chart)
  • you do not change the dimensions or location of the image panel
  • your title is not more than 3 lines long (including subtitle)

If no image is available or a cover image is not required, delete the box.

Images, charts and other visual content

Charts and tables

Tables should only be used to present data (effectively that means number data) and use as simple a table structure as possible.

Don’t use tables for cosmetic changes to layout, for example, to present a list only because you think it looks better that way.

Consider the alternatives. A simple table can often be replaced with:

  • series of bulleted lists with headings and subheadings
  • single bulleted list, using commas to separate the information

If you do use a table, ensure it is accessible:

  • make sure it doesn’t contain split cells, merged cells, nested tables or completely blank rows or columns
  • it should have a title
  • give every column a header (screen readers use header information to identify rows and columns)
  • don’t add background colours to tables
  • if the table is from elsewhere, you should reference the source

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.

Images should only be used if they help to demonstrate the meaning of your content. They shouldn’t be used just for decoration.

You should ensure that colour is not the only means of conveying information.

Alt text

Alt text should describe what graphs or charts show and tell users where in the document they can find more information about them. It is not a replacement for a caption. Charts and tables still require a caption or title.

Alt text for charts:

  1. Right-click on the chart. You have to right-click somewhere inside the frame that surrounds the entire chart, not inside one of its parts.
  2. Select ‘Format chart area’. The Alt Text pane opens on the right side of the document body.
  3. Click on the ‘Layout & Properties’ icon and select ‘Alt text’.
  4. Type a description and a title.

Alt text for images:

  1. Right-click on the image.
  2. Select ‘Edit alt text’. The Alt Text pane opens on the right side of the document body.
  3. Type 1 to 2 sentences to describe the image and its context to someone who cannot see it.


Charts should use the maximum possible contrast between text and background and adhere where possible to the PHE colour palette (see brand guidelines). The highest contrast is black on white.

 

Check your report for Accessibility

Ensure your report meets accessibility requirements. 

To check your MS Word content for accessibility:

  1. select Review
  2. select Check Accessibility.
  3. Review your results. You'll see a list of errors, warnings and tips.


Tip: Do a quick ‘save as PDF’ test to view whether any of the content is disrupted by the conversion to PDF.

Read our guide to making your charts and tables more accessible.

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.

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
  • don’t italicise quotes: use the blockquote style for quotes longer than a few sentences
  • don’t use footnotes at foot of page, incorporate footnote text into the main body of the document

PHE uses the GDS style guide with certain exemptions (in PDFs), such as third party content, non-branded publications and some Easy Read and translated materials.

Contact Publications@PHE.gov.uk if you have any specific exemption query.


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