Basic Georgia State Web Rules and Formatting
The Office of Public Relations and Marketing and Communications, as well as Digital Strategy, have come up with multiple rules, element formatting, and best practices that need to be adhered to when constructing front-facing webpages under the Georgia State banner. We typically look for and correct the following rules when reviewing pages prior to their GoLive, and require all units to maintain them afterward.
Referring to the University
When referring to the university on your web pages, do not use "Georgia State University" or "GSU"; use "Georgia State" instead. The exceptions to this rule are when referring to the proper name of a department or item (for example, the "GSU Wi-Fi Network") or an address. If you are referring to "Georgia State University faculty and staff" or "Georgia State University campuses," remove "University" and make them "Georgia State faculty and staff" or "Georgia State campuses."
Phone Numbers
When listing out phone numbers on websites, do not list them in the following manner: (404) 413-5555. Instead, list them like 404-413-5555. Make sure that you make phone numbers (but not fax numbers) clickable for mobile device users so they can simply touch the number and dial it. To do this, make the phone number a link like this: tel:4044135555
Dates
When listing dates, type the month and the number without a superscript. For example, don't write "January 14th," but instead write "January 14."
Times
When writing out the times of the day, write them like this:
8:30 a.m. or 5:15 p.m.
Make sure to write "a.m." and "p.m." as such.
Also, if listing a time right on the hour, write it like 3 p.m., leaving out the ":00". If you need to write out the noon time, write "noon" instead of "12 p.m."
Oxford Commas
Remove all uses of Oxford commas when applicable. If Oxford commas are used in the proper title of something, they can remain.
An Oxford comma is used after the penultimate item in a list of three or more items, before ‘and’ or ‘or’; for example, "an Italian painter, sculptor, and architect." We would list this on a Georgia State page as "an Italian painter, sculptor and architect."
Refer to the University Style Guide for more information on writing styles.
When to Use ALL CAPS
There are a few instances where we allow the usage of all capital letters on a webpage. They are:
- when Oswald font is used (mostly in the heading in a marquee)
- in a button
- in a "Creative Link"
Don't Copy and Paste Text from Webpages or Documents
The reason you don't want to copy and paste in text from other web pages or documents (like MSWord or Excel) is that they tend to pull in pre-existing fonts, colors, font sizes, etc., which don't match the carefully selected style sheets that we've set up for the Georgia State web family. If you need to copy and paste text to your pages from an outside source, first copy and paste the text into a basic text editor that can exclude "rich text." Something like "Notes" on Mac devices or Notepad++ on Windows machines. Then, copy and paste the basic text into your WordPress page.
Grammarly
We recommend that if you haven't already, you download the free-to-Georgia State faculty and staff version of Grammarly. This tool will help you correct any grammatical, punctuation, and spelling errors that you have have on your webpages before you make them live. It's easy to install and will help keep your webpages error-free.