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2.6 Information and text

Publishing date: May 2002

For Departments that provide few services to the public, the website will primarily be a way of providing and exchanging information, most often in the form of text. Even sites concerned with providing services will need to make sure that information about policies and procedures communicates effectively. The basic questions about text are the same for all websites.

Does your site get users to the text content they need quickly?

Once users have decided to read a text page, does it communicate to them effectively?

Is the text marked up in such a way that users can choose or control the format, thus contributing to the accessibility of the content?

Are procedures in place to keep text content up to date and accurate?

Use each checklist to ensure that your web pages comply with these guidelines

2.6.1 Checklist and summary: Core guidance

Checklist

• Consistent publishing procedures to ensure that online and offline publications are co-ordinated
• Procedures for adapting text content for use on other delivery platforms such as mobile devices
• A style guide against which text can be edited
• All documents edited for accuracy, consistency, and style
• Where necessary, pages written especially for the website and its audiences
• All pages, headlines etc make sense out of context
• All new documents have metadata, preferably provided by the content owners
• Web managers can add or amend pages quickly and simply
• Are content owners able to amend their own pages once they are published?
• Maintenance of documents, checking of links and archiving of older documents are part of your regular routine
• Scan through the text on HTML pages - short and in plain English
• Text is displayed against backgrounds in strongly contrasting tones
• CSS stylesheets do not fix font properties not fixed so users can change the size if necessary

Documents designed to be printed are provided in universally accessible formats. PDFs should have RTF or plain text alternatives

Summary

Much text on the web will be scanned through quickly rather than read in detail. Text must be short and in plain English. Bullet points, lists and subheadings will make text easily scanable. To communicate effectively some text on a site should be written specially for the medium and aimed at key audiences. Text should be displayed so that is universally accessible. This includes documents designed primarily to be printed out. Clear procedures for editing, maintenance and archiving should be routine. Web strategies should be working towards technical solutions that allow content owners to amend or update their own pages.

2.6.2 Website content generation

While information for publication within government is generally created electronically, the primacy given to conventional publishing often means that material does not always reach the web team in electronic format. Where late corrections are made to texts, there is a real risk that there is no authoritative electronic version of documents. If there is to be rapid, accurate and accessible Internet publishing, departments should adopt publishing strategies that establish an authoritative electronic version of documents as a basis for both the electronic and paper versions of texts. The Senior Editor or editorial board has a key role to play in pressing for this practice to be established.

Information for the website should be provided and preferably created in an electronic format that can easily be converted into validated HTML.

Information for the website should be accompanied by a 'display by' date and, where there is one, a 'retire by' date, enabling the web team to ensure that information is up to date.

2.6.3 Online publishing tools

There are many different publishing tools for publication of all sorts of data. Departments and agencies will need to be able to generate text and graphical content for their website in conjunction with any programming, interface design and project management tools required. It is likely that a number of tools will be needed to achieve this.

The typical minimum requirements for site creation and maintenance are:

• text editor to generate mark-up in longhand;
• HTML editor to generate mark-up more quickly. Many HTML editing software also incorporate some site management tools (see Annex C);
• graphics editor to produce, manipulate and modify images (see Annex D);
• FTP software to deliver pages to the web server (see Annex F);
• email software to receive and reply to website-generated email and forms;
• site management tools may be used that provide functions of HTML and text editors, FTP software, link management tools and web statistics packages.

Static data publishing may be the most effective way to publish online simply, but for larger websites or complex data sets dynamic data publishing should be considered. The choice is a matter for departmental web teams

Go to Annex C HTML editor applications
Go to Annex D Graphic applications
Go to Annex F General applications

2.6.4 Production timescales and publishing overheads

The processes of publishing documents electronically should be well designed and regularly checked for efficiency.

Publishing data on the website should save on the printing, distribution and storing of printed documents and the wastage caused by overestimated print runs. Users now have the ability to print a selected document or a section of a document at their leisure. In a well-designed parallel print and web-publishing operation, it should only be necessary to maintain one master copy of a document. There should be processes in place to ensure that as soon as a changed version is approved, all publication formats can be generated quickly and near simultaneously.

It is important that an electronic master copy is kept of each document published on the website. This makes the creation of new versions in other formats potentially easier. It also provides an archive version for historical purposes.

Note that with web publication, some production costs, such as the cost of paper, toner/ink and production time, may be transferred to the user, who will print out information as needed.

2.6.5 Maintenance

It is important that all documents contained within the website are maintained at all times. Information must be up to date and error free.

Each document should adhere to the site template and all data should be formatted in a consistent way.

A ‘What’s New’ section should be included within the website so that users have a constant and familiar route to new and updated information.

Particular care should be paid to the use of Cascading Style Sheets, which are used to control the formatting of the website.

Finally, the website strategy should be working towards a technical solution and operational procedures that will allow designated content owners outside of the web team to amend and update their own information on already published pages. This will reduce the workload on the web team and the procedures should be designed to help the site keep up to date and accurate.

2.6.6 Text

Much of the information on your website will be presented to the user in text form. It is therefore important that all text is laid out well, is scanable and clearly legible.

Core information must be provided in plain text or HTML formats.

• Text must be displayed in a contrasting colour to the background colour used.
• Text colours must not be relied upon because users can select their own colours in which the text will be displayed.
• Moving and scrolling text should be avoided. If this is unavoidable then the user must be able to freeze it (for example by positioning their pointing device over it). This does not apply to words that are presented in a graphics format. The HTML marquee and blink elements should be avoided.
• All text formatting should be carried out using Cascading Style Sheets (CSS).

For guidance on text communication issues see section 1.5.1 Focussing on User Needs: Marketplace.

Go to section 1.5 Focusing on user needs

2.6.6.1 Fonts

HTML4.01 recommends that all font formatting should now be effected with CSS. This method potentially centralises and provides more control over the formatting of text. However, it must always be remembered that some browsers still do not support CSS.

A page must always be legible even if CSS markup is disabled.

• Use of the HTML font element is now depreciated in favour of formatting using CSS.
• Specifically, therefore, the font element size attribute should not be used as the way of controlling the size of text.
• Only commonly available fonts should be specified with CSS, eg Arial, Helvetica, Times New Roman. The appropriate generic font family should be included at the end of CSS font specifications as recommended in the W3C CSS specification to cater for the event that the user does not have any of the named font families installed on their computer. The following table gives examples of the fonts that are typically installed on two popular operating systems.

Typeface variation Sans-serif

Popular Windows fonts: Arial, Verdana*, Trebuchet MS*
Popular Macintosh fonts: Helvetica, Verdana*, Trebuchet MS*

Typeface variation Serif

Popular Windows fonts: Times New Roman, Georgia*
Popular Macintosh fonts: Times, Century Schoolbook, Palatino, Garamond

Typeface variation Monospaced (fixed width)

Popular Windows fonts: Courier New, Andale Mono*
Popular Macintosh fonts: Courier, Andale Mono*

Typeface variation Images, sorts and icons

Popular Windows fonts: Wingdings, Webdings
Popular Macintosh fonts: Zapf Dingbats, Webdings

* denotes a font designed for screen use and that is typically installed as a part of the MS Internet Explorer browser package.

• Font size within the CSS should not be hard coded in, for example, pixels or points. Instead relative units such as ems or percentages should be specified. W3C WAI agree with the use of ems/percentrages.
• Sans serif fonts are recommended for body text.
• ALL CAPITALS should not be used.
• Avoid the overuse of italics which can be difficult to read on screens.
• Underlined text should be avoided so as not to cause confusion with hyperlinks. Consider the use of boldface in its place.
• The font colour should be in contrast to the background colour, to aid readability (see section 2.4.5.2 and section 2.8.3).
• Ensure that your chosen fonts and sizes can be overridden by the viewer’s browser settings (see Annex G Changing browser fonts and colours).

Go to section 2.4 Building in universal accessibility
Go to section 2.8 Web graphics
Go to Annex G Changing browser fonts

2.6.6.2 Link management

Government websites should not contain broken hyperlinks.

‘Under construction’ is a term often employed in websites when an area has not been finished. This can be annoying for users and should not be used on a government website. If a section is not completed it should not be on your site.

All links on the website should go to the expected document. It would be very disorientating for the user to expect one thing and then be given another. This is simple on a small site but rather more difficult on a large one, particularly when there are many different groups of people involved in putting data on the website.

All links that go to organisations outside of the UK government should be clearly labelled as such, stating that the content and technical availability of the linked pages will not be under the control of the website from which the link is made. See section 1.10 Specimen terms and conditions.

All links to external websites should be tested at regular intervals. As the content at the target of such links is outside the Web manager’s control it could be moved or deleted at any time. Users are just as likely to blame the organisation that links to the material, as they are the organisation that has moved the data.

When a department links to an external website efforts should be made to ensure that the targeted website adds a reciprocal link back.

Go to section 1.10 Legal issues

2.6.6.3 Standard of language

People rarely read pages presented on the web word-for-word. They will tend to scan through a page and select individual words and sentences. For this reason and to assist those with reading difficulties and those using assistive technology, it is very important that the information contained in a document is presented correctly. The correct use of bullet points, headings and summary paragraphs throughout a publication will ensure that the maximum number of readers will gain the information you wish to impart.

• Use plain language.
• Minimise punctuation, and avoid using colons and semicolons.
• Always avoid using too many words and overly long words.
• Keep text concise and simple.
• Always include summaries for documents.
• Use short sentences.
• Use single idea sentences.
• Use lists and bullet points whenever possible.
• Include the main idea in the first sentence of the paragraph. Use following sentences to expand the main point.
• Use concepts and terminology consistently throughout the document and website.
• It should also be remembered that standards of English that are suitable for printed documents might not necessarily be suitable for the web. Text should be simpler and easier to digest, ensuring that every user can fully understand the information that is being presented.

Important:
Use a spellchecker as a first defence against mistakes. All documents to be published should also be proof-read by independent staff to ensure that the correct grammar and spelling are used. It is also good practice to write to a consistent house style that covers the use of upper and lower case lettering, use and definition of abbreviations, etc.