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Digital Style Matters

Exploring the world of documents on a screen

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Matters of digital text

“Avoid needless words”—The Elements Of Style, 1919. “Avoid needless words and characters”—The Elements Of Digital Style, 2017. When the device displaying your content fits in your reader’s pocket, every keystroke counts.

Don’t bother with all those title case exceptions

Image of upper & lower cases

Early printing shops stored letters in wooden cases. The upper case contained capital, or majuscule letters; the lower case, smaller, or minuscule letters. Hence uppercase & lowercase letters, …

Read moreDon’t bother with all those title case exceptions

Avoid periods in title abbreviations

Screen shot of discussion about abbreviations

The screenshot shows a conversation about title abbreviations in the English Language & Usage Stack Exchange. Style rules are less agreed upon than we usually imagine. Dr Ulysses Everett …

Read moreAvoid periods in title abbreviations

Inside

  • Don’t bother with all those title case exceptions
  • Prefer narrative structure to the inverted pyramid
  • Embrace the ubiquitous ‘Layer Cake Layout’

Outside

Who

Kyle HendersonKyle Henderson has been making digital documents for more than 20 years. He’s the creative services manager at UW‑Madison’s Division of Information Technology. He also teaches web classes at Madison College and helped develop its Basic Web Certificate. Kyle is a regular conference and seminar speaker on digital-communication style and method.

© 2019 Kyle Henderson | Site made with GeneratePress on WordPress
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