Style Guide

The materials below are not optional but express EMU's legal obligation to fulfill web accessibility requirements. Omni CMS users who repeatedly violate these guidelines may have their Omni CMS access revoked until further training can be obtained. Please see our accessibility page for more information on web accessibility. Download the PDF version of the Web Style Guide [PDF].

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    Academic Degrees
    BS, MA or Ph.D.
    associates, bachelor’s, master’s

    Academic Program Information
    All academic departments must link to the official EMU Catalog for course descriptions and degree requirements. Page editors should not link to course description PDFs or any information source other than the EMU Catalog.

    Alignment
    Always left-aligned, not center or right.

    Alumni
    Alumna/ae (female graduate/plural)
    Alumnus/i (male graduate/plural)
    Alum (informal)

    And
    No ampersands (&) unless in a trademarked name.

    Bullets
    If content is not sequential, use bullets.

    Capitals
    Never use all capital letters.

    Colored Text
    Colored text, including gray, cannot be used according to web accessibility standards.

    Commas
    No commas before “and” unless the items in the list are several words long.

    Examples: I went to the store to buy chocolate, coconut and milk. I thought I saw a dog covered
    in chocolate, three little girls in dresses juggling cherries, and a cat wearing glasses drinking tea

    Cut/Paste
    When you are placing new content, always choose the “paste plain text” option or re-type the content

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    Dates
    January 13 or Jan. 13–20

    Email

    Emphasis
    Do not use underlining or italics. Use bold, but sparingly, no more than a few words.

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    Hierarchy/Headers
    The topic of your page should be made into a header 2 by choosing the third drop down from the left on the second row of the tool bar (It will default to “paragraph”). If you have a topic under that, you will make it a header 3 and so on. It follows a basic online form.

    Example:

    H2: Lion

    Lions are the King of the Jungle.

    H3: Famous Lions

    There are many famous lions who have frightened and delighted us through history.

    H4: Simba

    Simba, although orphaned at a young age, rose to great prominence in the pride.

    H5: Characteristics of Simba

    Son of Mufasa and Sabari, husband of Nala.

    H4: Mufasa

    Mufasa was a great lion-king who died in a tragic, terrible wildebeest stampede.

    H3: Types of Lions

    While there is technically only one species of lion, the term “lion” is used for many creatures.

    H4: African Lion

    The African lion is the most famous of all those who hold the name “lion”.

    H4: North American Mountain Lion

    Known by many names including puma, cougar and panther, the North American Mountain Lion once roamed up to 40 miles in search of territory.

    Images
    Please do not add images to content areas. Images should only be added to areas set aside for images or adding using a snippet.

    Images cannot include text. Please do not post flyers on your site. 

    Get more information on images.

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    Links
    Never type out a url in text. Also don’t use “here” or “click here”. Always link descriptive text.

    Example: Go to the Office of Financial Aid website for more information.

    When making a link, highlight the text then click the chain icon. A box will pop up. Add the URL in the top box. Then, in the “Title” box, add a sentence (using proper punctuation) telling the user where the link is taking them.

    For instance, in the example above, you might use “Go to the Office of Financial Aid site.” Also, use “site”, “page” or “PDF” at the end, depending on the situation.

    If you are linking to an external site—meaning outside of the site you are currently on, change the “Target” to “new window”.

    Example: If you are on the Admissions site and you are linking to Financial Aid, you would use the “new window” function. If it’s an internal link, leave that field as is.

    Linking to a PDF
    See PDFs

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    Naming Conventions
    Numbers one to nine are spelled out. 10 and up, use numerals.

    Online

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    PDFs
    When linking to a PDF, end the link with [PDF]. Example: Download the dance flyer [PDF].

    This is also an instance where you would use the “new window” feature.

    Phone Numbers
    No hyphens or parentheses.
    Example: 734.555.1234

    Prerequisites

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    Tables
    Because of accessibility standards, tables cannot be used. Bulleted lists are a good work around.

    Times
    3 p.m.
    3:45 a.m.
    Use noon (not 12 p.m.)

    Titles

    Book Titles
    Capitalize all words of four letters or more and the first and last word of the title. Title in quotation marks.

    Course Titles
    Course topics are lowercased, unless it’s preceded by the course number. Also, no hyphens or colons after the course number. Just one space.

    Example: Dr. Chung teaches courses in database management and IT. COB 200 Introduction to Business.

    Job Titles
    Lowercase titles unless they come before a name.

    Uploading Content (PDFs, docs, images, etc)
    Store content in the designated areas – images in the images folder; PDFs in documents.
    When uploading new content (i.e. photos, PDFs), the title must be all lowercase with no spaces. Use hyphens instead of underscores. Leave out references to dates/years. Make the title as generic as possible while still making it clear what the document is.

    Example:
    USE: annual-budget-report.pdf
    NOT: 2017_Annual_budget_report_Nov.pdf

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    Website

    Work study

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