Dates and number formats

Dates

  • Use upper case for months (January, February)
  • If only using month and year, don’t use a comma
  • When space is an issue (tables, publication titles, etc.) you can use truncated months (Jan, Feb, Mar)
  • Use “to” in date ranges instead of a dash or hyphen (January to March 2016). “To” is quicker to read than a dash, and it’s easier for screen readers
  • Don’t use “quarter” for dates; use the months (“Budget expenses, January to March 2016”)
  • When referring to “today” (only used in a news release) make sure you include the date as well (“The minister announced today (14 June 2012) that...”)
  • Don’t use ordinal numbers (1st, 3rd, etc.)

Long date format

Monday, 22 March 2021

Medium date format

22 March 2021

Numerical date format

2021-03-20

Phone numbers

Mark phone numbers in your content up as links.

Time

  • Use “to” in time ranges, not hyphens, en rules or em dashes: 10am to 11am
  • Use lowercase without periods for “am” and “pm”
  • Show time using a 12-hour clock: 5:30pm not 17:30hrs
  • Use midnight, not 00:00
  • 6 hours 30 minutes

Writing guidelines for numbers

  • Show numbers numerically, not as words.
  • Write all numbers in numerals (including 0 to 9) except when they’re part of a common expression that would look strange (like “one or two of them”).
  • Avoid starting a sentence with a number.
  • If a number starts a sentence, write it out in full: “Twenty-three Nova Scotia businesses ...” (except when it starts a title or sub-heading).
  • Use numerals for numbers under 10 in headlines, titles, and sub-headings.
  • For numerals over 999, insert a comma for clarity: “It was over 9,000.”
  • Spell out common fractions, such as one-half. Use a % sign for percentages: 50%.
  • Use a 0 where there’s no digit before the decimal point: 0.5%.
  • Use “500 to 900” and not “500-900” (except in tables).
  • Use MB not KB for anything over 1MB for file size. For under 1MB, use KB. Keep it as accurate as possible and up to 2 decimal places. For example: 4.03MB.
  • Abbreviate big numbers if there are space restraints, as in a tweet, chart, or table: 1k, 150k.
  • Use “to” in address ranges, for example: 49 to 53 Cherry Street.
  • For ordinal numbers, spell out first to ninth. After that, use 10th, etc. In tables, use numerals throughout.
  • Use figures for all ages, sums of money and times of day.

Reference: Government of Nova Scotia Web Strategy: Online writing guide (PDF)