Capitalisation

When to use and when not to use capital letters when creating web content.

Using capital letters when creating web content

You can use capital letters for:

  • the first word of a sentence 
  • the name of a person – Joe Bloggs
  • a place – town, city, village, district, country, venue
  • brand names – Microsoft, Tesco,  unless it starts with a lower case letter, for example - eBay
  • organisations – Citizens Advice
  • the full council name – Westmorland and Furness Council
  • the name of a bill, act or piece of law – for example, Care Act
  • header cells in tables
  • committees - full committee name – for example, Policy Committee
  • job titles – Chief Executive
  • team names – Digital Team
  • months, days of the week, holidays – for example, Easter and Christmas
  • the title of a policy, strategy or report

When not to use capital letters when creating web content

You shouldn't use capital letters for:

  • seasons – spring, summer, autumn, winter
  • first letters of bullet points
  • web page titles, headings and email addresses

Never use BLOCK CAPITALS – it’s hard to read as it removes the shape from the word. Many people will also read this as shouting and we’re a council, we shouldn’t be shouting.

If you want to emphasize information, think about adding a heading instead.

Capital letters are reputed to be 13% to 18% harder for users to read so avoid them.