Content Best Practices GuideHelping Communities Engage & Interact C P
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A guide to effectively educate and engage your citizens through content
1 I Content Best Practices Guide
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CivicPlus believes clear, concise, well-formatted content is the key to educating
and engaging citizens of any municipality. This guide was created for you using
some of the foremost authorities in website usability as references. All of our
sources have been listed in the back of this guide. Any Best Practices not listing
a resource are based on our own expertise, the most efficient use of our system,
and efforts for consistency.
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Content Best Practices Guide 1 2
LET'S WRI
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+ CONTACT INFORMATION STANDARDS •
8 a.m. — 5:30 p.m.
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Phone: xxx-xxx-xxxx
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Fax: xxx-xxx-xxxx
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Street Modifiers - Spell out all street modifiers (Street, Avenue, Boulevard, Road,
Highway, etc.). Abbreviate all compass points in address blocks (N, E, S, W, NE, NW,
SE, and SW — no periods on any of them). Include any secondary address information
on the next line (Apartment, Suite, Unit, etc.) when using address blocks.
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Street Numbers — Use figures for 1 st Street, 2nd Street, etc.
+ADDRESSES WITHIN TEXT a
There is no break between a lead-in sentence
or subhead and the address block below it. Use an
address block when an address is listed within
page content.
a
If the address has a P.O. Box but the same zip code as
the physical address, the P.O. Box info can be listed on
the second line of the address.
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If you have a separate physical and mailing address,
list the physical address first in a separate block from
the mailing address to enable users to easily highlight
and search for directions. (See sample)
a
Room, floor, suite, etc. is listed out on the second line
of an address block. If there is also a P.O. Box in the
address, the floor, suite, etc., - would still be listed
above the P.O. Box.
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Use figures for numbered streets such as 1st Street,
3 I Content Best Practices Guide
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• When formatting a heading, the CSS styles Subhead 1 and Subhead 2 are used to
show the hierarchy of information on the page — they are not just decorative elements.
You should only use Subhead 2 to separate information that is related to the Subhead
1 topic. Subhead 2 should always follow a Subhead 1.
• Don't replicate content, use links instead. You can link to content within the site on the
same topic to avoid having to duplicate any content Content Best Practices Guide 1 4
+ TABLES •
S 1 Content Best Practices Guide
To be ADA compliant, all columns must have headings.
If the information you are displaying in a table doesn't consistently fit under the
headers for that table, that information should not be displayed in a table.
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mages inside the content area should be no wider than 300 px.
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• Bullets should go, at the most, two levels deep.
• Do not mix sentence fragments and full sentences in one bulleted list. For consistency,
all bullets in each bulleted list should contain the same format (and verb tense).
Content Best Practices Guide 1 6
LET'S WRITE +�'•I•
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• Underlining should only be used for hyperlinks. Underlining for emphasis can confuse
users who might think they can click on that area of the screen.
• Avoid using all caps for anything but acronyms. If you need to emphasize something,
use bold instead. Using all caps can make the words more difficult to read.
If moving information from another source to our GCIVIS, make sure to paste all items
in plain text by using the tool in the Editor widget. This will clear any formatting or text
class information from the previous source that may be left on the text.
Content Best Practices Guide 1 8
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• Underlining should only be used for hyperlinks. Underlining for emphasis can confuse
users who might think they can click on that area of the screen.
• Avoid using all caps for anything but acronyms. If you need to emphasize something,
use bold instead. Using all caps can make the words more difficult to read.
If moving information from another source to our GCIVIS, make sure to paste all items
in plain text by using the tool in the Editor widget. This will clear any formatting or text
class information from the previous source that may be left on the text.
Content Best Practices Guide 1 8
The Form Center is not a secured way of collecting information, meaning that Civicplus
cannot guarantee the security of the information after being collected through the
Form Center. As such, CivicPlus does not develop forms that contain specific kinds of
identifying information and does not recommend you create such forms via the Form
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Identifying information includes:
• Social Security numbers
• Driver's license numbers
• Birth certificate copies
• Account numbers
The Facilities module best houses the following types ofinformation:
• Parks
• Rentable city/county facilities
• Trails
• Pools
• Community centers and meeting places
Content Best Practices Guide 1 10
TM CMS
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