Getting started

Definitions

• Node - Any element of the content tree. News, Alerts, Design, Global, and web pages are all nodes. Nodes can act as both files (like web pages) and folders (storing child pages)
  
  
• Components – The elements that web page content is built from such as:
  • Pods
  • Text
  • Data Lists
  • Anchored Accordions 
  • Buttons
  • Banners
  • Calls to action
  • Gallery
  • Split components
    
    
• Pods - helps you create rows with multiple columns. Each column can hold different components, and all columns in a row will be the same width. You can have between one and eight columns in each row.
• Media - Where all images, documents and video is stored

For writing

• Write in the present tense
• No jargon – keep it easy to understand
• Reading level no higher than grade 8
• Ensure ALL style guidelines are met – Read the Style Guide iconnectoshawa.ca/StyleGuide
• Times = 9 a.m. not 9:00 a.m.
• Dates = try to not list a year as it can make content go stale faster
• Use Canadian spelling

Headings

• Ensure headings follow the correct numerical order h2, h3, h4 etc.
• Do not make a heading a link
• Title case - a capitalization style where the first letter of each word in a title is capitalized, except for certain minor words like "a", "an", "the", "of", and some conjunctions. Use title case for:

• • All page titles (seen in menu) 
  • Departments
  • Branches
  • Proper names
    
    
• Sentence case - Capitalizing only the first word of a sentence and any proper nouns within the sentence while keeping the rest of the words in lowercase.
  Use sentence case for:
  • All page headings (H2 - H5)
    
  • News posting titles

Our style guide

The City of Oshawa has a specific Website writing style guide. Keep this resource within reach for easy reference.

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