Grammar & Usage

Case

Title Case

With Title Case, the first letter of principal words (words that are not articles, conjunctions, or prepositions). Title Case will usually not have a period at the end.

Commonly Used For:

  • Page titles
  • Buttons

Examples of non-principal words:

  • Articles: a, an, the
  • Conjunctions: and, but, or
  • Prepositions: on, in, with

Examples of Title Case:

  • Send for Approval
  • Company and Government Rates

Sentence Case

With Sentence Case, capitalize the first word of the sentence. Proper nouns should also be capitalized.

Sentence Case sentences may or may not have a period (.) at the end.

Commonly Used For:

  • Descriptive or instructional text

Initial Upper Case

With Initial Upper Case, the first letter of every word is uppercase.

Examples:

  • Travel Tools For Teams
  • Company And Government Rates

Contractions

Approved Contractions

Using contractions is one of the easiest ways to sound more naturally conversational and human. To help translation, use the following list of recommended contractions and avoid other, more unusual variations.

Contraction Full Version Notes
aren’t are not  
can’t cannot Exception: Use "cannot" when warning users about serious consequences.
couldn’t could not  
didn’t did not  
doesn’t does not  
don’t do not Exception: Use "do not" when warning users about serious consequences.
hasn’t has not  
isn’t is not Exception: Use "is not" when you want to emphasize something.
it’s it is Be careful to not use the possessive pronoun "its."
let’s let us  
shouldn’t should not  
that’s that is  
they’ll they will  
there’s there is  
they’re they are  
they’ve they have  
wasn’t was not  
we’ll we will  
we’re we are  
weren’t were not  
what’s what is  
where’s where is  
won’t will not  
you’ll you will  
you’re you are  
you’ve you have  

When to Avoid Contractions

There are times to not use a contraction.

  • Many contractions are a combination of a word and "not." We want to tell customers what they can do, not what they can’t. Remember to use a positive voice when you can. Do this: Please enter an amount. Not this: You can’t save an expense report unless you enter an amount.
  • Don’t start a question with a negative contraction.
  • Don’t use contractions that can have multiple meanings, such as "they’d" (they had or they would) or "you’d" (you had or you would).

Lists

When creating a numbered or bulleted list, follow these rules:

  • Introduce a list with a clear, descriptive sentence or phrase.
  • Use numbered lists only when the sequence or count of items is important.
  • Write list items to have approximately similar line lengths.
  • Use parallel sentence construction for list items. Meaning, make sure each list item starts with the same part of speech (e.g., noun, verb) and that they are all either fragments or complete sentences.
  • Avoid repeating the same word(s) at the beginning of each list item.
  • Keep formatting consistent.
  • Stay with full sentences (capitalize + punctuation) or stay with phrases (no period)
  • Capitalizing the first word will help scanning.

Periods

Periods are used for complete sentences. Not all complete sentences will have periods. Refer to the Usage section of UI Copy, Page Elements, & Components for specific usage.

Truncation

In general, try to avoid truncation. However, space restrictions and/or localization often require us to put text into spaces where it will not always fit.

Some common places where truncation may occur:

  • A breadcrumb in the navigation area may exceed the space allowed
  • Information in a table column may not fit, even with wrapping
  • Options in a drop-down menu may be wider than the menu window

The general rule is to truncate the end of the word with an ellipsis (…) and show the full text on hover. When wrapping multiple lines of text, use a "Show more" link at the end to expand the text and a "Show less" link to collapse the text.

Try to maintain at least the current page and the top-level page when shortening breadcrumbs. Priority is given to not truncate the items next to the current page to give the user the most relevant context.

For example:

Earth > North America > United States > Washington > Bellevue

Earth > … > United States > Washington > Bellevue

Earth > … > … > Washington > Bellevue

Earth > … > … > … > Bellevue

… > … > … > … > Bellevue

… > Bellevue

… > Bel…

Email Addresses

Try to not truncate email addresses. If you must, truncate from the domain end. Always show the full email address on hover.

For example:

reallylongname@company.com

reallylongname@comp…

really…