Bullet points are the best friend of the web writer.

They break up pages into neat, bite-sized chunks – making content easier to scan and read. But unfortunately, they are also often incorrectly punctuated.

Here’s a cheat sheet:

• If the bullet points are complete sentences (like these), punctuate them as you would a sentence with a capital at the start and a full stop at the end.
• It doesn’t matter if there is a lead-in sentences or not (with a colon), as long as each bullet point makes sense as a stand alone statement.

But, if the bullet points are a carry on from the lead-in sentence:

• you use a colon at the end of the lead-in sentence
• you don’t capitalise the first letter
• there is no need for a full stop until the final point.

I hope this helps!

One of the important things that I’ve learned over the years is that you can write the most wonderful, engaging, intelligent, and snazzy piece of copy – only for it to be let down by something trivial. Have you ever read a brochure or web page and instead of taking in what the site/company is trying to tell/sell you, you can only see the mismatch of style, punctuation and layout?

OK, some of these things should be taken care of by a graphic designer (maybe) or a style sheet (again maybe), but it’s also up to the content writer to maintain a consistent approach. As there is often no ‘right’ or ‘wrong’ way to do things, pick a style that suits and stick with it. If you work in a large organisation, or one where there are multiple authors or contributors, go to the effort and document your choices in a style guide.

Bullets
Use the same punctuation style for your bullets. It helps readers scan (a must for web), but it also keeps the flow of the page.

Sentence and title case
Personally, I’m a stickler for sentence case in headings (only the first letter of the first word capitalised, as in a sentence), but many writers – especially if they are from a print background – don’t feel complete unless they use title case (first letter in each word) for headings. If you search the web you’ll find a huge debate about which is better, but in the end it’s up to you. Just make sure you do it consistently.

Style and formatting
On a website, this really should be locked down by the style sheet. However, as a style sheet is quite often developed by someone without a content background, double check that it meets your needs.

Addressees and phone numbers
Again, there are so many ways that you can format addresses and phone numbers. Make sure you document how you want to do it – and make sure everyone else knows as well.

Made-up words and jargon
We all know that we need to speak to our readers in a language they understand – so no bamboozling jargon. But if there is a product you have to write about, or some sort of industry terminology that must be included – make sure you spell and punctuate it the same way each time. For instance (a name of an intranet): StaffInfo, staffinfo, Staff info, Staffinfo. You get the picture.

Of course, if all else fails contact Snappy sentences and we’ll be happy to write you a web content style guide to suit your business.

I am looking forward to this week as I’ll be flying to Melbourne to attend one of the full day tutorials that will be held as part of Usability week 2008. Some of my colleagues have been to previous NNG events over the years, but this will be my first. I’ll report back soon!