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Best Practices and Standards (NEW VERSION)

Text and assets

  • All text should be the 'automatic' colour, in Arial font. Body text should be 12 pt size and 'Normal' format.

  • All external links should open in a new window, as per the default. Only change to the 'Open in Same Window' option if it is within the same guide.

  • Always choose the appropriate asset type for your content eg links should be added as 'Links' not 'Rich Text/HTML' (see Assets).

  • Copy standard boxes for commonly-used resources rather than re-creating them eg Ask a Librarian. This page contains standardised boxes for reuse.

Reusing content

When multiple guides all need identical boxes or pages, consider mapping (pulling through the asset/page from another guide). This has the advantage that any updates to the original are automatically updated in mapped versions—less work checking and fixing.

  • Check the VT NEW VERSION Exemplar for useful pages, boxes and assets.

  • See the Reusable content (CURRENT) page in this guide.

  • Look at your colleagues' guides for content and links relevant to users of your guide. Look for timely, properly formatted and accessible content to reuse.

Removing formatting

If you are making changes to the formatting of your Rich Text Format content (ie changing the font type and size, removing italics or bold), it is recommended that you first remove the formatting by clicking the button on the top right hand side of the menu. 

Version 2

remove format button screenshot

Version 1

remove format button v1 screenshot

Then make your formatting changes.

This will ensure that more coding isn't simply added on top of the existing code, which can cause problems with the LibGuide software.

Copying and pasting

Take caution when copying and pasting content from any source. Many times hidden style code will also be copied along that could break with best practices and introduce inaccessible content. 

You can avoid hidden style code from being placed into your guide using the Rich Text Editor.

For example:

Version 2 - Paste, Paste as Plain Text, Paste from Word

Rich Text pasting options v2 screenshot

Version 1 - Paste from Word

paste from word v1 screenshot
 

Use these buttons in the top right-hand corner of the Rich Text Editor to paste as plain text, or to paste from Word without copying unnecessary formatting. If you use these options you will have to put your headings, hyperlinks etc back in afterwards using the other Rich Text Editor tools provided.