This document is designed to give you an idea of how to prepare your research for being posted on the website for an editor. The content put into this document is also replicated onto the web. The purpose is to show that by properly preparing your document, it will be properly built onto the website – therefore the only formatting you need to do, is to prepare a proper Microsoft Word document.
View the website version of this document (if you are on the website, you are already here)
Download the Microsoft Word Style Guide (if you are in Word, you have already downloaded this)
Publish an Article to OU Campus (Style Guide)
Below the title an introductory sentence or paragraph is a perfect way to introduce the content of the rest of the article. This paragraph, as well as any features listed below are optional. Of course, features and design may improve the experience of the people we are serving, so they should be given serious consideration.
Features to build directly into a word document
A web page can be enhanced with several features. Putting these in just because we are able is not the best way to approach these. When considering adding a visual feature to your page ask yourself what is best for the user experience. Features that can include:
- Headings
- Bulleted lists
- Tables
- Images with captions
- Hyperlinks
Headings
A heading helps a reader anticipate what they will find immediately underneath it. This is great for all readers, and crucial for those who are reading the website without the use of their vision.
Readers without vision can navigate different levels of headings, and then dive into subheadings with commands through their screen-reading software. For example, they might go to the third h2, and decide they want to know more so once they select the h2, the reader would begin listing the h3’s, and so on.
This document is an outline of how to use headings.
Bulleted & Numbered Lists
Bulleted lists are a fantastic way to separate thoughts, ideas, actions, etc., into easy-to-read and easy-to-consume content.
This document already uses bulleted lists. A numbered list appears with numbers to the side of it instead. The editor for your document can paste these directly into the webpage which they are building.
- Item 1
- Item 2
- Item 3
Tables
Another nice way to organize information is tables. Depending on the complexity of the table, an editor may be able to paste it directly into the website, or they may need to do some custom formatting for the website. But so long as the table is formatted as a table in a Word Document, they will be able to make the table.
| Column 1 | Column 2 | Column 3 | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Row 1 | 1x1 | 1x2 | 1x3 |
| row 2 | 2x1 | 2x2 | 2x3 |
Images with captions
Captioning an image is an excellent way to tell people what they are seeing. Some things to keep in mind when adding an image:
- Attach the image separately. When Microsoft Word saves this image in the Word file it is difficult to extract and the quality has degraded.
- Do not make the images too large. Anything over 1200 pixels in width is more than the screen can handle which increases load time.
- Where possible, we suggest images which are a 4:3 ratio.
- If the image requires attribution, please state the attribution here
- Keep a record which you can easily access of where all images on your site were sourced, including the author name (if available) and URL (if available). Do this even for photos which you have personally taken
Image caption: Sunset
Photo source: Pixabay