Style guide

[vickytnz]

starting point for style guide.

Things to check:

• all the points really
• anything re formatting. I thought this would be a definition list but the health guide A-Z is headings?

Fixes #62

Style guide

We normally use the NHS content guide for terms. But there are some terms that are only used in the guidance for the kit:

command line

Lower case. Only use for Windows instructions. Nortmally it will be ‘the command line’.

GOV.UK Prototype Kit, GOV.UK Design System and other GOV.UK products

Title case.

NHS, NHS.UK, NHS England

Use ‘NHS.UK’ for products that are for delivery teams and not the public (find out more on the NHS health writing A-Z)This includes the NHS.UK prototype kit, NHS.UK design system, NHS.UK service manual or NHS.UK website.

#### NHS England laptops
Use ‘NHS England Windows laptops’ instructions for people using corporate laptops.

NHS.UK prototype kit

‘NHS.UK’ is in caps and ‘prototype kit’ in lower case (except where the NHS.UK is shown as a logo when it is then presented as ‘NHS Prototype kit’). Write out in full the first time it is used on a page, then call ’the kit’. Do not use ‘prototype kit’ if you can.

terminal

Lower case. Only use for Mac and Linux instructions. Usually it will be ‘the terminal’.

Things I'd like to add:

• anything about file paths - for example do we always need to spell them out as from the top or is it OK to be a bit more loose about them?
• more about the terminal and command prompt stuff, maybe I don't have enough yet to complete that

[vickytnz]

Changed

Changed merged into branch

[vickytnz]

From Sara - looking to change from NHS.UK to NHS.
This means opening this ticket up again @sarawilcox

[sarawilcox]

Hi @vickytnz , for GOV.UK and NHS we lower case "prototype kit": GOV.UK prototype kit. No need for title case. Ditto GOV.UK design system. (There are some inconsistencies in the service manual but we generally use sentence case for service names.)

We avoid using "NHS.UK" as it confuses people. Some people think we're referring to the NHS.UK programme. Other people think we're talking about the wide nhs.uk domain. So we tend to write: NHS prototype kit, NHS design system, NHS digital service manual and "the NHS website (at www.nhs.uk)". Again there are some inconsistencies, particularly with the frontend and our GitHub repos. Part of the reason we prefer NHS to NHS.UK is that it makes it clear that the design system, prototype kit etc are for the whole NHS, regardless of programme or domain.

I have been using "prototype kit" but could switch to "kit" (after first spelling NHS prototype kit out in full). I was wondering why you say not to use "prototype kit"?