Text Formatting
The look and feel of text is managed by the campus web template.
Using text formatting tools in Omni CMS to "punch up" the look of a web page will almost always result in accessibility compliance violations. In other words, the page will not meet standards that ensure people with disabilities can access the content.
Simple, plain text is the most effective tool to convey information. It's compatible with assistive technology, mobile-friendly, and is easy to update.
Common text formatting issues
"Listification"
Don't make things that aren't lists into bulleted lists. The "bullet list" tool isn't for adding emphasis; it's for creating a list of items.
If the items in a bulleted list are longer than a short sentence, then that probably isn't a list and should be a simple paragraph instead.
Overusing bold and italic
Making text bold or italic can be useful for highlighting key information that might otherwise disappear in large blocks of text. But there are a number of pitfalls to be careful of:
- Don’t make anything bold AND italic
- Don’t format entire paragraphs
A full sentence can be highlighted, if it’s done occasionally.
Text alignment
Left-aligned text is standard for our web template and is considered best practice for text readability. Don’t use center- or right-aligned text.
Using punctuation and formatting for “design”
Don’t insert multiple empty spaces or punctuation characters like hyphens, underscores, or periods in order to “design” the visual appearance of content. What might look good on one size of screen can look very different on another; it’s best to let the content flow on its own.
Examples
- Multiple spaces to create blank space on the page
- Multiple underscores to create "lines": _____
