My Writing Style Guide for the Web

One night in December last year, I spent 1.5 hours reading about naming images for the web. Most of the time, I use two images with the same filename. I add a number at the end to distinguish one from the other.

If that isn’t enough, I went down the rabbit hole of reading about writing style guide for the web.

Now, I also added a tag on Goodreads about writing style guide for the web.

I didn’t even know there is a Microsoft Writing Style Guide. The Yahoo Style Guide was published 15 years ago. It wasn’t updated since then. Yet, I bought an ebook copy to read it again and refresh my memory.

It’s about time to settle things once and for all. I need to create writing style guide for my blogs.

Keeping a Writing Style Guide

I mostly based my writing style guide from Yahoo Style Guide which I read ages ago and other factors:

• Use British English and American spelling because I blog in Canada.
• Adapt to writing style other than Yahoo Style Guide.
• Feel free to change what is not working.

With these factors, I’ll try to establish consistency with my writing. I will not waste time fact checking whether I should capitalize or add space in between words. Should I add period . . . or not.

Word List

Here, I’ll add words that I often use yet find myself second guessing my word choice. As I progress on rereading style guides, I’ll update the list.

• No space between the number and data storage capacity: 128 GB, 256 GB

Resources for Writing Style Guide on the Internet

Some of the gems I found on the Internet:

1. Microsoft Writing Style Guide – the What’s New section is interesting
2. Apple Style Guide – another new discovery
3. AP Style Book – it has a more relax tone as mentioned in many blog posts
4. Government of British Columbia – Writing for the Web

Out of the list, I am interested in reading the AP Style Book and compare it to Yahoo Style Guide.

Where to Get the Yahoo Style Guide

The Yahoo Style Guide was published on July 6, 2010 and it’s no longer available on the Yahoo’s website.

• The Yahoo! Style Guide: The Ultimate Sourcebook for Writing, Editing, and Creating Content for the Digital World (Amazon.ca)
• The Yahoo! Style Guide: Writing for an Online Audience (Amazon.ca)
• Indigo Chapters (paperback and Kobo ebook)
• AbeBooks (used and new)
• Bookshop.org US (paperback and ebook)

I bought my copy on Indigo to read it on my Kobo Libra 2 or Tab S9 FE. Maybe I should also borrow a copy from the local library like I did years ago. There’s something fun about reading a physical copy of a book about rules.

Have you read the Yahoo Style Guide? What style guide do you follow?