Dashes and hyphens

Em dash

Symbol	HTML entity
—	—

• Use sparingly in sentences in place of a comma or colon
• Omit the spaces on both sides of the dash

Don’t	Do
It makes us sound like of who the person behind the communication is.	It makes us sound like of who the person behind the communication is.

En dash

Symbol	HTML entity
–	–

• Use in a range of numbers, dates, and times
• Use to indicate an empty value in tables
• Omit the spaces on both sides of the dash

Don’t	Do
100 – 100 Sep 5 – Oct 4, 2016 Sep 5, 2016 – Jan 4, 2017	100–1000 Sep 5–Oct 4, 2016 Sep 5, 2016–Jan 4, 2017

Hyphen

Symbol	HTML entity
-	‐

Use for telephone numbers and compound modifiers.

Don’t	Do
703–555–6593 AI–powered	703-555-6593 AI-powered

Non-breaking hyphen

Symbol	HTML code
‑	‑

Use to prevent unwanted line breaks.

Don’t	Do
Metrics like click- through rate	Metrics like click‑through rate

Soft hyphen

Symbol	HTML entity
­	­

• Use to indicate where a hyphenated break is allowed. It’s invisible otherwise
• Useful in scenarios when the same string is displayed in different layouts

Don’t	Do
SEO- friendly	SEO­ friendly

Non-breaking space

Symbol	HTML entity	Windows shortcut	MacOS shortcut
	 	Alt + 255	⌥ Space

Use to keep the words “glued.”

Don’t	Do
Click here to subscribe	Click here to subscribe

Quotation marks and apostrophe

Quotation marks

Symbol	HTML entity	Windows shortcut	MacOS shortcut
“	“	Alt + 0147	⌥ [
”	”	Alt + 0148	⌥ ⇧ [

• Use double curly quotation marks
• Include periods inside the quotation marks
• Dashes, semicolons, exclamation points, and question marks go inside the quotation mark only if they relate to the quotation
• Use when quoting UI text, if text formatting is not available

Don’t	Do
"Project name" Search for “small business websites”. Click “How can you help”? Enter the “My Profile” section	“Project name” Search for “small business websites.” Click “How can you help?” Enter the My Profile section

Apostrophe

Symbol	HTML code	Windows shortcut	MacOS shortcut
’	’	Alt + 0146	⌥ ⇧ ]

Use the curly style, just like for the quotation ‘a‘ ’marks

Don’t	Do
What's new	What’s new

Period

• Use in numbered lists
• Include in quotation marks and brackets
• Use with shortened forms of words (mainly in table columns)

Don’t	Do
5. If the error persists, contact us Click the edit button next to “Billing information”. Position → Pos Cookie Policy.	5. If the error persists, contact us. Click the edit button next to “Billing information.” Position → Pos. Cookie Policy

Omit:

• in headings
• in placeholders
• in checkboxes
• in lists with bullets and icons
• in tooltips that serve as labels for icons or display the element’s full name
• after URLs

Don’t	Do
Remind later. Your competitor https://rival.com.	Remind later Your competitor https://rival.com

Lists

• No period in bulleted lists and lists with icons
  (But: if there’s more than one sentence in a bullet—make all bullets end with periods)
• Add period in numbered lists
• Use sentence case capitalization

NOTE

Use numbered lists for a sequence of actions!

Don’t	Do
Profile settings. 1. Open the Billing and Account Tab	Profile settings 1. Open the Billing and Account Tab.

Special symbols

Ampersand

Symbol	HTML entity
&	&

• Enclose in spaces
• Avoid. If there’s enough space—always use “and”

Don’t	Do
Plans&Pricing Questions & Answers	Plans & Pricing Questions and Answers

Number sign

Symbol	HTML code
#	#

Omit the space after the sign.

Don’t	Do
# 1, # 3–6	#1, #3–6

Percent sign

Symbol	HTML entity
%	%

• In a column name, use at the end of the name preceded by a space
• Omit the space before the percent sign
  (Exception: German, French, Swedish languages)

Don’t	Do
%Traffic 156 %	Traffic % 156%

Minus and plus signs

Symbol	HTML entity
−	−
+	+

• Omit the spaces between the sign and a numeric value
• Use to show changes in metrics
• If you cannot use the minus character for some reason, use the en dash

Don’t	Do
190 + countries -45%	190+ countries −45%

Slash

Symbol	HTML entity
∕	∕

Omit the spaces around the sign.

Don’t	Do
24 / 7 competitor tracking	24/7 competitor tracking

Multiplication sign

Symbol	HTML entity
×	×

Avoid using the “x” letter.

Don’t	Do
1080 x. 1920 px	1080 × 1920 px