Good Practice

Text

Do not use initial caps after the first word in any headings, table or chart titles. Headings should also not be more than a single line. Always use italics in place of bold. One space after full stops and colons.

Dates

These should always be in the European order (ie, dd/mm/yy) as opposed to the American (mm/dd/yy). Years are always written in full and not 98.

Currencies

Each bank has standard currency abbreviations. If a number is combined with a currency abbreviation, write the abbreviation followed by the figure with NO SPACE. With currency ranges use £5-10m, (not £5m-£10). When using decimals always round up to 1 decimal place. If referring to a currency generally in text (not attached to particular number) write it out in full with the first letter in lowercase (eg, Singapore dollar). With general currency abbreviations in tables and charts, if the last letter is lower case, then leave a space before the redundant unit (DMm but Pta m).

Numbers

Thousands should be comma separated. Use a minus sign for all negative numbers. In text, words should be used for numbers from one to nine inclusive, except for references to pages, in percentages and in sets of numbers.

Abbreviations

In general try not to use them. If you do use one spell it out the first time it appears and show the abbreviation in parenthesis immediately afterwards.

Years

Years should always be written in full 1999 or 1999/0. Estimate years should be marked with an "E" and not a "F" or "e"