Styling text

Ensure there's a high level of contrast between your text and the background (think: black text on a white background). Try to avoid putting text on any sort of coloured background, or changing the colour of your text as that can make it much more difficult for people to read.

Avoid using a font size that is less than 12 point.

All caps and italics are poor for accessibility and should be avoided if possible. Only use bold if you need to emphasize a word or sentence, and underlining is reserved for web URLs.

If you are copying text from another document into yours, make sure to clear all formatting so that no styles are carried over from the original document.

To do this you should either use ‘Paste special' and choose ‘Unformatted text' when pasting content into your document, or you can paste it in as normal, select all the text by pressing ‘ctrl A' and then clicking the eraser ‘Remove formatting' button on the home pane of Microsoft Word (located just underneath the font size drop-down).

If you need to move text to another page, please don't add in multiple returns—use page break. To insert a page break, place the curser just before the text you need to move, then choose ‘Insert' from the top pane. Click on ‘Pages' on the far-left hand side and select ‘Page break'. Any new content should now move to the next page.

If your document contains web links, make sure the link text is descriptive. Avoid using phrases such as ‘Click here' or ‘visit this document' as they do not describe what the link actually is. A better choice is, ‘If you need more information, visit the Church of Scotland website,' or ‘The most recent Blue Book can be found on our General Assembly Publications page'.