How To Keep Your Styles Consistent

Writing for the web is different to writing for other media. How you arrange and present the content of your website is just as important as what you put in it.

Readers prefer to scan a page, skim through the content, and scroll for the important bits. Inconsistent style will discourage readers from reading on. After all, other websites are just a click away!

What contributes to inconsistent style?

Take a look at the example below. We've deliberately made some very common mistakes by using

• irregular sizes and fonts for headings and subheadings;
• different fonts throughout the content; and
• non-uniform spacing.

Tips for keeping your website looking clean and consistent

• Limit the use of specific fonts, colours, and sizes as much as possible. Instead, select from the predefined set of styles (e.g heading 1, heading 2, normal and preformatted). These can be changed more easily.
• Don't cut and paste from Microsoft Word. If you want to compose your article offline, it is preferrable to use a simple text editor like Notepad. If you must cut and paste from Word, use either the paste from Word button (), or paste as text () button.
• You can remove specific formats using the editor. Fonts, colours, and sizes can all be reset by selecting the text and pressing the eraser button ().
• Break long paragraphs into shorter ones. Readers will skip long paragraphs and find it easier to read when paragraphs have a uniform length.