Essential spelling instructions
Separating numbers
Numbers of four digits or more
These are separated by commas into groups of three digits in running text
8,000
23,567
Swiss telephone numbers
These are divided – following the country and area codes – into one group of three digits followed by two groups of two digits, each separated by a space; a plus sign (+) immediately precedes the country code
+41 00 000 00 00
Dates
When written as numerals, use the“day.month.year” order with full stops between the numerals; placing a zero before single-digit dates looks cleaner and helps with alignment in tables
24.12.1980
05.07.2005 is better than 5.7.05
Running text should have the name of the month written out and always include a four-digit year
13 November 2007
Times
Full stops separate hours, minutes and seconds; use the 12-hour clock and a.m. / p.m. after a space
5.45 p.m.
9.05 a.m.
9 a.m.
Write out times in running text
from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m
Hyphens, minus signs, dashes
Hyphen: to divide and join words / numbers
The DTP program automatically hyphenates words at line breaks; used without spaces
25-year-old
Minus sign: not a hyphen, not a dash
Unique character used to show negative quantities
–80 Swiss francs
Short dash: en dash
Some adjustment of letter spacing may be useful depending on where these dashes are used
2012–2013
“to” dash in time and quantity ranges, no spaces
List-making dash, followed by an em space
– XYZ
Parenthetical interruptions or descriptions within sentences
Ms Muster – research fellow – …
Quotation marks
Swiss quotation marks (only in German text)
Guillemets, pointing outward; used without spaces
«…»
English quotation marks (only in English text)
Visual tip on placement: 66…99 (sixty-six, ninety-nine); used without spaces
“…”
Common typographical errors to avoid
Hyphenation …
- do not hyphenate names, abbreviations, mathematical symbols, times or dates; do not split numbers from their units of measurement
- avoid more than three hyphenated line breaks in a row
- do not hyphenate across columns or pages
Column breaks …
- do not break columns between numbers and their units of measurement, titles and names, or first names and surnames
- do not put the last line of a paragraph alone at the top of a new column
- do not leave the first line of a new paragraph alone at the bottom of a column