Typography Rules and Shortcuts to Make Your Life Easier

Whether for print or web, word processing can quickly become complicated. Does a capital letter follow a colon or not? Is age written in figures or in words? And how do you type an accented capital letter again?

To simplify your life and help you find your bearings, here are some handy rules and shortcuts!

When should you use a capital letter? Or rather, when should you not?

Here are the situations where you do not use a capital letter:

after a colon: as in the example you are reading right now.
after a semicolon; as shown in this line.
after a question mark, exclamation mark, or ellipsis that does not end the sentence: "It was, alas! far too late"
with the names of days and months: Tuesday 8 August.

What about accented capitals?

In lowercase (small capitals), accented capital letters are not used: Etude, Eve, Ame.

When a sentence is written entirely in capitals, accented capital letters are used: AVÈNEMENT, HÔTEL, THÉÂTRE.

A few keyboard shortcuts to help you:

ALT-0192 : À
ALT-0194 : Â
ALT-0196 : Ä
ALT-0200 : È
ALT-0201 : É
ALT-0202 : Ê
ALT-0203 : Ë
ALT-0206 : Î
ALT-0207 : Ï
ALT-0212 : Ô
ALT-0214 : Ö
ALT-0219 : Û
ALT-0220 : Ü
ALT-0198 : Æ
ALT-0199 : Ç
ALT-0216 : Ø

Numbers: figures or words?

Written in figures:

• dates: 12 September 1956
• pagination: page 168
• postcodes: 69008, Lyon
• article numbers in laws, decrees, lottery tickets: article 15-b, law number 15-527, the winning ticket is 4574.
• measurements: 50 metres, 40 litres
• physical or electrical quantities: 30°C, 16 volts
• geographical coordinates: 6° 45' 12" longitude
• sums of money: 15 euros
• times: 13:41
• rates: 10%

Written in words:

• ordinal adjectives: the third man, the fifth floor
• fractions used in isolation: there is a quarter of an hour left.
• ages: she is fifty years old.
• spatial or temporal distances, when the number is whole or expressed as a common fraction: forty years ago, three hundred metres from there.

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