Date format
The date is always written in the order [Day] [Month] [Year] and includes all three values where applicable:
23 November 2020
- We do not use commas to separate values.
- If day of the week is included, it should be first in the order, before the date numeral.
- We do not use ordinal numbers to write the date, i.e. “1st”, “2nd”, “3rd” or “4th”.
- Day of the week can be shortened to 3 characters, e.g. Friday becomes Fri.
- Month can be shortened to 3 characters, e.g. November becomes Nov.
- A year can not be shortened. Use the full 4 digits.
- Any times shown inline with a date should follow the time format rules and be separated from the date with a bullet or a line break — [date] • [time].
- If a time is shown inline with a date, you should specify for the day of the month, month, year (and optionally day of the week), for clarity.
TIME FORMAT
Time is always written in numerals, in the order [hh]:[mm] [a.m./p.m.]:
1:23 p.m.
- We use the 12-hour clock, with “a.m.” and “p.m.” to indicate morning and afternoon/evening hours.
- “a.m.” and “p.m.” are always preceded with a space, written in lowercase, and include periods.
- A colon should be used between the hour and minutes. Any other punctuation can be confused as decimal or monetary.
- Always specify minutes where possible.
- If displaying a time range, use a hyphen with spaces ( - ) to separate the start and end time, and include “a.m.”/”p.m.” for both start and end times.
- It’s better to say “48 hours ago” rather than “two days ago.”