Use bold text very sparingly, and only to emphasise key ideas in each paragraph. Never use bold type to merely to make your text look better (such as in captions, names etc.). Limit bolding to just the relevant words, not whole phrases, sentences or paragraphs.
Avoid using italics, because italicised text is difficult for vision-impaired users to read on low‑resolution displays.
Don't underline anything but links. On webpages most people assume that anything that is underlined is a link no matter what colour it is.
Bulleted lists help users to scan. If you have 3 or more items listed in running text, consider putting them in a bulleted list. Remember, however, that having too many bullets in the same list looks odd.
Use the bulleted list format in the rich text editor in the CMS (as opposed to manually adding numbers/asterisks to a list of items). This is necessary for text-to-speech software.
For ease of reading, we generally
However, if your bullet point is composed of more than 1 complete sentence, punctuation becomes necessary . Also, a final point is recommended for a bulleted list that is part of a sentence.
Numbering should be preferred to the bulleted list only when there is an order to the list. The punctuation rules are the same as for bullet points, there should only be a final full-point if the list is part of a sentence and no other punctuation.
The Europa Web Guide is the official rulebook for the European Commission's web presence, covering editorial, legal, technical, visual and contractual aspects.
All European Commission web sites must observe the rules and guidelines it contains.
Web practitioners are invited to observe its contents and keep abreast of updates.
More information about the web guide.