Content
Style refers to the preferences we have for how we express ourselves, such as whether or not to use the Oxford comma. It ensures our communication is clear and consistent, helping us present ourselves uniformly in writing.
Morningstar Style Guide
Anyone writing for product experiences should always refer to the Morningstar Style Guide for our in-house style. In many instances, the guide aligns with Associated Press Style, but notable exceptions for product contexts are included here. Importantly, be consistent about your style choices across a given page, flow, or document.
For access, please email the copy desk.
Capitalization
- Headers for page, section, and container headers are sentence cased.
- Labels for navigation items and form field names are title cased.
- Call to action text in buttons and other elements that prompt a response from the user must be capitalized.
- Placeholder and helper text are written in sentence case. If you are referencing names, places, or other proper nouns, capitalize those words as you normally would.
- Product name and objects for products, family brands, and capabilities are capitalized. Places and objects within an application are not capitalized.
- File types should only be capitalized when talking about the kind of file, lowercase as the extension of a filename.
Dates and Times
Exact and Relative Times
All possible efforts should be made to localize times according to the user’s browser settings. When a time zone is required, disregard daylight savings time. Since daylight savings time starts and ends on different days in different countries, inclusion could be more confusing than helpful.
Do use exact times (July 27 at 12:45:04 p.m. CT) refer to a specific point in time, like the price of a stock on a given date or the arrival time of a flight.
Do use relative times to convey a sense of recency or urgency, or for “rolling” analysis, when the starting point should be a constant interval from today’s date.
Full Sentences
In editorial usage, Morningstar typically follows AP style which would be Jan. 24. In product experiences, designers have discretion to choose the style that best matches their use case. For more guidance, see the Morningstar Style Guide.
Feel free to omit the year if the information refers to the current year and the omission won’t create confusion.
Do write out the full name of the month, formatted in the prevailing local style (January 24 or 24 January).
Don’t use MM/DD—all readers will be able to understand “March 4” but could get tripped up by a numeral-only format.
UI Labels
There are often design or typographic constraints that make it difficult to prescribe a single style in all cases. Here’s our order of preference for how to write dates in UI labels. While mixing styles within an application is expected, try to maintain a single style across similar elements.
- Full month and day: March 29, 2020
- Three letter abbreviation: Mar 29, 2020
- Numeric date: 11/05/20
Do include a year with numeric dates.
Don’t use MM/DD format without a year; not everyone reads dates in that order and there’s too much risk for confusion.
One broad exception to all of the above: When formatting dates and times for display, it’s okay to defer to the browser’s native presentation settings. This is mostly a mobile concern.
Placeholder Text
Do use “Enter date” or the date format, such as MM/DD/YYYY.
Don’t use an example date for placeholder copy. Input validation should be written as “MM/DD/YYYY” or “DD/MM/YYYY.”
Diacritical Marks and Non-English Words
Morningstar Style prefers the use of American English terms. Non-English words or phrases that are likely unfamiliar to most readers should be italicized (“Meer doen,” but “rendezvous”). When in doubt, refer to the Merriam-Webster dictionary and use your discretion.
Do spell out all numbers under 10 except in dates, percentages, or when typographic or design decisions make it unreasonable or weird looking.
Do use numerals in messages that dismiss or resolve after a short period to aid with scannability.
In copy, write out denominations above a million. Use single-letter abbreviations, below, in space-constrained placements.
Data Visualizations
Since space is constrained and scannability is critical, use numerals in data tables, charts, and graphs.
Single Letter Abbreviations
Use K for thousand as in kilowatt, not the Roman numeral M. For all other numbers use the first letter of the English word. K is a more common convention for 1,000 than the Roman numeral M and 1MM (a thousand thousand) may be confusing.
- K for thousand ($1K for $1,000)
- M for million ($1M for $1 million)
- B for billion ($1B for $1 billion)
- T for trillion ($1T for $1 trillion)
