We’ve standardised how we write dates and times on our sites. This makes it easier for visitors to work out when things are happening.
It also makes scanning a page for key information much quicker.
In the latest of our Quick Guide series, here’s a timely reminder of our best practice for dates and times:
Dates
Dates have no punctuation.
The order should be day month year eg Thursday 4 August 2016.
A date range should look like this:
- 2011 to 2012
- Friday 28 February to Monday 3 March
Sometimes space is an issue, eg in tables. In this case, it’s fine to use truncated months eg Jan, Feb, Mar.
We’ve also set standards for writing decades and centuries:
- 1930s not 1930’s
- 20th century not twentieth century
Times
We use the 24 hour clock.
This makes times accessible to international audiences.
Here are some principles for presenting times:
- 17.30 not 5:30pm or 1730hrs
- 00.00 not midnight
- 12.00 not midday or 12 noon
For periods of time, you can use a hyphen between start and end times. For example, 10.00 – 11.30
