About the Style Guide

If you have a relatively fast Internet connection, we recommend that you keep the front page of the dpa Style Guide, i.e.

When adding the Style Guide home page to your favourites, exploit the benefits offered by Internet Explorer 5 and 6: make sure you tick the box that allows it to be read offline, and click the button that runs the assistant: select "1" as your level of links and "weekly" for updates. Then open the feature that allows you to edit the favourites, and drag a link to your desktop. (Use the mouse's right button while dragging to be sure you are getting a link and not a copy). That way you can call up the Style Guide while editing a story, and it will always be up to date.

If you have an older browser and either do not have fast Internet access or will be delayed by log-on procedures, it might be better to download the Style Guide to your hard drive. Here is what you have to do.

1. Download a "zipped" version of the guide by clicking here: /savable/styleguide.zip. Your browser will ask if you want to save it. Save it to your desktop for example. This file is 137 KB in size. It may take several minutes to download.

2. Create a new folder on your hard drive. Double-click on the saved file, and use your unzip software (e.g. WinZip or PowerArchiver) to extract the contents to the new folder.

3. Double-click on the newly extracted file home.htm to force it to open in your Internet browser.

4. Save this file as a favourite or as your home page. Better still, drag home.htm as a link to your desktop. Rename it "dpa Style Guide". (Use the context menu called with the right mouse button). Drag another link to your task bar. Done.

This all assumes you are running Windows 9x, ME or XP. We can't give Apple advice.

Download an easily printable version of the Style Guide by clicking here: /printable/stylebook.pdf. This file is 1.1 MB in size. On a very slow connection it may take up to half an hour to download. Save this file.

To print the entire guide, press on the print button in your Adobe Acrobat Reader.

Headings in green panel: Arial bold

Body text: Roman

Prescribed forms: in bold only where necessary for sense

Examples of use: italics

Despatch examples: monospace

Negative examples: in quotation marks