Re: Making a Corporate Style Guide

Hello,

> so far is that all of my attempts at style guides have
> looked like a long and disorganized list of petty rules. I think I'm
> lacking the proper perspective because I've never actually read a
> corporate style guide.
>

You hold the answer in your hands...

Get hold of some corporate style guides and take a look.
You could take a gander at a few items online such as
the Yale  Web Style Guide,
http://info.med.yale.edu/caim/manual/contents.html
the APA style guide http://www.lib.usm.edu/~instruct/guides/apa.html
You can download the ATT style guide in pdf format at
http://www.att.com/style/
The GE style guide at http://www.ge.com/standards/index.html


> I would like to make some clear and hard rules for how my coworkers
> should capitalize, bold, and otherwise format command names, product
> names, and other special pieces of text. Also, for how they should
> format different kinds of lists and text in general. My goal is for the
> company to be able to maintain a consistent style even without me.
> (Hey, I'm aware of my own mortality. :-)
>
Looking at a few such as http://www.motient.com/pdf/styleguide.pdf  or
http://www.aldec.com/ContactUs/StyleGuide/Style%20guide.pdf one sees that a
lot of emphasis is placed on the Look and Feel and correct, consistent use
of corporate logos.  You referred to "coworkers," not "employees."  Do you
need to check with corporate marketing on the brand identity?

Making a style manual can be an big undertaking (think committee of 12,
working for a year) not only setting colors and fonts for subheadings, but
considering issues like whether your web site should follow accessibility
guidelines. You can buy a customizable style guide at
http://www.veridus.com/customize.html (I havent tried it and dont know if
it's any good, but it's a thought.)

If it's a small company and you're talking about the employee newsletter,
maybe you should just prepare style sheets, one for print and one for web
(similar but not identical of course, since they are different mediums) and
be sure all computers have them or have access to them.
Hope this helps  :-)
pam

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