Communication Standards Blog

What Should You Do When You Need a Short URL?

Elizabeth Spencer — Fri, 26 Apr 2013 16:42:00 -0400

The Links page on Communication Standards now includes a section on link shortening services. But when should you use them? That's a whole other question.

On websites, you should almost always embed your links. Your users won't see the URL you're linking to and the length of your URL won't matter.

If you're creating publications, exhibits, or other printed materials that have URLs on them, you will probably want to use a marketing URL. (See the section on Energy.gov URLs.) This allows you to have a permanent, official, EERE URL for your materials.

So when should you use a link shortening service? Simple: When you can't embed a link online. That means you'll probably only need them on social media websites such as Twitter.

As always, if you have any questions, you can ask here in the blog comments or send an email to the Communication Standards webmaster. We're always glad to answer your questions!

The EERE Style Guide Gets a Facelift!

Elizabeth Spencer — Thu, 14 Mar 2013 14:27:00 -0400

The style guide is one of the most popular resources on the Communication Standards website. It's a valuable tool for ensuring that all EERE products use the same rules for punctuation, capitalization, and style. To make this great tool even better, we've recently made a ton of changes to it.

First off, you might notice that the capitalization has changed on most entries. Now, if something is meant to be capitalized (for example, because it’s a proper noun), it’s capitalized in the title of the entry. If it isn’t, it isn’t.

And then we added a ton of entries. There's a complete list of everything new at the bottom of this post!

As always, if you have any questions, you can ask here in the blog comments or send an email to the Communication Standards webmaster. We're always glad to answer your questions!

Print-Related Entries:
- author-date citations
- citations
- disclaimer
- footnotes
- references
General Guidance:
- Department of Energy
- spelling
- trademark symbols
- work-for-others agreement
Technical Phrases:
Please note that not all of these phrases have definitions. Many have been added just to show you how they're written.
- bandgap
- baseload
- BOS
- close-spaced-sublimation
- cooperative research and development agreement
- coproduction
- CPV
- CSP
- dish/engine systems
- enhanced geothermal system
- exergy
- geofluid
- geographic information system
- geopressured geothermal resource
- Geothermal Electric Technology Evaluation Model
- ground-source heat pump
- heat mining
- inverters
- kilowatt
- kilowatt-hour
- lithology
- low-e
- megawatt
- megawatt-hour
- microseismic events
- multijunction solar cell
- nonattainment
- noncondensable gases
- photovoltaics and photovoltaic
- Rankine cycle
- renewable portfolio standard
- solar cell interfaces
- solar conversion efficiency
- solar electricity
- state implementation plan
- supercritical fluid
- systems integrator
- III-V solar cell
- watt

New Page Explains Partnership Websites

Elizabeth Spencer — Wed, 23 Jan 2013 18:59:00 -0400

Partnership websites are created when EERE partners with any outside organization—another office in DOE, another federal agency, or even a non-federal organization—in order to create a shared website. These sites are unique, because they're not always branded to EERE and they're not always hosted in its template. Our new page on partnership websites explains the options that are available.

If you're designing a partnership website, be sure to talk to the Web Governance Team before you begin. And if you're already in the process of developing one, remember that we have a QA Checklist for partnership websites that covers all of the top-level federal requirements that all websites made with federal funds have to meet.

As always, if you have any questions you can ask here in the blog comments or you can send an email to the Communication Standards webmaster. We're always glad to answer your questions!

New Page Explains How to Make a Conference Website

Elizabeth Spencer — Wed, 17 Oct 2012 17:43:00 -0400

We've just posted a new Web page that explains everything you need to know to design and post a conference website. The new page explains how to design both the site and its registration page. And while we've had approved navigation labels for conference sites available for years, the new page explains what type of content belongs under those labels.

The new page is likely to evolve as DOE releases new requirements for registration sites. But we'd also like to hear from the Programs that have run conference sites in the past. What information would be useful for you? What would you like us to add to this page?

Feel free to leave your feedback and suggestions here on the blog, or mail them directly to the Communication Standards webmaster. We'd love to hear your feedback!

A Small Change to the Video Standards Lets Your Videos Be Viewed on iOS Devices

Elizabeth Spencer — Thu, 20 Sep 2012 18:27:00 -0400

We just changed the EERE Video Standards to give you a huge bang for your buck. Going forward, EERE-skinned videos will be visible to users on iOS platforms that don't support Flash, such as iPhones and iPads. All you have to do is upload your videos in MP4 format, and the rest is handled for you by the video skin.

If you've posted videos on EERE before, you know that we have two different ways of posting videos. Some videos are posted directly on the DOE YouTube Channel. These videos have never had any visibility issues, because they're already visible on iOS devices.

The other way to post a video is to host it on the EERE servers and post it in the video skin. We explain the entire process on the video page. We used to allow you to post videos in several different formats, including FLV—or Flash. Now, going forward, we require all videos to be posted as MP4s, so they'll be accessible to devices with and without Flash.

If you already have a bunch of videos, you might be wondering if this means you have to go back and update them. The answer is no. While it's a good idea to update your old videos if you can afford it—it's always better to reach more people, after all—it's not required. This requirement only applies to all new videos hosted on EERE.

As always, if you have any questions you can ask here in the blog comments or you can send an email to the Communication Standards webmaster. We're always glad to answer your questions!

The External Website Pop-Up

Elizabeth Spencer — Thu, 30 Aug 2012 18:54:00 -0400

You may have noticed that you now get a pop-up window when you click on an EERE link that points to a website outside of EERE. This pop-up is a new part of EERE's linking policy. EERE's always required that you spell out where a link will go in the link or the descriptive text around it. But now we've supplemented this with a pop-up window.

The new pop-up window looks like this:

It's a federal requirement to notify your users—in one way or another—that a link will take them to another website. The new pop-up window ensures that your users know that the site they're going to is not maintained by EERE.

But what if your site is maintained by EERE, but it's still triggering the pop-up? Well, even an EERE site will trigger the pop-up if:

The site does not have a .GOV URL
The site is not hosted in one of EERE's approved hosting environments
The site is not in EERE's template and is not approved to be out-of-template
The site does not met EERE's Quality Assurance standards.

If your site falls under these requirements, you can meet with the Web Governance Team to see what you can do to meet some of these standards.

As always, if you have any questions or concerns, you can leave a comment here on the blog or email the Communication Standards webmaster!

Internet Explorer 7 Is No Longer Part of the EERE Testing Suite

EERE Communication Standards — Wed, 22 Aug 2012 12:10:00 -0400

We've taken Internet Explorer 7 off of the EERE Testing Suite! This means that we will no longer test EERE's Web pages in Internet Explorer 7. You might be wondering how this affects your sites.

Our developers ensure that every Web page on EERE works in every browser and browser version in the testing suite. So if a browser is in the Testing Suite, then our sites should display correctly in all of them.

We determine which browsers go on this list by looking at the site-wide EERE stats. If a browser is used by more than 5% of our users, we test in it. When a browser drops beneath 5%, we take it off. That way, we're ensuring that our sites work well in every browser used by the majority of our users.

What does this mean? It means that, from now on, we won't test our sites in IE7. Our current sites should still work in this browser, since they were tested and coded to work in IE7. But as our sites are updated and continue to change, there is a greater chance that sites won't display properly. If you're using IE7, you should upgrade to a more recent browser.

As always, if you have any questions, please leave a comment here on the blog or contact the Communication Standards webmaster. We're always glad to answer your questions!

How to Plan, Build, and Get Approval for Mobile Applications

Elizabeth Spencer — Mon, 09 Jul 2012 14:24:00 -0400

Last month, we released guidance on why, when, and how to build a widget. This month, we have posted a new page with guidance on how to build a mobile application.

Mobile applications come in two forms. Native applications are what you see in the Apple or Google stores, which allow you to download applications made specifically for your device. Web-based Mobile Applications are mobile websites that provide an "application-like" experience inside a browser.

EERE programs can choose either option based on their resources and needs. The new page walks you through the pros and cons of both options.

And, as always, if you have any questions about the new content on Standards—or suggestions on how to make it better—please leave a comment here on the blog!

New Widgets Page Explains When, Why, and How to Build a Widget

Elizabeth Spencer — Thu, 07 Jun 2012 17:54:00 -0400

In April we announced the new EERE Widget Style Guide, which walked you through what an EERE-branded widget should look like. Now we've put together a page that discusses the entire process of making a widget, from planning to promotion.

The new Widgets page explains when you should build a widget, how to get approval to start, how to design and code your widget, and how to promote it once it's live.

The new page should explain everything you need to make an EERE widget. But, of course, if you have other questions, just tell us. We'd love to make the page more useful!

And be sure to keep an eye out for our next update! In the next few weeks we'll be posting a new page how to develop mobile Web applications, too.

As always, if you have any questions about the new content on Standards—or suggestions on how to make it better—please leave a comment here on the blog!

Updates to EERE's Print Templates and Identity Guidelines

Elizabeth Spencer — Fri, 20 Apr 2012 14:21:00 -0400

We're pleased to announce that we have an updated version of the EERE Identity Guidelines and updated EERE print and CD templates posted on the EERE Communication Standards website.

The EERE Identity Guidelines include guidance on the use of colors, fonts, visual identifiers and logos, and other aspects of EERE information products to provide a consistent approach to EERE's communications products.

This updated version reflects a few key changes:

Increased flexibility. Programs are encouraged to be innovative in their writing and design. Programs may use the templates to save time and money, but are welcome to create their own designs as long as the new designs follow the minimum requirements of the new QA checklist.
A new QA checklist. The guidelines include a QA checklist to help delineate the recommended versus required elements.
Key messages have top billing. Place the most important information at the top of your document. Program names are no longer required to be in the top banners unless you are developing a product about an EERE program.

The new print and CD templates have a few minor color changes and updated boilerplate information.

If you have any questions or suggestions about the updated guidelines and templates, please feel free to contact Scott Minos.