Lafayette CollegeTechnology Help
Information Technology Services (ITS) maintains the Technology Style Guide to maintain consistency and avoid confusion within Lafayette College documentation.
For a more generalized College style guide, we recommend reviewing the Communications Division Editorial Style Guide. Both style guides are informed by recommendations from the Associated Press Stylebook and The Chicago Manual of Style.
Acronyms: Always spell out the acronym on first reference, with the acronym itself in parentheses. On subsequence references, you can use the acronym by itself.
anti-virus: Always hyphenate.
Banner Self-Service: Always capitalize the entire name of the service and hyphenate “Self-Service”
drop-down: Always hyphenate.
double-click: Always hyphenate.
eduroam: Always lowercase, even at the start of a sentence.
email: Always lowercase, no hyphen.
e-portfolio: Always lower case.
Gmail: One word, no hyphen. The G is always capitalized.
Google Workspace: Formerly known as G Suite
home page: Two words, lowercase, never hyphenated.
Help Desk: When referring to the College’s official help desk, it is uppercase on all references. Always include the contact information starting with the email address and then the full phone number.
Internet: Capitalize as a proper noun (Lafayette does not follow AP Style).
Information Technology Services: Use the full division name on first reference with ITS in parentheses, ITS on subsequent references.
KB, MB, and GB: Units of measurement for file sizes. Kilobytes (KB), megabytes (MB), gigabytes (GB) and terabytes (TB)
login: One word when describing a component of the interface.
log in: Two words when referring to the action of logging in.
log in to: Three words, used for the act of logging in to a service.
Lafayette NetID: The “username” component of your Lafayette credentials. Use Lafayette NetID in titles, headings, and first reference in the body of the webpage. You can refer to this as “NetID” on subsequent references
Lafayette NetID account: Use when referencing the account, not just the username component of your Lafayette credential.
Lafayette credentials: Use “Lafayette credentials” when referencing Lafayette NetID and password in generally descriptive terms. Use “Lafayette NetID and password” when used in specific help documentation.
Lafayette password: Don’t use “Lafayette NetID password”. When used in combination with “Lafayette NetID” use “Lafayette NetID and password”. Use “NetID and password” on second reference of NetID)
Your [name of non-NetID service] password: When referring to a service that doesn’t use the Lafayette NetID, always specify the name of that service.
menu bar: Two words, lowercase.
mobile
My Lafayette: On first reference, refer to it as “My Lafayette, the College portal”. On second reference, it can be referred to as “the portal” or “My Lafayette”.
pop-up: Always hyphenate.
recovery email: Do not capitalize.
right-click: Always hyphenate.
single sign-on: Always lowercase, with “sign-on” hyphenated. On first reference, spell out single sign-on with the acronym in parentheses. On second reference, you can use the acronym.
single sign-out: Always lowercase, with “sign-out” hyphenated. Do not use “SSO” as an acronym for single sign-out.
smart classroom: Always lowercase.
SSO: see single sign-on.
two-step login: Always lowercase, “two-step” hyphenated. Do not use variants such as “multi-factor authentication” or “two-factor authentication”.
There is one exception; you can use “two-factor authentication” when explaining what two-step login is.
web: Per Associated Press and Lafayette College style, this is lowercase.
webpage: One word, lowercase.
website: One word, lowercase.
Webmail: Uppercase when referring to the ITS service.
wiki: Lowercase when referring to a generic wiki. Title case when referring to a specific wiki.
Wi-Fi: Two words, hyphenated.
The following styles apply when building or customizing web applications for Lafayette College.
NetID
Password