Titles Versus Headlines

As a general rule, use title case for titles and sentence case for headlines.

Titles

Titles include more formal pieces of copy like navigation items, labels, website section titles, button copy, blog posts, and article titles.

Headlines

A headline is a prominent piece of copy that appears as part of print or web ad campaigns, and may also be appropriate in websites or emails where the copy does not quite fit the definition of a title. The headline is usually communicating a thought or an idea, whereas titles are reserved for denoting more formal elements.

Choosing Between Titles and Headlines

Usually the distinction between a title and a headline is pretty clear, but there will be times when you’ll have to make a judgment call. Here are some tricky situations on non-Yodle sites where successful decisions have been made in distinguishing between titles and headlines.

Company and Product Names

Some brand and company names use punctuation, like Oh Henry! and Toys"R"Us. Others incorporate intercaps, like HootSuite and eHarmony. Punctuate and capitalize names associated with organizations as they do.

When in doubt, look at the organization’s press releases or, if it has one, its copyright page. There you’ll find a way to style the title using standard keyboard characters.

Endings like “Incorporated,” “Limited,” or abbreviations like “Inc,” “LLC,” “Ltd,” etc can usually be omitted. In a situation where it is necessary to write the full name, ditch the comma before these terms or their abbreviations. When using the abbreviated endings, leave out the periods, unless, of course, they’re placed at the end of a sentence. If the company’s name must be written out entirely, refer to it that way the first time and then skip those terms or abbreviations thereafter.

When referring to your own or another company, use the third-person singular pronouns “it” and “its.” In the US, a company is treated as a collective noun and requires a singular verb and a singular pronoun.

Email Addresses and Fields

Write email addresses the same way their respective companies list them. At Yodle, we write our email addresses in all lowercase.

Don’t use quotations or italics. Most people know an email address when they see one.

When referencing email fieldnames, always capitalize the first letter.

File Names, Types, and Extensions

File names should be bold and written in lowercase so they don’t blend in with the surrounding text. (image.jpg, setup.exe)

File types are written in all capital letters when not attached to a specific file name. (DOC, HTML, PDF)

A file name extension is usually three letters separated from the file name by a period. Write these in all lowercase letters and ditch the period. Enclose the extension in quotation marks.

Titles of Places

Rules for US States and Districts

When specifying a city within a particular state, spell out the entire city and use that state’s postal abbreviation (New York, NY). Write out the entire state name when you’re not indicating a city. The only time you should make an exception is if space is extremely limited. Write our nation’s capital like this: Washington, DC, or District of Columbia. Only refer to it as Washington by itself if it cannot be confused with the state in context.

Rules for World Regions

Commonly referenced world regions should be capitalized, such as:

• Central America
• Latin America
• Northern Hemisphere
• Southern Hemisphere
• East Asia
• Middle East
• South America
• South Pacific
• Eastern Hemisphere
• North America
• Southeast Asia
• West Indies

Rules for Compass Directions

Use lowercase for:

• North
• South
• East
• West
• Northeast
• Southeast
• Northwest
• Southwest
• Northern
• Southern
• Eastern
• Western

Titles of People

Titles pertaining to government, religious, and other organizational positions are only to be capitalized when they directly precede a name.

Such titles will include:

• President
• Senator
• Mayor
• Ambassador
• Chief Justice
• Pope
• Cardinal
• Rabbi
• Treasurer
• General Manager
• Chair

Titles of Works

When you’re referencing the title of any work, use title case and either quotations or italics. Below, we’ll specify when to use which.

Rules for Using Italics or Quotations

Titles that require italics include:

• Newspapers
• Magazines
• Blogs
• Books
• Operas
• Plays
• TV programs
• Radio programs
• Web programs
• Podcasts
• Movies
• Record albums

Titles that require quotations include:

• Newspaper articles
• Magazine articles
• Blog posts
• Headings
• Chapters and other parts of books
• TV episodes
• Radio episodes
• Songs
• Podcast episodes
• Lecture titles
• Speeches
• Artworks
• Webisodes
• Poems

Titles that do not require quotations or italics include:

• Software
• Computer, video, and board games

If you’re compiling a list that only includes titles, there is no need for italics or quotations. If the titles are not being set off from any other element, just make sure you use title case.

If the list consists of a group of unlike items and includes titles that require special visual treatment, use double quotations or italics when applicable.

If you need to reference a part of a work that does not have a title – like a row, column, page, or line – use lowercase and numerals.

Website Names and Addresses

If you’re going to refer to a website by its name and not its URL, follow the site’s standard capitalization style without any quotations or italics.

When referencing a publication that has both an online and print edition, indicate which one you’re referring to if necessary for clarity.

When you’re talking about content from a website, use “on” as the preposition.

If you’re referring to a website, newspaper, or magazine by its publication title, using “in” is acceptable.

URLs

Omit http:// at the beginning of URLs that include www and the domain alone. Omit the trailing slash (/). Stick to the site’s standards for capitalization. If you’re uncertain of exactly what those are, use all lowercase letters for domain name URLs.

For URLs of deeper level pages, use the full address, including the http:// at the beginning, and stick to the site’s conventions for capitalization, as they’re often case-sensitive. Don’t punctuate the end of the URL so that your audience doesn’t think it’s actually part of the address. People often copy and paste URLs into a browser for convenience. Throwing on a period at the end can be misleading. Either set off the URL with a colon and a line break, or put URLs in parentheses if you have the space.