Formatting Dates and Times

Use of Dates or Times on the Website

Only use dates and/or times on a webpage when absolutely necessary. Remember that if a date gets put onto a page it will need to be updated quickly after the date passes. Nothing makes a webpage look old faster than a date that has passed. Exceptions to this rule are publication dates for stories, or dates used within news stories when discussing an event.

Formatting Guidelines for Web or Print

Dates

• Spell out the full month.
• Do not use date ordinals (i.e., February 2nd, March 15th). They are not read properly by most screen reading devices. Instead use February 2, March 15, etc.
• Avoid the use of figures for dates (i.e., 1/2/2024). 

Times

When writing times, use a space between the number and am/pm and do not add periods to am/pm. 

• 10:00 pm and not 10:00 p.m. 

Seasons

When writing seasons, lowercase the season name when speaking about a season in a general way. 

• The students received their fall reading list. 

Uppercase the season name when talking about a specific season. 

• This cohort of students will be entering in Fall 2026.