Dates and Time
Numbers and Figures
Measurements
<Dates and Time><Numbers and Figures><Measurements>
Dates and Time
Dates
Format dates as date/month/year. For example: 20/12/2009; 20 December 2009; Tuesday 20 December 2009 or 20-25 December 2009.
Time
Don’t add a space between the numeral and ‘am’ or ‘pm’, e.g. 9.00am, 7.00pm
When presenting a range of times, use a hyphen with no spaces, e.g. 9.00am-7.00pm, 9.30am-7.45pm, 8.30-9.00am
Don’t capitalise ‘am’ or ‘pm’.
Use full stops rather than colons; eg. 7.25pm rather than 7:25pm
Always use the full time range; eg. 9.00am, rather than 9am
Avoid using 12 noon or 12 midnight, use 12.00pm and 12.00am respectively
Include time zones for clarity if necessary, use AEST (which is Australian Eastern Standard Time) or AEDST (Australian Eastern Daylight Savings Time).
<Dates and Time><Numbers and Figures><Measurements>
Numbers and Figures
Numbers
Spell out zero through to ninety nine. Any numbers above 100 can be written as numerals. For all numbers over 1,000 use a comma; for example, 2,000; 3,000; 12,500.
FiguresFigures up to 99 are always spelt out, except in the following circumstances:
- figures associated with per cent values are always shown as figures not words, for example, 18 per cent
- all dollar values are shown as figures, for example $10.4 million
- when figures are shown in a table, the figure usage is acceptable
- when there is a decimal value shown such as 18.5 this is always shown as a figure value
- ratio amounts will always be figures, for example 5 for 14
- values over 100 should be shown in figures, for example 101
- references to a measurement are shown always as figures, for example 25 sqm (see measurement).
<Dates and Time><Numbers and Figures><Measurements>
Measurements
Use figures for all numbers that are accompanied by a symbol or unit of measurement.
Days, weeks and other units of time are not considered measures, so the standard rule for presenting numbers applies to these. See table for correct usage examples:
Correct in text usage
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Incorrect in text usage
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Use in tables
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six weeks
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6 weeks
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Weeks would be the column header, and the table can contain numerals, for example 6.
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three years
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3 years
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Years would be the column header, and the table can contain numerals.
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nine hours
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9 hours
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Hours would be the column header, and the table can contain numerals.
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365 days
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Days would be the column header, and the table can contain numerals
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1 inch
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One inch
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Numerals allowed in table, unit of measurement should be in column header.
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$25 billion
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$25b, twenty five billion dollars
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Numerals allowed in table, unit of measurement should be in column header.
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$30 million
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$30m, thirty million dollars
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Numerals allowed in table, unit of measurement should be in column header.
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| 17 metres |
seventeen metres, 17 metres
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Numerals allowed in table, unit of measurement should be in column header.
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25 square metres
When being used a lot throughout a document, it can be shortened after the first time to sqm
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25m2
25m2
25 square metres
25 s.q.m |
Numerals allowed in table, unit of measurement should be in column header and can be abbreviated. For example:
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25 hectares
When being used a lot throughout a document, it can be shortened after the first time to ha |
twenty five hectares |
Numerals allowed in table, unit of measurement should be in column header. |
| 36 kilometres |
36 km
Thirty six kilometres
Thirty six km
36km. |
Numerals allowed in table, unit of measurement should be in column header. |
45 kilowatt hours
When being used a lot throughout a document, it can be shortened after the first time to 45 kW hours
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.
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kW hours as a column header when required in table |
59 megajoules
When being used a lot throughout a document, it can be shortened after the first time to 59 mJ
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.
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mJ as a column header when required in table |
| 45 per cent |
45%
forty five per cent
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Numerals and % sign allowed in table, % sign should be in column header, not in body of table.
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