Highlight: Use colons to initiate closely-related content that follows.
Colons in introductory phrases
Include a colon at the end of a phrase or sentence that list. The text preceding the colon must distinctly stand alone as a complete sentence.
Examples
Not recommended:
The settings are:
- Site title
- Tagline
- WordPress Address (URLURL A specific web address of a website or web page on the Internet, such as a website’s URL www.wordpress.org)
Recommended:
The settings that can be changed are as follows:
- Site title
- Tagline
- WordPress Address (URLURL A specific web address of a website or web page on the Internet, such as a website’s URL www.wordpress.org)
For more information, see Lists.
Colons in titles and headings
When you use a colon in a title or heading, capitalize the word following it.
Examples
Not recommended: Getting started with WordPress hooksHooks In WordPress theme and development, hooks are functions that can be applied to an action or a Filter in WordPress. Actions are functions performed when a certain event occurs in WordPress. Filters allow you to modify certain functions. Arguments used to hook both filters and actions look the same.: introduction
Recommended: Getting started with WordPress hooksHooks In WordPress theme and development, hooks are functions that can be applied to an action or a Filter in WordPress. Actions are functions performed when a certain event occurs in WordPress. Filters allow you to modify certain functions. Arguments used to hook both filters and actions look the same.: Introduction
Not recommended: Recommended settings for benchmarking: new updates this month
Recommended: Recommended settings for benchmarking: New updates this month
Colons within sentences
In general, when you use a colon in a sentence, lowercase the following word. For more information, see Capitalization.
Examples
Recommended: Things that are encouraged: overall simplicity of the document; brief and concise sentences; and using conditional phrases.
Recommended: You have three options: copy the file, move it or delete it.
Exceptions
- Capitalize the word after the colon if it is a proper noun.
Example
Recommended: You can install WordPress on one of the following operating systems: Windows, macOS, or Linux. - Capitalize the word after the colon if it is a quote.
Example
Recommended: What does it mean if I see a message saying: “Error Code 345. Do you want to continue?”
Bold text preceding colon
If non-italic text preceding a colon is bold, then make the colon bold too.
Code text preceding colon
Don’t include a colon in text preceding code, code back-ticks (`), or a <code> tag unless it is part of the code.
For more information about code formatting, see Code examples and Code in text.
