Learn to organize your paragraphs under descriptive headings, and apply "styles" to these headings. This habit will make it easier for anyone to scan through your document and find the parts of the document they want to read, an attribute known as "scannability."

Examples

In most software applications and web content management systems, you can highlight the text you want to make into a heading and apply built-in styles using the styles menu on the formatting toolbar.

Examples of Using Heading Styles in Google

Note

• Google Documents and Google Slides are not accessible once downloaded as PDF without remediation. At this point are only accessible as browser files.
  • Remediation is the process of making a document accessible.
• Microsoft Word and PowerPoint retains heading strucutre when setup properly and saved as a PDF.

Example of Using Heading Styles in a Content Management System

Avoid:

Don't use the text character options in the formatting toolbar to individually change the look of each heading in a document or webpage (e.g. larger font size, bolded, and underlined).

Example to Avoid Changing Text using Character Tools

Avoid increasing font size or changing colors as the only way to designate a heading.

Example to Avoid

Incorrect use of headings that do not follow logical order and use character styles that ineffectively convey semantic meaning.

Heading tags should never be used to control font characteristics alone. They should reflect the semantic structure of the content. Headings should be applied to paragraph headings based upon their hierarchy within a document.

In Digital Documents

• Heading 1 is applied to the title (on the cover page).
• Heading 2 is applied to the major topic headings (the topic on the next page).
• Heading 3 is applied to sub-sections.
• Heading 4, 5, 6 is not really necessary, but it makes it easier for someone to quickly find information if using a screen reader.

Web Pages

• Use level 1 headings to indicate the title, topic, or purpose of each page. (i.e. <title>)
• Repeat all or part of the level 1 heading in the browser page title of webpages. (i.e. <h1>)
• Use level 2 headings to indicate each main section of the document. (i.e. <h2>)
• Use level 3 headings to indicate sub-sections. (i.e. <h3>)
• Use level 4, 5, and 6 headings to indicate sub-sub-sections. (i.e. <h4> <h5> <h6>)

Examples to Achieve

• See a structured Google Document
• See a structured Word Document

A table of contents can make it easier for people to navigate and preview long documents or web pages.

Implementation Tips

Use the styles menu for headings, and your software may be able to automatically create a table of contents based on the headings.

Example to Achieve

Make sure you indicate that the links are anchors, such as by giving them a heading such as:

• Table of Contents
• Article Contents
• What's on This Page
• On This Page
• Jump To
• In This Document

See Google Document Table of Contents

Avoid

Don't include anchor links to different sections of a page or a table of contents without indicating what the links will do.

Don't create a long document without a functioning Table of Contents that is navigable.