Capital letters are typically used at the start of a sentence and for proper nouns.
Headings
Headings always use sentence-case (not title-case), excluding H1 page headings which are all-caps.
For example:
Do: Get $3k cashback when you refinance to us
Don't: Get $3K Cashback When You Refinance To Us
Note: No full stops on the end of any headings - see Headings and subheadings.
Sentence-case
Always use sentence-case for:
Navigation menus (unless linking a branded product).
CTA buttons and hyperlinks (no full stops but fine to use question marks)
Validation or error messages
For example:
Form fields
For example:
Numerical amounts
For example:
Do: $10k
Don't: $10K
Bullet points - see Bullet points & numbered lists for more.
Capitalisation
Always use capitalisation for:
Branded names (but not generic names of products or services)
For example:
Westpac Life savings account
Altitude Platinum credit card
Page meta titles (for SEO)
For example:
Personal | Bank Accounts
Guides
For example:
First Home Buyers Guide
Holidays - see People & Diversity for more.
For example:
Christmas, Easter, Lunar New Year
Days and months
For example:
Monday, Friday
January, December
Geographical names
For example:
Sydney, Australia
Languages
For example:
English, Cantonese, Vietnamese
Government departments
For example:
Australian Taxation Office
Job titles (official titles only)
For example:
Get in touch with your Relationship Manager
Awards
For example:
Best Business Bank Award 2021
Lower-case
Always use lower-case for:
Seasons
For example:
spring, summer, autumn, winter
Online terms
For example:
email, homepage, internet
Capitalisation rules do not apply when a formal name is written in lower or upper case.
For example:
Maria von Trapp, iPhone, ebay
BPAY, PayID
States and territories
States and territories have each word capitalised.
For example:
Australian Capital Territory (ACT)
New South Wales (NSW)
Victoria (Vic)
Queensland (Qld)
Western Australia (WA)
South Australia (SA)
Tasmania (Tas)
Northern Territory (NT)
Note: Don’t use all-caps for Vic, Qld, Tas as they are the shortened versions of each state's full name, rather than each letter representing a word, e.g., NSW stands for New South Wales.
Countries
Take note of the way we refer to certain countries.
- China – use China, not PRC
- United Kingdom - use UK or United Kingdom, not England or Great Britain
- United States - use US or United States, not USA, America or United States of America.
Note: For H1 headings, US reads as ‘us’, so use U.S.
For example:
China trade deal
UK stock market recovery
US stocks hit a slump
INVEST IN U.S. STOCKS