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Authoring Guidelines for cms.hhs.gov

Website Guidelines

• The site is all ASP.
• The site is fully XHTML 1.0 compliant.
• The site is fully Section 508 compliant.
• Directories will not be named according to components (e.g., OSP), but rather by subject (e.g., /research, /media). This enables a more portable structure independent of Agency organizational changes.
• Every directory will have a default.asp page.
• Subdomains are not allowed, except where absolutely necessary for technical reasons.
• All time-sensitive sections, such as Testimony and Press Releases should list only current-year materials on the main topic page.
• Archives are to be linked from the bottom of the main topic page.
• File formats that can be used without prior approval are:
  • Hypertext Markup Langauage (HTML) / Active Server Pages (ASP)
  • Portable Document Format (PDF) - Version 5 as of 2002
  • Graphics Interchange Format (GIF)
  • Joint Photographic Experts Group (JPEG)
• File formats that may be used pending prior approval are:
  • Rich-Text Format (RTF)
  • Comma-Separated Values (CSV)
  • Extensible Markup Language (XML)
  • Microsoft Word
  • Microsoft Access
  • Microsoft PowerPoint
  • Portable Network Graphics (PNG)
  • Scalable Vector Graphics (SVG)

Webpage Guidelines

General

• All pages submitted must use the cms.hhs.gov templates.
• All pages shall have an ASP file extension (.asp).
• All tags and attributes must be in lowercase.
• All attribute values must be enclosed in quotation marks.
• Ampersands (&) must be encoded as &.
• All non-empty elements must have a closing tag. For example:
  • Close all Paragraph tags with </p>.
  • Close all List Item tags with </li>.
• All empty elements must be closed by placing /> at the end of the start tag. For example:
  • <br />
  • <hr />
  • <img ... />
• Include Files must be used to access boilerplate language, instead of hard-coding text.
• Include Files must have an ASP file extension (.asp).
• Javascript shall be used very sparingly. The author shall ensure that a) the page functions with Javascript disabled and b) the Javascript does not interfere with and is accessible to assistive technologies.
• Users of cms.hhs.gov shall not be required to provide personal information to use the website.
• Users must specifically and knowingly provide personally identifiable information, if collected.
• The purpose of collecting personal information must be described at the point of collection.
• Persistent cookies are never allowed.
• If cookies are needed, only session cookies must be used.

Stylesheet

• Presentation is handled by a global stylesheet (.css) file.
• All formatting will be done via stylesheets (no local formatting or presentation markup).
• All justification will be done via stylesheets.
• Do not use the <font></font> tags. All fonts and colors are incorporated into the stylesheet through available classes.
• Do not specify font faces or sizes. If you are using an HTML conversion tool which adds these tags, it is your responsibility to remove them.
• To color text red, use <span class=''redline''>your-text-here</span>.

Head Section

• Complete author, keywords, description, and expiration date meta tags in the template.
• Author meta tags must have a component and name. For example:
  <meta name=''Author'' content=''CBC, Jon G. Booth'' />
• Each page must have appropriate keywords and page titles.
• All meta tags must be closed using /> at the end of the start tag.

Body Section

Tags and Attributes

• Do not use <b></b> and <i></i>. Instead, use <strong></strong> and <em></em>
• Use bold and italics sparingly and for emphasis only
• Tables shall not use fixed widths (pixels), but shall only use percentages.
• Nested tables shall be no more than two levels deep.
• Simple data tables must use either <th></th> and the "scope" attributes to support assistive technologies. Use of <caption></caption> and "summary" is strongly encouraged.
• Complex data tables (2 levels of headers or more) must use "id", and "headers" or "scope" and "axis" to support assistive technologies. Use of <caption></caption> and "summary" is strongly encouraged.
• Use the lang="es" attribute on any Spanish phrases or pages.

Links

CMS' web sites include: cms.hhs.gov and medicare.gov.

• Internal links must be written in root-relative syntax.
• All external links to non-CMS sites must pass through the "Good-Bye" page. Use the following code on all non-CMS external links:
  <a href=''/goodbye.asp?URL=http://www.your-url-here.org''>Link-text-here</a>
• All external links to educational institutions (.edu), non-profit organizations (.org) and government agencies (.gov) are acceptable.
• External links not listed above may be acceptable if the link does not refer to sites that: are for commercial benefit; do not violate cms.hhs.gov data collection and privacy policy; and comply with the external site’s terms of use.
• Points of consideration for external links:
  • Relevance to HHS and agency activities and communication goals;
  • Compliance with legal obligations;
  • Sponsoring organization or person;
  • Verification of information;
  • Timeliness and review of information;
  • Qualifications to provide health or human services information or advice;
  • Disclaimers;
  • Privacy;
  • Separation of advertising and editorial content;
  • Financial interests;
  • Contact information or feedback mechanism;
  • Registration and fees.

Graphics

• Refrain from gratuitous use of graphics.
• In general, the use of image maps is strongly discouraged.
• Image maps should be used sparingly and mostly client side.
• Server-side image maps are to be used only for maps. In this case, text-only links to each State and territory must also be made available.
• Server side image maps require equivalent text links.
• Every graphic must have an "alt" attribute with meaningful descriptions.
• Do not use clip art, photographs, other copyrighted works or copy materials from other sites without first obtaining a license agreement and Clearance.
• Labeling of all copied materials must clearly identify ownership.
• Data graphs require use of the “long desc” attribute.
• Graphical representations of signatures are not allowed.

Page Design

• Use tables for data, not layout. The current design is already table oriented.
• When posting large documents, individual HTML files should not exceed more than 10 printed pages.
• With documents that span multiple files, a Table of Contents page should be created.
• HTML is always the preferred format.
  • Posting of binary or proprietary formats is strongly discouraged.
  • MS Office files will be posted only under special circumstances and must be zipped
  • If you post a file which requires a plug-in you must a) ensure that the plug-in and content are both compliant with assistive technologies and b) use of the 2 standard "download" include files (see http://cms.hhs.gov/includes/pdf_download.inc for PDF only links or http://cms.hhs.gov/includes/file_formats.inc for a mix of file formats).
• Never use "click here" as the text for a link. Instead, use a descriptive phrase, as in the following example (where the text "Search Engine" is used as the link): Please use our Search Engine to see if your comment/concern/question is addressed elsewhere on this site.

Form Design

Certain documents are inherently visual. A specific example of this is forms. Until CMS begins data collection electronically via the Internet, we will need to continue to make forms available in a printable, standard format. For documents such as these, PDF is the natural choice.

Forms that are designed to be completed online shall be posted in HTML format only (no plug-ins). They shall use the range of assistive tags provided in HTML 4 - "accesskey", <label for…>, etc.

Disclaimers

• Copying of information from other sites to cms.hhs.gov can only be allowed if a license agreement from the site is obtained and the content is clearly labeled to denote ownership. This includes copyrighted materials, clip art and photographs.
• Any page that incorporates links to PDF files must use the Adobe Acrobat/PDF File Notice.
  • For Adobe Acrobat/PDF File Notice, use: <!--#include virtual=''/includes/pdf_download.inc''-->

Download Files

.PDF Files

• Adobe Acrobat 5 is CMS’ current supported standard (from a Clearance perspective). Previous versions are not compliant with Section 508 or other website accessibility standards; thus they will not be cleared for posting. Refer to access.adobe.com for Acrobat functionality relating to Section 508.
• For large documents which span multiple web pages, providing a PDF version of the same content provides convenience for the end user, a guarantee of better printability and a common pagination that can be used for support and reference materials.
• Material should not be published in PDF-only format. In addition to the PDF version, an HTML version of the content should be posted.
• A PDF version, if made available, should consolidate multiple HTML files into one printable PDF file. Or, if the material existed previously in Word, Quark, etc., the PDF file can be generated from the original application.

.ZIP Files

• Large files should be compressed using the .ZIP format.
• .EXE (self-extracting executable) files are not allowed. If an executable program is being posted to the website for download only, it may be posted as an .exe file.
• Any pages that include .ZIP files should also include a link to http://cms.hhs.gov/help/

Multimedia Guidlelines

• Any multimedia objects that are posted must be made available in Synchronized Multimedia Integration Language (SMIL) format.
• All pages which contain multimedia objects must use the multimedia template. (For further explanation of the template, refer to the template explanation document. (coming soon!)
• All files must utilize RealAudio and RealVideo format.
• All files must be able to accommodate a minimum speed of 56k.
• All files must be captioned.
• Files must not include live streaming or broadcasting.
• Audio clips must not be more than 15 minutes in duration.
• Video clips must not be more than 5 minutes in duration.
• Video clips must avoid busy backgrounds.
• Video clips must accept low frame rates and tiny window sizes.
• Resolution must be 240x180 or 176x132.
• Animation (GIFs, Shockwave, Flash, etc.) is not allowed.
• Graphical representations of signatures are not allowed.

Authoring Guidelines Checklist

Does your page meet all of the guidelines pertaining to:

• Website Guidelines?
• Dated materials and archiving?
• General Webpage Guidelines?
• Privacy?
• Stylesheet?
• Head Section of the page?
• Side Navigation?
• Tags?
• Attributes?
• Disclaimers?
• Links?
• Graphics?
• Page Design?
• Multimedia?
• Accessibility and Section 508?
• Forms?
• PDF files?
• .ZIP files?

cms.hhs.gov Web Development Contractors

Contractors who are developing content or applications for cms.hhs.gov should subscribe to this list to receive authoring guidelines, template updates, and technical information.. More information.