Use of the Colon in detail lists

[BlobFisk]

Hi All,

I have a question regarding the use of the colon in detail lists. For example,

First Name: Jane 
Last Name:  Doe 

I've noticed that the use of the colon (after Name) has diminished. I always use it by default, as I consider it a standard for detail lists for (further) distinguishing between the label and the data.

I'd appreciate all thoughts.

[tombola]

If you don't want to use a colon after the label, you can use 'italic' or 'bold' for the label font and 'normal' for the data.

[BlobFisk]

After some research, the the Windows User interface guidelines say:

To make sure that the label is recognised correctly, include a colon at the end of the labels text string.

Also many screen review utilities often use a colon to identify a list control - e.g this would be of use in the accessibility arena.

[DrDoc]

I agree that use of the colon is good practise.

[coopster]

I would have to agree with the DrDoc here. Nothing makes a statement like a good clean colon.

:)

[dcrombie]

I've compromised by removing the colon from the HTML in FORMs and replacing it using CSS:

label:after { 
 content: ":" 
}

[BlobFisk]

Thanks everyone for your comments.

dcrombie, is there not very limited browser support for that CSS rule?

[ergophobe]

Interesting, but this is not addressed even in the 15th ed of the CMS (er... that's Chicago Manual of Style, not Content Management System) which is significantly updated for the web world.