APS Academy training

The APS Academy provides training in writing and editing for Australian Public Service employees. This training is based on the content in the Style Manual.

The APS Academy is responsible for developing APS Craft – the essential skills that public servants need in order to deliver good policy and services.

The Australian Government Style Manual (Style Manual) is the definitive resource for Australian Government content.

It helps you put people’s needs at the centre of the content you create. It’s the toolkit for making information easy to read, accessible and inclusive.

The Style Manual is produced and published by the Australian Public Service Commission.

Create webpages by default

Create content in HTML pages instead of PDFs.

You can configure HTML pages for printing and sharing.

Usability problems with PDFs

PDFs often create problems for users, including:

Use WCAG to guide your agency about accessibility

‘WCAG’ stands for Web Content Accessibility Guidelines. WCAG 2.2 is the current version. The Worldwide Web Consortium (W3C) released version 2.2 in October 2023.

WCAG is a stable standard to meet specific needs of people with disability. The standard acknowledges its limitations in meeting needs for people with cognitive and learning disabilities.

The standard is integrated with Style Manual guidance to help you create inclusive content.

Use WCAG principles to meet user needs

The Web Content Accessibility Guidelines (WCAG) 2.2 guidelines can be expressed as user needs. These needs feature throughout the Style Manual. The following lists group user needs (guidelines) under WCAG principles.

Principle: content is perceivable

Any user can perceive the content.

User needs:

Design for all

The idea of ‘design for all’ has its roots in human-computer interaction studies. This body of knowledge offers practical methods to improve people’s experience of digital content.

The Style Manual promotes some of these methods, in line with the Digital Service Standard, such as:

Make content accessible

Accessibility is about inclusion.

Government services and products need to be available to everyone. This means creating inclusive content.

Inclusive content recognises:

• Australia’s diversity
• the diversity of technology Australians use to engage online.

For example, inclusive content accommodates:

Style Manual basics

Use the Style Manual to learn how to apply government style to all kinds of content formats. It tells you how to write and edit user-focused content.

Guidance on each page helps you understand how to:

• create content for government
• use rules and conventions to create consistent content.

You can use the manual for services and products that are designed for end-users (external-facing content). It’s equally applicable to content for government users (internal-to-government content).

January to March 2025

Security classifications and protective markings

• Information about protective markings amended to reflect the PSPF Annual Release 2024.
• First section reworded for clarity.
• 'References' and 'Release notes' updated.

October to December 2024

Changes subsequent to publication of the Government writing handbook.

Treaty citations need the correct title and series information

A treaty is an international agreement that is binding under international law. The Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade explains the different types of treaties and how they are made in the Treaty making process.

Sometimes a Commonwealth Act of parliament is required to give effect to a treaty – for example, the Antarctic Treaty Act 1960.