Colons
Key Point
💡 A colon indicates that related information follows.
Introductory phrase preceding colon
When a colon introduces a list, the text that precedes the colon must be able to stand alone as a complete sentence.
👍 Recommended: The fields are defined as follows:
👎 Not recommended: The fields are:
Bold text preceding colon
When the text preceding a colon is bold, make the colon bold too.
Colons within sentences
In general, the first word in the text that follows a colon should be in lowercase.
👍 Recommended: Tone: concise, conversational, friendly, respectful.
See also
For more information about how to punctuate introductory material, see the sections on list introductions and code-sample introductions.
For information about when it's better to use colons than dashes, see Dashes.