HL7 Style Guide, Release 1.0

HL7 Style Guide, Release 1.0

ANSI/HL7 V3.0-2001
January, 2001

HL7 V3 Standard:
Style Guide, Release 1.0, March 2001

Editors: Karen Van Hentenryck
HL7 Headquarters
Kathy Blyler
Siemens

Charlie McCay
UK

Helen Stevens
McKessonHBOC

Copyright© 2001 by Health Level Seven,® Inc. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. The reproduction of this material in any form is strictly forbidden without the written permission of the publisher.

Health Level Seven and HL7 are trademarks of Health Level Seven, Inc.

Table of Contents

1.1 Purpose......

1.2 General Rules......

1.2.1 Identifying Document Ballot Status......

1.2.2General Specifications and Settings......

1.2.2.1 Page Setup......

1.2.3Headers and Footers......

1.2.3.1Footers......

1.3Title Page......

1.4Table of Contents......

1.5Headings......

1.6Non-Heading Text......

1.7Tables......

1.8Linking Conventions......

1.9Graphics......

1.10Indexing......

1.1Purpose

This document describes the formatting practices and preferences for HL7 Version 3 documents. This document is formatted according to this style sheet and thus serves as an example.

1.2General Rules

To reduce the amount of formatting effort no direct formatting should be applied. All formatting should be applied using the HL7-supplied template and styles. This Style Guide assumes the use of MS Word 97 SR-2 or a later version of MS word (Office 2000, etc.). All documents composed in Microsoft Word should be saved as RTF files. Those files can then be converted to PDF, XML or HTML format. In the future, HL7 will provide the domain editors with an XML style sheet that can be used with off-the shelf XML tools to generate the documents.

1.2.1Identifying Document Ballot Status

The HL7 ballot package for the initial release of V3 will include multiple documents. Some of these documents, such as the Message Development Framework (MDF) are included for reference only; others, like the Version 3 Data Types Document, have already been balloted as an HL7 Normative document but are part of the final product and therefore included in the ballot package. All documents included in a V3 ballot package will assume one of the five statuses noted in the table below. The status of each document is identified in the Version 3 backbone document by placing the appropriate icon next to the document title as it appears in the backbone document. The status icon tells readers whether they can ballot a particular document and, if so, which ballot rules—informative or normative—apply. For one ballot package there may be multiple documents being balloted using the HL7 procedures for balloting normative documents as well as one or more documents being balloted using the HL7 procedures for balloting informative documents.

Document Status

1.2.2General Specifications and Settings

When composing documents using Word, please observe the following standard settings:

• The language is American English
• Hyphenation is enabled.
• Paper orientation is portrait
• “Fast saves” are disabled (keeps the documents to a minimum size)
• “Templates and Add-Ins  automatic updates” is disabled.

1.2.2.1Page Setup

Please observe the following setup parameters:

• Top margin: 1.0
• Bottom margin: 1.0
• Left margin: 1.25
• Right margin: 1.25
• Gutter (for binding): 0
• Header: 0.5
• Footer: 0.5

1.2.3Headers and Footers

No headers are provided on the first page of any document. Thereafter, headers are Arial, 10 pt bold. The headers on this document are formatted using the Header style. The header is comprised of the following:

• The name of the document in initial caps. This is flush right on odd numbered pages and Left on even numbered pages.
• A ¾ pt rule line that runs from margin to margin and separates the header from the page text

Header Styles

1.2.2.2Footers

Footers are Arial, 10 pt bold, right justified on odd numbered pages and left justified on even numbered pages. The footer is comprised of two lines. The first line consists of:

• A ¾ pt rule line, which runs from margin to margin, above the first line of text. This serves to separate the footer from the page text.
• The formal name of the document (e.g., Version 3 Standard: Data Type Specification, Release 1, November 2000). This is left aligned for odd pages, right aligned for even pages
• The word Page following by the page number. This is right aligned for odd numbered pages, left aligned for even numbered pages

The second line consists of:

• The word Draft # or Final Standard (left aligned for odd numbered pages, right aligned for even numbered pages)

Footer Style

1.3Title Page

Each document that is submitted to ANSI for approval shall contain a title page. For the initial release of Version 3, the three subjects may be rolled up into single document that will be submitted to ANSI for approval. Should that be the case, there will be one title page under which will fall the three subjects. The title page shall not contain headers or footers. The title of the document shall appear on line 20 of the title page, formatted using the Title style Heading 1 style discussed below. The editors should be included on the title page, two spaces below the title document (use the table text style noted below) and using the Editor list style.. The following copyright notice shall be provided on the title page, on the final lines of the document page:

• Copyright © 200X by Health Level Seven®, Inc. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. The reproduction of this material in any form is strictly forbidden without the written permission of the publisher.
• Health Level Seven and HL7 are trademarks of Health Level Seven, Inc.
• If the document is ANSI-approved the ANSI logo (available from HL7-HQ) shall appear the upper right-hand corner of the 10th line and the ANSI designation should appear two lines below the ANSI logo.

Title Page Styles

1.4Table of Contents

A Table of Contents shall follow the title page. The Table of Contents shall display entries for Headings 2-4, using the conventions provided below. Each entry in the table of contents shall be linked to the corresponding heading within the document, using the TOC link style provided below.

Table of Contents Styles

1.5Headings

Headings are used to divide a document into logical section. This style sheet provides four levels of numbered headings. Heading 1 would be applied to the three subjects – Health and Clinical Care Management, Administrative Management and Infrastructure Management. The non-numbered headings will be applied to the backbone document for sections other than Sections, Subsections and Domains and to the Literary expression.

Heading Styles

1.6Non-Heading Text

This style sheet provides for a limited number of non-heading text styles.

HL7 Version 3 Standard: HL7 Style Guide, Release 1.0, March 2001. All rights reserved. Page 1

Draft #1

HL7 Style Guide, Release 1.0

1.7Tables

Tables are generally centered and bordered (single line), including borders between columns and row. A table can be inserted almost any where except within another table (no nested tables allows)