Time

Times of the day should always use digits, not words. 

Separate the hours and minutes with a colon.

Use this format for time in marketing content, blog posts, and web pages: 12:30 p.m., not 12:30pm or 12:30 PM.

For user interface (UI) content, align to the product's format.  

When you need to specify the length of a video, use the 0:00 format (0:30; 2:36; 1:40:12). Note that in body copy, you should always refer to a video's length as 4.5 minutes, not 4 1/2 minutes.

Time zones

Indicate a time zone when you decide it's necessary. 

Don't use a time zone in the title/headline of event pages (because the city is noted). 

Include the time zone when it matters to customers, such as in an event listing. For event purposes, it's acceptable to use the 24-hour clock if that’s more convenient for scheduling.

Time zone specifics:

  • In the U.S., use PST, MST, CST, EST (Pacific Standard Time) or PDT, MDT, CDT, EDT (Pacific Daylight Time).
  • For Europe, use CET (Central European Time) or CEST (Central European Summer Time).
  • For the UK, use BST for British Summer Time (end of March to the end of October) and GMT for Greenwich Meantime (end of October to end of March) .

For other time zone abbreviations, consult the GreenwichMeanTime website.

Note that most countries in the Northern Hemisphere (north of the equator) use Daylight Saving Time in the summer. DST usually starts in the spring and ends in the fall when the countries return to standard time.

Style and punctuation

Don't use relative terms such as recent, now, later, soon, or in a while to refer to time spans. 

Use an en dash for dates (June 7–9) and time ranges (11:00 a.m.–3:00 p.m.).

If both ends of a time range are in the same period, use a.m. or p.m. only after the second time (9:30–10:30 a.m.).

If a.m. or p.m. is at the end of a sentence, use only one period. If a comma is necessary, use one after the last period (12:30 p.m.,).

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