Hyperlinks, footnotes and glossaries
Use hyperlinks to define or explain terms, for cross references in a document, and for links to external documents.
Avoid using footnotes, including for references and citations.
Hyperlinks
Do not say click here or see here. Include enough information in the link for users to understand what it is and where it goes. Make sure the words in the link match the destination.
Link to webpages, not PDFs. If what you're linking to is only available in PDF, include (PDF only) after the link. For example, NHS digital weight management programme leaflet on obesity (PDF only).
Screenreaders may read out links separately from the rest of the text, so it's important that they make sense out of context.
When hyperlinking:
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follow the examples in the template, if there are any
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use the fewest words needed to be clear
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you do not have to include the full title of the reference in the hyperlinked text, as long as it's clear where the user is going and why they might want to go there (for example you might want to include the name of the organisation that produced the document)
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do not capitalise each word in the hyperlinked text
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do not put quote marks around the link.
Internal links
If it's an internal link to a place in the same guideline, pathway or document, use the section name or subhead in the link wording, for example: Also see the section on preoperative rehabilitation or See the update information.
External links
If it's a link to a different guideline, pathway or document, make it clear the reader is going to be taken somewhere else by naming the organisation, and make it clear what they'll find when they get there, for example: see the section on preoperative rehabilitation in the NICE guideline on joint replacement or see NICE's topic page on anxiety.
If you're linking to more than 1 web page from the same organisation, you only need to include the organisation in the first link, for example: See the NICE guidelines on generalised anxiety disorder and panic disorder in adults and social anxiety disorder.
If you're linking to more than 1 web page from different organisations, you need to include the organisation name in each link, for example: See all NICE's guidance on stable angina and the Department of Health's reference guide to consent for examination or treatment.
See the section on referencing and citations for how to link references and more examples of how to cite NICE publications in text.
Footnotes
Do not use footnotes. They do not work with screenreaders and when published online can end up very far away from the content they're referring to. Readers risk missing important information.
If the information is important, explain it in the text. For longer notes, use a hyperlink to link to separate content. If the information is not important, do not include it.
Glossaries
If you have to define only a few terms or if a term is used only once, include the definition in the text.
If there are lots of terms that may be unfamiliar to readers, you may use a glossary. Check if a word appears in the NICE glossary first, and link to that instead if it does.
Link to the glossary the first time a word appears in each section, not every time.