Labels

Simple writing

A good label explains the purpose of the field to the user in as little space as possible, preferably a total of three words.

To make the product easy and quick to read and understand, you should always use the simplest, most direct and specific term possible to identify the label, avoiding, wherever possible, the use of definite and indefinite articles and pronouns as well as technical jargon or unnecessarily long words, and giving preference to verbs in the infinitive.

These can make something that is quite simple more complex and increase the length of the label. If you can only use a few words, let’s not use twice as many.

Abbreviations

Due to the high character limit, it is important to keep the content of the label short and clear. Whenever possible, the text should be adapted to avoid the use of abbreviations, which can make it difficult to instantly understand the content of the label..

For more information on how to abbreviate messages, consult the abbreviation rules and, if you have any doubts, always consult the eXA team.

Uppercase/Lowercase

By default, all product labels that are not complete sentences should be treated as headings. In other words, all words should have initial capitalization, with the exception of articles, pronouns, prepositions and adverbs that are not at the beginning of the label.

However, in the case of product messages that are complete sentences, that is, that have final punctuation, only the first letter of the first word should be capitalized.

Buttons

Whenever possible, action buttons should be verbs, without punctuation and should indicate the action or the result of the action unambiguously.

You should always try to use the same verbs for the same actions in all products, for example:

Products Names

The correct way to write the names of the products and applications raises some doubts, and sometimes they are written in different ways.

Consult the Style Guide to find out how to write the names of the Cegid products. If you have any doubts, always check with the Brand team.

Initialisms

Initialisms and acronyms should be written without a period between the letters. Consult the Style Guide to find out more..

Translatables

Not all content in Portuguese can be translated into other languages. The same applies to Spanish and English.

Here are some examples of content that should be kept in Portuguese:

• National portals and entities without equivalence in the destination country: e-fatura, Portal das Finanças, Caixa Geral de Aposentações, ADSE, Diário da República, Portal do Contribuinte, Diploma Ministerial, Instituto Nacional de Segurança Social (INSS).
• PT documents and terms without equivalence: ficheiro SAF-T, DRi (Declaração de Remunerações); TSU; NIPC (Número de Identificação de Pessoa Coletiva); SVAT (Selo de Validação da AT); SNC (Sistema de Normalização Contabilística); FCT (Fundo de Compensação do Trabalho); FGCT (Fundo de Garantia de Compensação do Trabalho).

Here are some examples of content that should be kept in Spanish:

• National portals and entities without equivalence in the destination country: FACe, Agencia Estatal Administración Tributaria (AEAT);

On the other hand, there are terms and initialisms that are easily recognized in their original EN form and should not be translated into PT. For example:

• Terms: headcount; turnover.
• Initialisms and acronyms: Código BIC (Bank International Code/ Código Internacional Bancário); IBAN (International Bank Account Number/ Número de Conta Internacional); POS (Point of Sales/Ponto de Vendas); VIES (VAT Information Exchange System/Sistema de Intercâmbio de Informações sobre o IVA), etc.

In the latter cases and where applicable, the description of the term must be translated, but the initialism or acronym must be kept in EN.

Terms that must be translated:

• Recognized international references: SME, VAT, TIN, PIT, HR.
• All national entities that have an equivalent in the country of destination: Segurança Social (Seguridad Social/Social Security).

Punctuation

In general, we should avoid using punctuation in product labels, as they should not be complex sentences. Apart from a few exceptions that should be validated with the eXA team, labels should not use periods, semicolons, exclamation marks or question marks.

Suspension points imply something unfinished and, if necessary, can be used to indicate that part of the text is hidden or that there is an action in progress and colons should be used to introduce a list of items.

Dates

Depending on the context and the available space, dates can be written in full or abbreviated using slashes. If the day/month is prior to 10, a zero should be used before the corresponding day/month.

Depending on the language/country, the date format may be different. Below is the model to be used in each of the languages used:

• PT/ES/FR: DD/MM/AAAA

• EN: MM/DD/AAAA

Hours

The division between hours and minutes should always be made with a colon. However, depending on the language/country, the hour format may be different.

Below is the model to be used in each of the languages used:

• PT/ES/FR: Hours must be displayed in the 24-hour format, with no AM/PM indication (10:35).

• EN: Hours must be displayed in the 12-hour format, with the AM/PM indication (3:52 AM).

In products, numbers should always be represented using figures and not in full. Depending on the language country in which the number is being written, the decimal and thousands separator can be a space, a period or a comma.

Below is the model to be used in each of the languages used:

• PT/ES/FR: the thousand separator is a space and the decimal separator is a comma, i.e. 1 234 567,89.
• EN: the thousand separator is a comma and the decimal separator is a period, i.e., 1,234,567.89.

Note: the thousand separator should only be used after five figures; if the number only has four figures, it should be displayed without a separator, i.e. 2022, for example.

Symbols

Depending on the country and language selected, the currency symbol can be displayed before or after the value, and the applicable decimal separator is the one described above in the representation of numbers.

Below is the model to be used in each of the languages used:

• PT/ES/FR: the currency symbol must be used after the number, keeping a space between them, i.e, 15,99 €.

• EN: the currency symbol must be used immediately before the number, i.e, €15.99.

Links

In products, all links should be visible to the user and duly marked in blue without underlining and should be underlined when the cursor is hovered over the link.

Brackets

Avoid using brackets in products. It can be used if necessary, but it’s important to remember that brackets indicate to the reader that the information is accessory and they may ignore it.