Welcome to the MC&FP Style Guide

Updated Terms A-Z 

active duty, active-duty – Lowercase in all references. As a noun, use two words: Military personnel serve on active duty. As an adjective, hyphenate: All active-duty personnel must participate. Do not hyphenate when the modifier is not already hyphenated in a cited title: In the “2021 Active Duty Spouse Survey,” PCS-related stress was reported as a significant factor.

USTRANSCOM – Acceptable for second and subsequent references when referring to the U.S. Transportation Command for internal audiences within the DOD. For public-facing products and on MC&FP digital properties, refer to the Defense Personal Property Management Office or other appropriate specific resource. Do not use USTC in place of USTRANSCOM in client- and public-facing content.

Writing for the Web – Understand that readers tend to skip over paragraphs that are too long. To make content more accessible:

Strive to create paragraphs that are no longer than three lines in a Word document. Paragraphs with four lines should be the absolute maximum and used sparingly. Break longer paragraphs into shorter paragraphs or lists for easier scanning. Avoid pages and articles that are excessively long. While the content might be valuable, if an article is not easy to scan, many users may not read it in full. Review content to see if it’s covered in other locations to help decrease the length of articles and pages.

For half-width content or content that occupies a smaller width area, such as verbiage placed next to an action card, paragraphs may extend to four to five lines. In a Word document, the content would take up two or three lines only. Published content with six or more lines, even shorter lines, appears too long to the user. The reader may skip the content.

Branding and Logos for MC&FP and Support Programs – Approved versions of MC&FP branding and program logos are available here along with complete instructions for using them. Users must meet the guidance provided. Of note, the DOD logo and the DOD seal are not interchangeable.

Follow these usage guidelines:

In keeping with brand standards, the DOD logo may be used in all communications across all media platforms. The DOD seal has very restricted usage. The DOD seal’s use is restricted to official DOD top leader correspondence, legal documents, reports, memoranda, ceremonial booklets, certificates and awards. The DOD and military seals may not be used on flyers or other promotional materials. These seals may be used only by the military departments for official purposes.

View more updates on the Branding and Logos page.

Use of Shortcut URLs – Typically, 301 redirects are used for expired pages, after URLs have moved, and when consolidating duplicate content. It also makes sense to use 301 redirects for shortcut URLs that will always go to the same destination URLs.

MilTax vanity URL: https://www.militaryonesource.mil/miltax

MilTax landing page absolute URL: https://www.militaryonesource.mil/financial-legal/taxes/miltax-military-tax-services/

Updated Terms A-Z – Visit the following pages for new and updated terms:

Terms P, Terms R , Terms S, Terms T, Terms V, Terms W, Terms X

New Visual Style Guides – Visit the Visual Style Guide page to view new guides for DOD logo and seal usage, Plan My Deployment and Plan My Move.

MC&FP Mission Statement – Quality of life policies and programs that help our service members, their families and survivors be well and mission ready.

Abbreviations, Acronyms and Brevity Codes – These commonly known abbreviations and acronyms are acceptable upon first reference without introduction — including in headings, chapter titles and tables of contents — although there may be occasions when fully writing out the terms would be preferable: 

• NEX for Navy Exchange (use this term for the military audience)
• NEXCOM for Navy Exchange Service Command (only use this term for internal reporting)