The new edition of the Australian Government’s Style Manual will be released in live version on 24 September.

The Digital Transformation Agency and Ethos CRS were partners in writing the new edition. It will be published only online – a sign of the huge changes since the previous edition, the sixth.

That edition was published only in a 550-page hard-copy edition. Back then the World Wide Web was still relatively new and most writers and editors and publishers still focused on print.

Now most people seek information about government services and policy online.

The Style Manual is written first for those writing and editing information published by the Australian Government. But we expect it will again become the definitive source of guidance on writing style advice for the publishing industry across Australia. It gives advice for writing, editing and publishing both online and for print.

Ethos CRS was chosen by the Digital Transformation Agency as content partner for the new edition. Our team of writers and editors has been working with the DTA over the past year to update the manual for the digital age.

We worked on the Style Manual with the Australian National University, the Australian National Dictionary Centre and Oxford University Press.

The DTA released the Style Manual in beta version on 30 July for public comment.