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Alpha This guidance is in development. You can find current content and publishing guidance on GOV.UK.

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Text formatting

Headings

Use hashtags (##) for headings.

For example:

## This is a heading level 2 (H2)

### This is a heading level 3 (H3)

#### This is a heading level 4 (H4)

Do not use bold text instead of hashtags. This is inaccessible because a screen reader will not recognise it as a header.

There’s no need to use this code in the page title and summary. They are styled automatically.

See the section about headings in the content structuring guidance for more help with writing headings.

Use the right heading level

Each page title is an H1 (heading level 1), so start at H2 and do not use H1 in your content.

Do not skip heading levels when moving from a higher level to a lower level, for example from H2 to H4. Screen reader users may navigate using a list of headings. A missed heading level can make this confusing.

This means an H2 needs to come before an H3 and an H3 needs to come before an H4.