Guru has preset font styles for Paragraphs, Headings (Small, Medium, and Large), and Titles. These styles have been optimized for readability and accessibility.

Guru Heading Formatting

All Heading styles automatically populate a Table of Contents (TOC) symbolized by three graduated horizontal lines at the upper-left-hand corner of each card.

TIP: Review the TOC before publishing to make sure your headers are formatted consistently.

The following table shows how font styles in Guru equate to those on The New School's public .edu website. In general, Guru utilizes variations of the Proxima Nova font. Our public .edu website utilizes variations of Neue.

The above table is intended for reference only and is not an exact replica or match.

Note that Small Headings are displayed in Guru in all caps. To facilitate download and export of content, please do not type in all caps. Always use Title Case—AKA, capitalizing the first letter of every word—when writing titles.

How to Format Headings in Guru

There are two ways to format your text as a heading in Guru:

from the Toolbar

In the upper-left-hand corner of the card draft, select the heading type before you begin typing. This will change your text to the selected heading type, until you create a new line of text by hitting Enter.

from the paragraph text

1. Highlight the text you wish to format.
2. Select the heading type you wish to format your text as from the pop-up text toolbar.
3. Your text will now appear as this heading type.

TIP: Our Guru Templates already have heading classifications built in. Start from here to save yourself some time, and assure all your heading conditions comply with style guidelines!

All Large Headers in Guru should be manually changed to red to improve reader comprehension and skimmability. Read on for more information about formatting colors in Guru.

Guru offers a broad array of text, highlight, and callout box colors to customize your content. To hold to our university's Visual Identity Color Guidelines as closely as possible, knowledge content must be published in only Black and Red. (But why does this Card have content in Purple?! Don't worry—we'll get to emphasis in a moment.)

How to Change Text Color in Guru

1. Highlight the text you wish to modify.
2. Select the paint bucket icon.
3. Select the color you would like your text to appear in.
4. The text will change to your selected color.

Though additional colors are never used for paragraph text in Guru, there are some instances in which color coding is used to add context to Call-Outs and Block Quotes. Read on for specific guidance regarding these text tools.

Highlighting Text in Guru

At this time, highlighting text is not included in The New School's style recommendations. This is because Comments appear as highlighted text to verifiers, and eliminating highlighted text makes content editing simpler.

TIP: This is an example of Guru content attached to a comment. Note how your comment looks the same as this highlighted text, which does not have a comment attached.

However, if you'd like to emphasize elements of a collaborative draft you need your team members to review, you can click the paintbrush icon that appears in the pop-up text toolbar shown above to highlight Card text in drafts.

Outside of general hierarchical information—such as heading colors and sizes—there will be instances in Guru when you need to draw special attention to knowledge content.

Text Styles

All of the most common word editing styles are available in Guru Cards. However, the only two text styles utilized by our Style Guide are Bold and Italics.

Bold Text

Bolded text should be used the first time a concept, term, or acronym is introduced in a Guru Card. It can also be used to emphasize essential information true for all readers, such as to always wait 20 minutes after applying sunscreen before exposing your skin to sunlight.

TIP: If you're inclined to create a bulleted list with bolded terms and their definitions, consider using a table instead. Tables offer more "breath" between ideas for improved comprehension.

Most heading options in Guru will be bolded, automatically.

Italic Text

Italicized text is used for descriptive image captions. Always center text under images and italicize to comply with New School style guidelines.

A 2023 graphic by Wilmington Health encourages folks to slip on protective clothing, slop on sunscreen, slap on a hat, seek shade, and slide on sunglasses before exposure to sunlight to prevent sun damage.

NOTE: Text within images cannot be 'seen' by Guru Search or Screen Readers. Captions make information shared within your graphics accessible to all Guru Users.

Italics can also be used to add spoken emphasis to part of a phrase, such as to always wait 20 minutes for sunscreen to absorb into the skin before exposure to sunlight.

Block Quotes

Block Quotes are used in online writing to differentiate a section of text from the text around it. Visually, the text is indented, italicized, in a different font color, and has a bar along the left-hand side for the length of the quote. You may have already encountered numerous block quotes in the Knowledge Base, for different types of emphasis.

Notes

Notes are small points of clarification you would like to highlight in the text. Unlike bolded text or italics, notes offer a visual interruption that necessitates a reader pause and consider additional important information.

Always bold and CAPITALIZE the term "NOTE:" at the beginning of your notes, to ensure visual consistency.

Warnings

A warning is an urgent note. This is essential information that could result in negative consequences if it is ignored.

Notice how this warning combines bolded text and color formatting to strongly emphasize best swimming practices.

Tips

Tips are helpful recommendations you may want your reader to consider. Unlike warnings, these are interruptions that can result in positive consequences for your reader.

Tips are the only Guru content not formatted in red or black. Consider them a special surprise to improve your day!

How to Add a Block Quote

1. Press the backslash ( / ) key on a new line of text and type 'block'
2. Select 'Block Quote'
3. A vertical grey bar will appear on the left-hand side of the line, starting your block quote.
4. After writing your block quote content, press 'enter' twice to exit your block quote.

NOTE: Block quotes are, unfortunately, the fussiest type of formatting in Guru. You may have to attempt your block quote numerous times before succeeding.

Callout Boxes

Callout boxes allow you to emphasize special circumstances in Guru such as communicating instructions, corralling large volumes of images and videos, or sharing card status updates.

Always consider the following guidelines when using Callout boxes in Guru:

• Callout boxes should be used sparingly, as they are the most visually distracting elements within Guru.
• Never use colored text within callout boxes as many color combinations do not meet the contrast requirements for web accessibility.
• Header styles can be used sparingly, and only if callout information needs to appear in the Table of Contents. However, be mindful that if your content requires headers, it may be too much information for a callout box.

Callout Box Color Coding

How to Add A Callout Box

From the text

1. Select the 'Callout' button (a rectangle between two horizontal lines)

2. A Callout box will appear in the color blue.
3. If you need to change the color of the Callout, hover over the box and select the paint bucked in the upper-right-hand corner.

From the Toolbar

1. Press the backslash ( / ) key on a new line of text and type 'callout'
2. Select 'Callout
3. A Callout box will appear in the color blue
4. If you need to change the color of the Callout, hover over the box and select the paint bucked in the upper-right-hand corner.

Bulleted Lists

Bulleted lists can be used for collections of information that do not require additional context. Examples include:

• Packing list for your first day of classes
• Seasonal building hours
• Museums available free to New School community members.
• This list, right here!

To add a bulleted list, select "Bulleted List" from the formatting dropdown on the upper-left-hand side of your draft in the editing toolbar (depicted below.)

Numbered Lists

Numbered Lists should only be used for actionable steps that must occur in a particular order. For instance, to access the numbered list formatted option from the editing toolbar shown above, a Guru Author must:

1. Open the formatting drop down from the upper-left-hand side of the Guru Card Draft
2. Select "Numbered List"
3. A numbered list will now appear, beginning with the number 1.

Dividers

Divider lines, such as those used above and below this section, are available to visually separate the content within cards. If you find that you need to divide your content more than a handful of times, consider breaking that content into separate Guru cards.

EXAMPLE: We included dividers to organize relevant content in this card, but separated our writing resources from these style resources in an earlier draft of this card to reduce bulk.

To add a divider line, hit the hyphen key three times (- - -, without spaces) and hit Enter.

Collapsible (Drop-Down) Sections

Guru is designed to offer bite-sized content so it can direct users to the specific info they are looking for. Collapsible boxes can be used when some card information will be relevant to certain audiences but not others.

Open this drop down for examples of when to use this tool.

• Different steps of the same process (See: Request Time Off)
• Different instructions for a specific audience (See: Sick Time)

NOTE: If some content should never be seen by a certain audience, make a separate Guru Card with different security permissions to assure it will never be seen by the wrong Guru Users.

How to add a drop down

From the Text

1. Highlight the text you'd like to create a dropdown from, including a header and everything beneath it
2. Select 'Collapsible' (A small triangle with lines to the left of it) from the toolbar.

3. This section is now a Dropdown section.

From the toolbar

1. Before writing content, select the 'Collapsible' icon shown above.
2. A field will appear with two lines: "Title" and "Text."
3. Populate the Title field with the title you'd like for your dropdown, and text with the body of the dropdown.
4. This content will be collapsible by readers.

NOTE: It is not possible to include a dropdown inside of a dropdown. Make sure to publish your card with your dropdown collapsed for it to appear collapsed to your readers.

We've developed a robust array of cards to assist in curating your content with the most relevant forms of embeddable media:

• Attachments
• Hyperlinks
• iFrames
• Images & Gifs
• Tables
• Videos

For additional questions, reach out to Knowledge Content Manager Sam Gravity.