Capital letters

Do not capitalise whole words or phrases

They are harder to read, and make it look like you are SHOUTING.

Acronyms are another thing, and have been looked at in an earlier lesson.

Use sentence case in headlines and subheads

It's easier to scan.

Use sentence case for buttons

It's easier to scan.

Sentence case is easier to scan than title case. (Title Case)

Proper nouns are an exception

It's fine to capitalise the following:

• names of people, places and things, including buildings and brands
• specified committee, faculty, department, institute or school: Bedford Hospital Learning Disability Service
• names of groups, directorates and organisations: Deaf Umbrella
• titles of specific acts or bills: Children and Families Act 2014 (but ‘the act’ or ‘the bill’ at second mention)
• names of specific schemes known to people: Disability Living Allowance
• titles like Mr Jones, Ms Smith, Dr Rashid
• job titles following the person's name: Susan Smith, Chair of the PCC Steering Group
• titles of books: 'Wonder' by R. J. Palacio
• header cells in tables: Yearly budget

Do not capitalise terms, unless they are proper nouns

Generally, terms are not proper nouns, so should not be capitalised. Technical terms are not proper nouns. But if a word or term is branded as a distinct thing, treat it as a proper noun.

Examples:

 ✅ As a Keyring volunteer, you'll get training and support.

 ❌  As a Keyring Volunteer, you'll get training and support.

But

 ✅  I'm organising the Keyring Volunteer Fun Run.

 ❌  I'm organising the Keyring volunteer Fun Run.

And

✅  We're running an independent support project.

 ❌ We're running an Independent Support Project.

📝 Sometimes it's hard to decide if you should capitalise or not. Put some examples in the discussion where you have some doubts.