About the publication template

Our publication template allows you to create an accessible online publication.

It features:

• chapters/sections as subpages that are easy to navigate

• pagination between sections

• the option to print pages

• automatic menu creation that lists child pages.

The benefits of the publication content type

Ministers and executives are increasingly asking for and expecting a digital-first publication.

The Department of Families, Fairness and Housing won IPAA 2021 Leadership in the Public Sector Communications Award for their 10-year Rolling Action Plan which used the SDP publications template.

Digital publications get more readers

We have published more than 20 publications using this template. Whether it's the publications template or a standard web page HTML versions always get more readers.

Recent examples include:

• Pride in our future: Victoria’s LGBTIQ+ strategy 2022–32

• Inclusive Victoria: state disability plan (2022–2026)

• A future-ready Victoria

Structure your content for the reader

Across a range of different content the following trends have emerged:

• people will scroll until they find the information that's useful to them (for most people this varies from half of the page to 75%). This means writing in a news style (most to least important) rather than a narrative style (beginning, middle, end) is the best for the user. Actionable content should also be highlighted as close to the top of the page as possible

• publications are often wordy. Use infographics or video where possible but if words are required users have responded positively to accordions in multiple rounds of user testing

• most viewed content is about finding resources or support or what the government is doing, including tracking progress

Outsource a digital publication

You can outsource a digital publication the same way you would outsource a PDF to a designer.