How do we punctuate an abbreviation followed by a colon?

Question

When making bullet points of details about something, do we punctuate the abbreviation?

Is it this way?

The details of the Vehicle are given below:

Vehicle Chassis No.: [dot and colon with no space]

Vehicle Chassis No. [dot only]

Vehicle Chassis No. : [dot and colon with space]

Which one them is right?

I have always seen bullet points preceded by a leading statement ending with a colon and no space. So the first option would be correct. — Mamta D, Oct 18 '15 at 07:58
@MamtaD so there is no need to put a space between the colon and dot after the abbreviation "no"? — , Oct 18 '15 at 08:00
I agree with @MamtaD – I think #3 is the worst of your options here. This is a matter of style, so it's not a matter of one of them being "right." If you look hard enough, you might even find conflicting guidance in different style guides. The most important thing is to be consistent; that is, do it the same way throughout your document. — J.R., Oct 18 '15 at 09:23
Could you write some full sentence examples? I can't tell why you need to use a colon (indicating a list) when a "Vehicle Chassis No." should be unique. — user3169, Oct 18 '15 at 17:42
@user3169 - My guess is that this is for a form, not a prose sentence. — J.R., Oct 21 '15 at 00:23
@J.R. My idea too, but that should be in the question. I think how formatting of the form is done is more relevant here than punctuation rules in regular writing. — user3169, Oct 21 '15 at 01:13

Maulik V · Accepted Answer · 2015-10-19T11:58:53.860

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The abbreviated form No. comes from the word 'numero'. Note the 'dot' after the letter 'o'. It's 'No.' (with dot) and not 'No' (without dot).

Now, the pattern you follow seems to be listing the credential of a vehicle. Generally, we put colons in such context. For instance...

Name: Mr. Narendra Modi
Age: 65 years
Address: xyz...
and so on...

As you see that such listing happens with the colon and the dot is indeed necessary to abbreviate numero (to avoid reading it 'No - negation'), it'd be dot and colon with no space in between.

About space:

You do not put a space before a colon, but you do need a space after one. Source: http://www.learnenglish.de/punctuation/punctuationtext.html#colon

So, you may write like:

Vehicle Owner: Mr. Tim Cook
Vehicle Chassis No.: XYZ1234ABC
Vehicle Type: SUV
and so on...

edited Oct 19 '15 at 11:58

answered Oct 19 '15 at 07:55

Maulik V

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The OP never asked anything about spacing after column name. All 3 of the examples he has posted already include that space. His question was related to space between/after dot and colon. – Mamta D Oct 19 '15 at 10:24
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Why was the answer deleted to make some minor modifications? All the constructive comments given earlier below the original answer are lost. :-( – Mamta D Oct 19 '15 at 11:25
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The comments were constructive but after the 'edit', they became irrelevant. The comments talked about the 'reference' in the answer which no longer existed. Comments are to be kept when they are relevant to the question/answer as they are. If you see, the first comment of yours which still applies to my answer is kept. @MamtaD – Maulik V Oct 19 '15 at 11:33

score 0 · Answer 2 · answered Oct 21 '19 at 04:04

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If I am sending email updates for a play named "Into the Woods Junior", I would send it with the subject line, "Into the Woods Jr.: Box Office & Scheduling Update" I think the colon should come after an abbreviation but to be honest I was never really sure.

answered Oct 21 '19 at 04:04

Sarah R

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If you could provide a authoritative reference, I think that would strength your answer. You can [edit] your post to make improvements at any time. – Em. Oct 21 '19 at 05:21

How do we punctuate an abbreviation followed by a colon?

2 Answers2