Overview
BLOX NXT can apply editorial style standards automatically as writers work, delivering style guidance directly in the content editor alongside existing spellcheck and grammar suggestions.
This article covers what style guide enforcement does, how to enable it, and what to expect during the current beta phase.
What Is Style Guide Enforcement?
Newsrooms operate with defined editorial standards, but enforcing those standards consistently across writers and desks is difficult at scale. Manual copy editing does not scale with content volume, and reliance on institutional knowledge produces inconsistencies between authors.
Style guide enforcement addresses this by delivering standards-aware guidance during content creation. BLOX Digital maintains an internal style guide built around common newsroom editorial conventions. When enabled, that guidance is surfaced through the existing Content Suggestions infrastructure in the editor.
Style guide suggestions are additive. They layer on top of the spellcheck and grammar suggestions you already receive rather than replacing them. A writer sees all three categories of guidance in the same place, in context, as they write.
How It Works
Style guide enforcement is delivered through the Content Suggestions AI setting in Content Management settings. There is no separate interface to learn and no separate toggle to manage in day-to-day use — if your site is approved for the beta and Content Suggestions is enabled, style guidance appears automatically.
Suggestions are surfaced contextually as content is composed. Writers can accept or dismiss individual suggestions; nothing is applied to the content automatically.
Before You Begin
Style guide enforcement has two requirements, in order:
Your site must be enrolled in the BLOX NXT Beta Program and request access to the feature. Enrollment and feature access are both required — participation in the beta program does not automatically grant style guide enforcement.
Approved sites must have the Content Suggestions AI setting enabled in Content Management settings. For details on this setting, see the Content Management settings documentation.
You will also need administrative access to Content Management settings, and your site must be running a supported version of BLOX NXT.
Enabling Style Guide Enforcement
Join the Beta Program and Request Access :Confirm your site is enrolled in the BLOX NXT Beta Program, then request access to style guide enforcement. Contact BLOX Customer Support to begin either step.
Enable Content Suggestions: Once your site is approved, navigate to Content Management settings in BLOX NXT and enable the Content Suggestions AI setting if it is not already active.
Begin Writing: Open or create an article. Style guide suggestions will appear inline alongside spellcheck and grammar suggestions as you write.
Reading Style Suggestions
Colored Underlines
When style guide enforcement detects a potential issue, it applies a colored underline to the affected word or phrase. The color tells you which category of rule was matched:
Color | Category | What it catches |
|---|---|---|
Blue | Abbreviations | State names, month abbreviations, address elements, academic degrees, time zones |
Purple | Capitalization | Directional terms, seasons, and other terms that should be lowercase |
Orange | Numbers | Numerals vs. spelled-out numbers, percentages, measurements, ordinals, fractions, decades, phone formats, ratios |
Teal | Dates & Times | Clock time formatting and abbreviated day names |
Red | Punctuation | Serial commas, spacing, possessives, hyphenation, dashes, ellipses, comma splices |
Deep orange | Common Errors | Frequently misused or outdated words and constructions |
Examples of what each category flags:
Abbreviations (blue) — "Calif." → California; "December 15" → Dec. 15; "U.S." used as a noun → United States; "Main St." with no numbered address → Main Street; "PhD" → Ph.D.; "E.S.T." → EST
Capitalization (purple) — "Drive South on I-5" → south; "Spring is coming" → spring
Numbers (orange) — "3 dogs" → three dogs; "25%" → 25 percent; "five feet" → 5 feet; "five-foot-three" → 5-foot-3; "twenty miles" → 20 miles; "1st" → first; "World War 2" → World War II; "1/2" → one-half; "1990's" → 1990s; "(212) 621-1500" → 212-621-1500; "3 to 1" → 3-to-1
Dates & Times (teal) — "10 AM" → 10 a.m.; "Mon." → Monday; "Fri." → Friday
Punctuation (red) — serial comma before "and"; double space after a period; "it's tail" → its tail; "well known author" → well-known; spaced em dash → unspaced; unspaced ellipsis → spaced; comma splice → semicolon
Common Errors (deep orange) — "e-mail" → email; "Web site" → website; "towards" → toward; "employe" → employee; "judgement" → judgment; "comprised of" → composed of; courtesy titles such as "Mr." → removed
A single paragraph can carry multiple underlines of different colors at once. Each suggestion is independent — accepting one does not affect the others.
The Suggestion Menu
Click any underlined text to open the suggestion menu. It displays:
The rule name that was matched
A Beta badge
A short explanation of the rule
A colored category chip matching the underline color
The suggested fix
From the menu you can:
Click the suggested fix to apply it. The text is replaced, the underline disappears, and the menu closes.
Click Ignore to dismiss the suggestion. The underline disappears and your text is left unchanged.
Clicking a different underline while a menu is open switches the menu to that suggestion. Applied fixes can be reversed with standard undo (Ctrl+Z / Cmd+Z).
When Suggestions Appear
Suggestions are checked as you pause, not as you type. Underlines will not appear mid-keystroke; they surface roughly half a second after you stop typing. Editing a paragraph clears its existing underlines and re-evaluates it once you pause again. This applies to pasted content as well — paste a long article and violations will surface after a brief moment.
Disabling Style Guide Enforcement
Style guide enforcement is controlled through the same setting that governs Content Suggestions. To turn it off, disable Content Suggestions in Content Management settings.
Be aware that this deactivates all Content Suggestions capabilities — not style guidance alone. Spellcheck, grammar suggestions, and suggested rephrasing tools are all turned off with the same toggle. There is no independent control for style rules during the beta.
Known Limitations
The following limitations apply during the current beta phase:
Availability requires beta enrollment plus feature access. The feature is not self-service and cannot be turned on from your admin without approval.
The style guide is not customer-configurable. Rules reflect the internal BLOX style guide. Per-site custom rules, term dictionaries, and exception lists are not supported at this time.
Style guidance cannot be disabled independently. Turning it off requires disabling Content Suggestions, which also removes spellcheck, grammar, and suggested rephrasing tools.
Suggestions are advisory. Style guidance does not block publishing and does not enforce compliance. Editorial review remains necessary.
Rule coverage is incomplete. The internal style guide does not cover every editorial scenario. Coverage will expand as the beta progresses.
Some rules produce known false positives. See below.
Known False Positives
The following are known issues in the current rule set and are being tracked for correction. If you encounter them, dismiss the suggestion with Ignore:
Seasons (purple) — Words containing a season name, such as "Springfield," may be incorrectly flagged.
Semicolons (red) — Words containing "is," such as "issued," may be incorrectly flagged as comma splices.
Dimensions (orange) — Compound words such as "twelve-meters" may be partially matched.
Troubleshooting & FAQ
I enabled Content Suggestions but I'm not seeing style suggestions. Content Suggestions can be active without style rules if your site has not been approved for the beta feature. Confirm your beta enrollment and feature access with BLOX Customer Support.
We're in the BLOX NXT Beta Program — why don't we have this? Beta program enrollment and style guide access are separate. You must request access to the feature specifically. Contact BLOX Customer Support.
Can I add our own style rules? Not during the current beta. The style guide applied is the internal BLOX guide. Customer-specific rule configuration is under consideration for a future release.
Can I keep spellcheck and rephrasing but turn off style suggestions? Not at this time. All Content Suggestions capabilities share a single setting during the beta.
A suggestion conflicts with our house style. What should I do? Dismiss the suggestion — nothing is applied automatically. If you encounter recurring conflicts, report them to BLOX Customer Support; beta feedback informs rule refinement.
Does this replace copy editing? No. Style guide enforcement reduces routine copy-editing overhead by catching common standards issues during composition, but suggestions are advisory and editorial review is still required.