I know this is an older post, but I just read it tonight. I’m a Nettuts+ fan, but this is my first visit to your blog.

Jakob Nielsen argued for the use of numerals online as early as 1997. In 2007 he reported on eyetracking studies that back up his advice. The studies show that, “numerals often stop the wandering eye and attract fixations, even when they’re embedded within a mass of words that users otherwise ignore.” (http://www.useit.com/alertbox/writing-numbers.html)

We don’t read online content. We scan it. The fixation Nielsen describes makes numbers more memorable. They also shorten sentences and paragraphs. That’s usually considered a best practice for online text.

I did a quick online search. Many technical writing style guides don’t differentiate between printed and online text rules about numbers. But I found 2fs with contradictory advice.

A Purdue document titled “DM Best Practices: Writing for the Web” states: “When writing numbers, particularly as they represent facts, use numerals instead of words (i.e. 5 instead of five)”. (http://www.its.ipfw.edu/training/00-dm-webwriting.pdf, Page 13)

A document titled “Writing for the Web: Content is King” by the University of Buffalo’s School of Management disagrees: “Spell out whole numbers below 10 and use figures for 10 and above.” (http://mgt.buffalo.edu/files/internal/School%20of%20Management%20Editorial%20Guidelines.pdf, page 3)

Regardless of Nielsen’s recommendations, it pays for a freelance writer to find out what the customer wants!

Excellent post.