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. . . to the Web site of The Associated Press in the Pacific Northwest, serving Washington state, Idaho, Alaska and Oregon.

AP News:

All members can access questions and answers about AP style online

The AP Stylebook Web site offers all AP members free access to a database of questions posed to the AP Stylebook editor, along with AP’s answers. The question and answer section can be accessed through the AP Stylebook Web site at: http://apstylebook.com/ask_editor.php.

Once you are on the page, you can view the searchable database of questions underneath “Ask the Editor.” Only subscribers to the AP Stylebook Online can submit questions but any member can access the searchable database of questions already submitted, along with answers.

Here’s a sampling of some recent questions and answers:

• Question: Are names of publications italicized when referring to the Web site, not the printed version? Also, what about Web sites without a printed version such as CNN, CNBC, MSNBC? – from San Diego, California on Mon, Feb 02, 2009

Answer: No, see "italics" entry.

• Question: Is the first word after a colon capitalized? (E.g., "They had the same message: leave the room.") – from MN on Mon, Feb 02, 2009

Answer: Yes, if the word is a proper noun or starts a complete sentence, as in your example.

• Question: Hi- which is correct-- southeast or southeastern? e.g., ...provider to public and private companies located mostly in the southeastern United States, or ...provider to public and private companies located mostly in the southeast United States. Thanks! – from Chicago, IL on Mon, Feb 02, 2009

Answer: Southeastern (adj.) is preferable in this phrasing. Southeast is primarily a noun, though sometimes an adjective or adverb when preceded by a preposition.

• Question: Regarding house/property size, I'm a second guessing myself with hyphens, numbers and tense with foot/feet. In other words, what is the correct usage on: "2,400-square-foot, 5-bedroom, 3 1/2-bath home"? Thanks – from Annapolis, Md. on Mon, Feb 02, 2009

Answer: Hyphenate as compound modifiers, spell out five but leave the fraction as a figure: 2,400-square-foot, five-bedroom, 3 1/2-bath home.

• Question: Is it acceptable to write "1 to 5 p.m." instead of "1-5 p.m." As in "The four-hour workshop (1 to 5 p.m.) will cover..." (Rewriting to avoid parentheses is not an option.) Thanks! – from Anne, NY, NY on Fri, Jan 30, 2009

Answer: Yes.

            To find out more about the AP Stylebook or the AP Stylebook Online Edition, visit www.apstylebook.com.

What's New

March 2009

AP News:

New Economic Recovery section added to AP Exchange

    AP has added an “Economic Recovery” section to AP Exchange. It appears in both the U.S. and Business sections of Essential AP in the left navigational bar. The section is designed to aggregate news about the global financial crisis and includes relevant corporate news, government fiscal management and commodity information.

This section provides the latest economic news your readers are looking for all in one place.

For more information on AP Exchange or the new “Economic Recovery” section, contact your local chief of bureau or visit www.ap.org/apexchange.

New Product Guide available

The Associated Press has created a new, 32-page product guide and accompanying spreadsheet. Both help answer the questions "What does AP have in the way of (fill in the blank) news?"

The product guide is in PDF format and searchable, so it's easy to zero in on particular areas of interest. The spreadsheet is sortable so users can easily look at all columns the AP offers, for example, or look at everything that moves on Friday.

Contact Bureau Chief Jodie DeJonge for copies.

AP WebFeeds deliver custom searches from AP Exchange into your system

Once you have set up saved searches in AP Exchange to find the locally relevant content you want, those saved searches can become a “custom wire” delivered to your newsroom via an AP WebFeed.

AP WebFeeds are secure ATOM feeds of AP content that can be captured in a production folder on your server or computer system. From there, it can be fed into your content management system. AP has been working with more than two dozen major vendors of content management systems so they can integrate these feeds into the systems used by newspapers.

AP WebFeeds can deliver multiple content formats – from JPEG files of photos to text in NITF or ANPA formats. They also can deliver the kind of customized feeds you can create through saved searches in AP Exchange that draw from a wider array of AP content than can readily be delivered via satellite.

To learn more about AP WebFeeds, please join us – and invite your  IT, production or editorial systems manager -- for training sessions held every Wednesday at 1 p.m. ET or contact Maryann Mrowca at mmrowca@ap.org.

To join the training sessions, go to: www.webdialogs.com/join (Conference ID: 95552), then dial 866-206-0240 with conference ID 965 385#.

• March – Pets

• April – Your Career

• May – Outdoors

• June – Weddings

• July – Back to School

• August – Fall Homes/Housekeeping 101

• September – Cars

• October – Diet/Exercise

• November – Holidays

• December - Wedding

For more information, contact Julie Rubin, Special Editions supervising editor, at jrubin@ap.org or (914) 777-1045.