best practice for using acronym

Hi all,

Just after some views here.

I'm building a site and have added some acronym's to it, however the debate for how often it's used is everywhere so thought i'd ask here.

So the big question is:

Do I use it only for the first instance of the word ( IE: CMS ) on a page or for every instance or it ?

All views welcome.

I generally spell it out once the first time it appears on a page and use the acronym from then on. That's a pretty common practice.

Using a CMS (Content Management System) is easy. A CMS stores your web page content in a database. etc.

+1 for BobRay's answer. That is the rule stipulated in Strunk & White's 'The Elements of Style.' It makes sense and people get it. They can always glance back up the page and see what it means.

The Chicago Manual of Style gives the same advice and says that the acronyms should always be in all caps with no periods.

Thanks both