Style Guide Help

[chasity mcwilliams <chas -at- fcs -dot- uga -dot- edu>]

I have been asked to create a style guide for our 
department.  It will be used for creating help 
guides/manuals and handouts.  I have never done anything 
like this and was wondering if anyone out there could give 
me a good starting point.  

Is there a particular format that works best for a 
departmental guide?
How do I determine what should be standard vs. personal 
preference?
Is there maybe a reference manual that would help with this?
Has anyone out there done something like this?  I would 
really appreciate any help that I could receive on this.  
Our department does not have any writers.  It has just 
fallen on me to create any documents as they are needed.  
Since, I have never had any training, I try to stay very 
basic with my instructions.  I'm not sure if any of those 
documents have prepared me to create something like this.

If this is a question that has already been dealt with, I 
apologize in advance.

Chasity
----------------------
"You're not dying, you just can't think of anything
 good to do."
-Ferris B.

chasity mcwilliams
chas -at- fcs -dot- uga -dot- edu