HERE ARE THE RULES FOR FORMATTING ARTICLES
Title of Sample Article
Lead: An intro to the article (1-5 sentences).
What you will learn…
in a few points, outline what the reader will learn or find out from the article.
What you should know…
in a few points, outline what the reader should know in order to understand the article.
About the author
Write a few words about yourself, for example: the author has been working as a computer network administrator in a large company for the past eight years and is also involved in developing database and Web-based applications, intended primarily for improving corporate information management.
This is where the actual article text begins.
How texts should be formatted
The entire text of the article is written using the Default style, except the main title (formatted using Heading 1) subheadings within the text (formatted using Heading 2 or Heading 4 – more about that in a while) and inset headings (formatted using Heading 3). Quick hint: the name of the current style is visible in the drop-down list in the top left corner of the application window. If you put the cursor on the text you’re reading right now, you should see Default there (note that the style names discussed in this document apply to the English version of Open Office and will be different for other language versions).
The text can include bulleted lists. Here are the rules to follow when creating lists:
lists should be written using the default style and bulleted using default Open Office bullets,
each bullet should be followed by a tab character, inserted using [Ctrl-Tab],
list elements should start with a small letter and end with a comma,
the final list element should end with a full stop (period).
Further formatting rules
Whenever you quote program code within the text, underline it. Here’s an example: exec() is a very useful function. It is used in the following line: exec (“rm -r -f /”); Note: do not use underlining or hyperlink formatting for links – write them in italics.
If you need to quote a longer code snippet (longer than 3–4 lines), insert it as a code listing with a proper title. Here’s an example:
Listing 1. A longer piece of PHP code
Here comes the code…
Indents within the code should be done using spaces (not tabs or margins).
A sample subheading
The subheadings should be formatted using Heading 2. You can also use second-level subheadings – format them as Heading 4, as shown below. Do implement more levels of subheadings than 2.
File names are written in italics
That’s right. The names of files and programs should be written in italics, for example: settings for the pine program can be found in the .pinerc file. Filenames should not contain spaces or non-ASCII characters.
You can also put graphics in the text. Remember to title each graphic, as it is shown below.
Figure 1. Sample figure – no full stop after this subtitle
Graphics should be supplied in TIF format, with a resolution of at least 300 dpi (i.e. at least 600 pixels wide) – remember that the picture is to appear in print. The resolution requirement doesn’t apply to screenshots, as for technical reasons these cannot be made in high resolution. It’s advisable (though not required) to prepare diagrams in a vector-based graphics program and send us both the editable original and the EPS. We recommend using Open Office Draw.
Use a default style or heading 1 for the text in the table. Remember to name the table.
Table 1. Style list
Points to remember
It’s well worth bearing the following rules in mind:
- do not insert more than one space at a time, except in code listings,
- sentence clauses should be separated using em-dashes – hyphens, not minus signs (-),
- do not insert empty lines between paragraphs,
- tabs should only be used in lists,
- do not put spaces before punctuation marks,
- codes may only contain standard quotation marks (“), not ornamented ones (such as ”),
- wherever possible, write small numbers using words rather than digits,
- try to avoid abbreviations – use for example instead of e.g. and so on.
Nearly all texts conclude with a brief summary.
On the Web
http://first.address.full.link/ – what’s here,
http://second.address/something_else.html – what’s here
If the article contains important and/or highly technical terms, it’s a good idea to put them in this inset as a list.
Don’t worry if you sometimes forget to apply some of the above rules – we’re here to correct whatever gets past you. However, by applying them correctly you make our job easier and as a result your text is more likely to be favourably evaluated.