Writer's Guide for The Cursor Introduction This guide is designed to help you, the author, enhance the appearance and readability of your text while making the Editor's life a little easier. In an organization like WAC, the diversity of skills and computer systems creates a very real problem in gathering articles and putting them into a newsletter with a consistent appearance. Hopefully, you will find answers to all of your questions about article style and submission procedures here. For specific style and punctuation questions, you may need another reference. Many dictionaries contain general punctuation and style guides. Spelling checker and grammar checker programs can be very useful resources for cleaning up articles before submission. However, in cases where external sources conflict with this guide, you should defer to the guide. Contents Although the topic is up to you, the content of your article must be sensitive to WAC's diverse membership. Your article must not contain profanity or material which could be deemed offensive to any group or individual. As the saying goes, if you can't say something nice, we'd rather you didn't say anything at all. However, we welcome differences of opinion. Just don't make it personal. Another consideration for your article is the knowledge level of your audience. WAC contains members who are just starting in the computer hobby as well as members who are experienced computer professionals. The Cursor welcomes articles at all levels. However, whenever you use technical jargon or acronyms, it is a good idea to define the term at its first use in your text. In this way, you help the beginners become experts, or at least better equipped to understand their computers. After all, that's a good part of what WAC is about. Headings You should begin your article with a good title that captures the attention of the reader and gives a clear indication of the article's contents. Please keep the titles down to a reasonable length. The Cursor uses a two column format, so long titles reach down the page and are visually unattractive. If the title contains a colon, follow it immediately with a "hard" carriage return (press the ENTER or RETURN key). This forces the title to break cleanly in the column. Also put a hard return after the title followed with "by" and your name. Follow your name with two hard returns. Subheadings Although not mandatory, it is a good idea to break your article into clear divisions based upon the immediate subject. For example, separate sections of your article may introduce the topic, provide personal background, define system requirements, define terms, give instructions, etc. You can help the Editor and keep your reader's interest by putting short, intriguing subheadings between these sections. Treat the subheadings as separate paragraphs. Two hard returns should precede the subheading and two hard returns should follow it. Spacing Follow all punctuation with a single space. Desktop publishing software automatically adjusts spacing to fit the columns, and double-spacing can force unsightly gaps in the text. If you are a touch-typist, you may find it easier to type with normal spacing, then use your word processor's search and replace feature to replace all double spaces with single spaces. Paragraphs You produce a hard return by pressing the ENTER or RETURN key on your computer keyboard. Do NOT enter a hard return at the end of each line. Enter two hard returns in immediate succession at the end of each paragraph. You can use a hard return to separate items in lists within the column if the item lines are short (preferably shorter than 25 characters). If the items are wider, please use a separate table and make a reference to the table within your text (see Tables). Typefaces and Styles The Cursor typically uses Helvetica (a proportionally spaced sans serif font) for headings and subheadings, and Times-Roman (a proportionally spaced serif font) for body text. Helvetica stands out and captures the eye, while Times-Roman is easier to read in long stretches. Courier (a fixed space font) is sometimes used to differentiate examples of computer-displayed text or computer commands within the article. This information is for your planning only. The Editor is responsible for actually setting the fonts. However, you can specify the use of type styles such as bold and underlines in your article. Editing notations must be enclosed in square brackets (e.g. [ and ]). A letter indicates the typestyle, and the case of the letter indicates whether to begin or end the typestyle. The following notations are accepted: [B] begin bold text [b] end bold text [I] begin italic text [i] end italic text [U] begin underline text [u] end underline text If you wish to combine typestyles, each notation must be in a separate bracket set. For example, [B][U]bold and underline[u][b] results in bold and underline. This allows the Editor use a simple search and replace procedure to replace the notations with the commands specific to the desktop publishing software. Please do not overuse typestyles. Typestyles should only be used to emphasize specific text segments. If they appear everywhere, the typestyles distract the reader from the message, and the impact is lessened. Italics should be used only when absolutely necessary, as they are generally reserved for Editor's comments (see Editor's Comments). Two typestyle uses are mandatory. References to The Cursor should always be in combined bold and italic. Also, names of WAC members must be in bold. Telephone Numbers Phone numbers should always include the area code and be in the form 703-555-1234. The area code should NOT be enclosed in parentheses, since this wastes space better used for your text. For voice phone numbers it is always a good idea to indicate best hours to call. What is late for one person is perfectly acceptable to another, and most of us don't like to receive phone calls during dinner. Phone numbers for computer bulletin board systems or facsimile should be clearly indicated by preceding them with BBS or FAX, respectively. BBS numbers should also indicate the data rate, duplex, data length, parity, and stop bit length in the following manner: Sample BBS, 703-555-4321 (56K bps, F8N1). In this example, the BBS maximum data rate is 57,600 bps, full duplex, 8 data bits, none parity, and 1 stop bit. If the modem has a proprietary protocol, put it before the data rate. If the BBS in the above example used the HST protocol, the entry might read (HST 9600 bps, F8N1). If it used V.32bis protocol, the entry would read (V.32bis 14400 bps, F8N1). Tables A table is an excellent way of presenting data to support your article. Unfortunately, tables can be very difficult to edit, so it's a good idea to turn your article in before the deadline. Each table should be in a separate file from the main article text. Each table must begin with a heading indicating the table number, title, author, and associated article. If the data was taken from a magazine or other reference, cite the reference in the heading. The preferred table layout uses columns across the width of the page (7" maximum) and rows down the length of the page (10" maximum). Each column must have an underlined heading. Separate your columns with true TABs (ASCII 9) whenever possible. Some word processors simulate TABs by inserting blank spaces, while others use true TABs. If your computer does not have a TAB key (e.g. C64), try holding the CTRL key while pressing the i key to generate a true TAB. Illustrations Sometimes you will need to illustrate your article with graphics. There are two basic catagories of graphic files on the computer, structured drawings and raster images. Unfortunately, there are a tremendous number of file formats for each. If you can, provide raster images on disk in Amiga IFF or CompuServe GIF format. Nearly every computer in WAC can create GIF files with the appropriate utility (talk with your SIG leader for more information). Structured graphics are commonly used in presentation graphics software such as Freelance (IBM compatibles) and Professional Draw (Amiga and IBM compatibles). CAD packages such as AutoCAD and EasyCAD II use structured graphics, as well. If you can, provide structured graphics in Professional Draw format, or use an image conversion utility like HiJaak (IBM compatible) to create a GIF or IFF file from the structured graphic format. Again, it is a good idea to turn your article in early so that the Editor can perform any file conversions that might be needed. As a last resort, give a printed copy of the graphic to the Editor. The graphic can be pasted in or scanned, as necessary. File names for graphics must follow the following conventions. Begin the file name with the last two digits of the year of the intended Cursor issue, followed by two digits for the month of issue (use a leading zero, if necessary). Follow the month with your first and last initial. If you are submitting multiple graphic files, follow your initials with a sequential two-digit number, starting with 01. End the file name with .GIF for a GIF file, .IFF for an IFF image, and .PDW if a Professional Draw file. For example, John Smith submits two IFF files and one Professional Draw file for the August 2000 Cursor named 0008JS01.IFF, 0008JS02.IFF, and 0008JS01.PDW, respectively. Editor's Comments If you are editing an article for another person, you should indicate personal observations or additions to the body text by enclosing your text between parentheses, preceding the text with "ed.", and italicizing all your additions in the following manner: This is the body text (ed. this is the editor's note). Disk of the Month Articles If you write the Disk of the Month article for your SIG, use the following guidelines to maintain a consistent and readable format. Title your article with the disk type (e.g. Commodore 8-bit, C-128 CP/M, Amiga, or MS-DOS), followed by Disk of the Month, the disk series number, the month and year, and your name. The first paragraph of the article should contain a brief summary of the contents and the disk formats (e.g. 1541, MS-DOS 1.44M, Amiga 880K) available. Each following paragraph should describe a single file (or set of associated files). Begin these paragraphs with the primary file name (as it appears on the disk) followed by a dash, then a description of the file or file set. Make sure that you credit the file's author. Be an enthusiastic salesperson! Concentrate on telling the reader why the file is important. Finish the file description with any special hardware or software requirements. Delivery to the Editor Now that your article is written, you have to prepare it for delivery. The preferred method of delivery is by email attachment to the WAC Cursor Editor. Articles may also be delivered on floppy disks to the appropriate SIG leader. Contact your SIG leader in advance (phone numbers are listed on the inside back cover of every Cursor issue) to verify that your disk media is acceptable. Write your name, phone number, and article title on the disk label. You may pick up the disk at the following meeting or through arrangement with the SIG leader. As a last resort, hardcopy articles may be delivered to the SIG leader or Editor. However, hardcopy articles must be retyped and may not be ready for the next issue, even if received before the issue deadline. If you deliver your article on disk, the text must be in ASCII format. Do not deliver native word processor format files, and do not create files using your word processor's "print to disk" option. Word processor files usually contain embedded formatting codes which may cause problems to other word processors. Printing to disk creates leading spaces for margins and hard carriage returns at the end of each line. In both cases, removing the extraneous material during the edit process is very time-consuming. Check your word processor manual for information on saving ASCII files, or consult with your SIG leader. File names for text files must follow the following conventions. Begin the file name with the last two digits of the year of the intended Cursor issue, followed by two digits for the month of issue (use a leading zero, if necessary). Follow the month with your first and last initial. If you are submitting multiple text files, follow your initials with a sequential two-digit number, starting with 01. End the file name with .ASC to indicate an ASCII file. For example, John Smith submits two text files for the August 2000 Cursor named 0008JS01.ASC, 0008JS02.ASC, respectively.