OS/2 e-Zine! - Submission Guidelines

Submission Guidelines

Content | Screen Shots | Length | HTML | Miscellaneous

Note: Before submitting a review or a suggestion for a review, please check our past issues to see if the product or topic has already been covered!

Content

Reviews should not be tutorials on how to use an application. Do not include step-by-step explanations of how to use the product you are reviewing.

Reviews should explain what features are available in the application and how well they work.

examples:

To delete a file, click the "File" menu, select the "Delete" option then press OK. (BAD)

The "Delete" feature was a joy to use. It increased my efficiency at file eradication 1000%. (GOOD)

Also remember to:

Be accurate.
Discuss:
- The installation procedure
- Speed or performance of the product
- Features of the product
- The interface (user-friendliness, overall gee-whiz-ery)
- The documentation (print and on-line, if present)
- Problems and/or bugs
- Features you would like to see implemented
- Technical support (if available and relevant)
Include the specifications of the machine on which the product was reviewed.
Include contact information for the company that makes the product (WWW & e-mail if possible, or if not, postal and telephone) and the Manufacturer's Suggested Retail Price (MSRP) for the product.
Make a value judgement in the conclusion (the last paragraph).

Screen Shots

Important

If screen shots are appropriate for your review, save all screen captures as GIFs and make sure they are not dithered.

Dithering is performed automatically by many graphics applications when files are saved as GIFs. This results in larger file sizes and lower picture quality.

To avoid this, it is very important that you reduce the image to 256 colours and select "no dithering" from your graphics software. For example, if you are using PMView, before you ever save your screen capture, select:

Color->Convert to->Indexed 256-Color

From the "Convert to Indexed 256-color" dialog, click the 'None' button in the 'Dither' section and click the 'OK' button. Now save the file normally (as a GIF please).

Methods for other graphics applications vary. Some graphics applications may always dither GIFs. We recommend PMView v1.00 for all screen captures and graphics file conversions.

Here's a quick test to see if you should be doing your own screen captures. Can you tell the difference between these two GIFs? The one on the left was created with the above method; the one on the right was not.

   
3,154 bytes                 5,049 bytes

How about this: can you tell the difference when they're blown up three times?

As you can see, the picture on the left has a much clearer image and a much smaller file size. If you can not see the difference in the above screen captures, then please do not send screen shots. We will be happy to capture them for you.

Also, please take note of the following:

Please send only GIFs (NO JPGs unless absolutely necessary).
Perform screen captures with solid coloured Desktop backgrounds.
Perform screen captures at 640x480 resolution (not 800x600 or larger).
Perform captures of only the relevant windows, not the entire screen.
If including multiple screen shots, try to name them with consecutive numbers (eg. if the review is of PMMail, name the screen shots pmmail1.gif, pmmail2.gif, ...). Please use FAT (8.3) file names.
Indicate in your review where the screen shots should appear.
Send screen shots as either UUEncoded or MIME attachments to submissions@os2ezine.com.

Length

Normal reviews and articles should be between 800 - 1500 words. Major reviews and articles should be between 1000 - 3000 words. (These are guidelines only!)

HTML: Is It Necessary?

Normally we ask for reviews in plain ASCII format. Our editorial staff will insert all the appropriate HTML layout tags so you don't need to worry about them.

However, if you would like to insert your own HTML tags, either to indicate a particular layout preference or to make our job easier, you are welcome to do so. In order to maintain consistency with OS/2 e-Zine! layout guidelines, make sure you use:

<em> </em> (not <i> </i>)
<strong> </strong> (not <b> </b>)
<h3> </h3> for headings
<blockquote> </blockquote> for long quotations
<pre> </pre> to represent programming code or command line entries

You may also want to use HTML <table> </table> tags to depict tables in your submission. This is acceptable or, again, you may submit the information in raw ASCII format and we will create the tables for you.

Miscellaneous

If possible, contact the author or developers of the software you are reviewing for background and/or quotes to include in the article. If you are not comfortable with this or not able to do so (in the case of large bureaucracies or for any other reason) and have questions you would like answered, contact us and we will do our best to assist you.

All submissions should be original, unpublished material. If they are not you MUST make this clear at the time of submission!

Also:

All submissions should be plain ASCII text (HTML tags are OK -- see above).
Leave a blank line between paragraphs.
Do not indent paragraphs.
Indicate any URLs you would like included (or, if you prefer, add them yourself).
Spell check all submissions.
Include a one to three sentence biography of yourself.
Indicate if there is a web page you would like linked from your biography.
Include a phone number where you can be reached in case of last minute emergencies.
Send the article as either a MIME or UUEncoded attachment to submissions@os2ezine.com.