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1993-06-23
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Preparing Material for Archive
Paul Beverley
In order to speed up the preparation of the magazine, it would be helpful if contributors could try to
follow a set of guidelines Ö what you might call the öhouse styleò of Archive.
Disc format
The text you send in can be in any disc format you like: 3╜" or 5╝", E, D or L format Ö even
MSDOS if you really have to!
Wordprocessor / DTP format
We can cope with almost any WP/DTP format but, for preference, we would like Impression since
that is the application we actually use when producing the magazine. If you do have Impression or
Impression Junior, let us know and we will send you a sample document with the styles on it.
House style
For those of you who produce a lot of printed material, I know itæs difficult to change your style but,
if at all possible, I would like people to prepare their articles for Archive with a particular öhouse
styleò. Iæm not talking about your style of writing Ö your turn of phrase, etc Ö I mean the way you
lay it out. A few examples will show you what I mean.
Headings
If you look at the title of this article, you will see it is in titles, i.e. initial capital letters for the main
words. The section headings, however, only use an initial capital letter on the first word Ö except
where the word would have a capital anyway, like öImpressionò or öArchiveò, e.g. öHow to use
Impressionò.
Also, note the difference between switching the heading style off at the beginning of the next
paragraph (as in the title of this section) rather than at the end of the heading line (as in the
following title), i.e. the heading gets separated from the paragraph by a space.
Indents
There is no need to create indents, either with spaces or tabs. This is dealt with automatically by the
östylesò used in Impression. Thus, if you have a couple of lines of program to insert in the text, as
for example:
10 REM> WonderProg
100 PRINT öThis is a load of rubbishò
110 GOTO 100
What you should send in as text is just:
10 REM> WonderProg
100 PRINT öThis is a load of rubbishò
110 GOTO 100
I then give it styles which set the typeface and add the indent. If you had already given it indents by
adding your own spaces, I would have to strip them out otherwise I would get a double indent.
Tables
If you have tables within the text and you lay out the data in column by using spaces, it can cause
problems. Remember that what looks OK in mono-spaced type looks funny when set in a
proportionally-spaced typeface.
Thus...
Brown 6.5 13.6 11.11
Alliss 2.3 9.6 88.88
Mummy 1.1 11.1 99.99
may look OK when separated by spaces but if you put that into proportionally spaced text, you get:
Brown 6.5 13.6 11.11
Alliss 2.3 9.6 88.88
Mummy 1.1 11.1 99.99
If you want to use spaces to print it out, thatæs fine Ö I then just use search & replace to change mul
tiple spaces into tabs. However, if you can present it using tabs, it makes my life easier.
If you are using Impression and set up a table using a ruler, remember that the text has to fit, if
possible, into a normal column width. Also, please donæt leave the names of any new rulers as
ÉRuler1æ, ÉRuler2æ, etc. Use your own name or some code word, like ÉLynch1æ, ÉLynch2æ, etc. The
reason for this is that when you paste text from one document (your article) into another (the
magazine) if a style of the same name exists, it maintains the definition specified in the destination
document, so you will lose your carefully set out tabulations.
Abbreviations
I try, as far as I can, to use standard abbreviations and I try to be consistent. Here are some I use:
a.m. (with full stops)
Basic (not BASIC Ö Iæve changed my mind on this one!)
e.g. (with full stops)
i.e. (with full stops)
Kbytes or just Kb (not K and not k or kbytes. Yes, thatæs a change to make it consistent with
Mbytes.)
Mbytes or just Mb (and not M)
p.m. (with full stops)
RISC-OS (not RISC OS, Risc OS, RISCOS, etc)
Please refer to the computer we all know and love as an Archimedes, not an Arc or an Archie.
Archive references
When referring to articles in previous issues, the convention is to use, e.g. Archive 3.4 p45.
Spell-checking
If possible, please run a spell-checker over your text before sending it in. (This may seem obvious
but you would be amazed at the number of people, even those using Impression, who donæt bother.)
Other spelling conventions that I like to stick to are: program (unless itæs a TV programme),
iconbar, filetype and drawfile.
Dashes and hyphens
A hyphen is the character on the keyboard between the zero and the equals sign and is the thing
used in hyphenated words Ö e.g. RISC-OS Ö whereas dashes are produced as <alt-153> or from the
!Chars application and are used for separating bits of text Ö as used earlier in this sentence. On
!Chars, (in Trinity, anyway) itæs the third of the dash-like characters Ö under the letter y. If you are
using system font then itæs the underlined d, again under the y. In Impression, you can use <ctrl-
shift-hyphen>.
To save all this hassle, all you need to do is to use a double hyphen where you want a dash.
Describing keyboard actions
The conventions we use in Archive magazine to represent keyboard and mouse actions are best
illustrated by a bit of meaningless sample text:
If you want to press the return key (no angle brackets on return) or one of the other keys I would
tell you to press <return>, or to press <N>, <Y> or <?>. To start up, press <shift-break> and use
<ctrl-shift-f5> (use f5, not F5) or double-click on the icon (<select> is assumed if you donæt
mention which mouse button) but click <adjust> (not öthe right hand buttonò) if you want to add
something to the selection. In PipeDream we have control sequences like <ctrl-BSE> for searching
which actually means pressing <ctrl-B> and then <S> and then <E> while holding down <ctrl>. For
convenience, we put them all together in one set of angle brackets.
Comments on English style
One of the common errors that I have to correct is that you should never use a preposition to end a
sentence with. And you should never start a sentence with a conjunction like öandò or öbutò. But
people do! However, it is OK to use öhoweverò to start a sentence. Also, you can use öalsoò to start
a sentence.
As a general rule, writers tend to make their paragraphs too long. It makes the text easier to read if it
is broken up into smaller logical units. Also, it is good to use (short) titles at regular intervals to
make the structure of the article easier to appreciate. This is helpful for busy people who havenæt
time to read every word of every article and just want to find the bit of a review that declares itself
to be the öConclusionò.
Writing reviews
If you are writing a review, it is important to think yourself into the position of the person reading
the review who has never heard of the product. If they are thinking of buying a copy, they need to
know, at the very least, what the item is, how much it costs and who the supplier is. It is also useful
if you can mentioned the version number of the software under test so that people can see whether it
is the current version that was being tested or an earlier version. A