Format Guide for Atlantic.Net How-To Articles

Introduction

If you think you’d like to write for Atlantic.Net, you should start by completing our signup form.

How-to articles for Atlantic.Net should conform to the standards indicated in the sections below:

Sections (including Introduction, Prerequisites, and the Tutorial itself)
Format (Markdown or simple HTML)
Images/Screenshots
Original Work

Please also review our style guide for additional guidance.

Sections

Each How-To article should begin with the Introduction section, which briefly describes the scope of the article. The word “Introduction” should be contained within H3 headers.

Following Introduction should be Prerequisites, indicated with H3 headers. Prerequisites should include which operating system the article is relevant to, including appropriate distribution (e.g., “Ubuntu 14.04 and earlier” or “Windows Server 2012 and Windows Server 2012 R2”).

You should also include packages, roles, or features required and whose installation, and this article will not cover configuration. Check to ensure that an article covering that installation/configuration exists and include a link.

Example: (excerpted from Install WordPress on a Fedora 22 Cloud Server .)

Prerequisite

– A Fedora 22 server running LAMP or LEMP is required. Please see our how-tos for Fedora 22 LAMP or LEMP.

 

The bulk of the article, the tutorial, follows the Prerequisites section.

Format

How-To articles for Atlantic.Net can be submitted in Markdown or simple HTML.

Supported text formatting: header text, code blocks, inline code (for commands and keystrokes), italics (for variables), and bold (for emphasis).

 

Headers

H2 should be used for major sections of the tutorial.

H3 should be used for “Introduction,” “Prerequisites,” and subsections of the tutorial.

 

Code Blocks

Any code that needs to be entered as part of the tutorial should be included in a code block.

 

In most cases, inline code will be used to explain variables or options that commands may take. If referencing code inline, you may use the code tag. This use should be confined to referring to a portion of code already included in a nearby code block.

Example:

Be careful when using the -r option with rm. It recursively attempts to delete all files subordinate to the path you indicate.

 

Variable/custom information format

Placeholders for variables or custom configuration entries (such as hostnames) should be italicized. Our parser will also tint all italicized entries green.

 

Emphasis

If you’d like to indicate emphasis, use bold.

 

Keystrokes

When it comes to referencing keystrokes inline with the text, enclose them in a code span.

Example:

Press the Enter key.

For keystrokes requiring multiple keys to be pressed simultaneously, use a plus sign (+) between keys.

Example:

To exit, press Ctrl+C.

To switch users, first press Ctrl+Alt+Del.

 

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Images

How-to should include appropriate screenshots, showing such visual elements as where to click or what a screen should look like (such as a phpinfo page, for instance). Images should have a maximum width of 730 pixels.

Please include a link to the image using the URL where it is currently hosted. Articles accepted for publication will have all associated images downloaded and hosted on our servers. Along with images, we require the following:

Image Name: format anet-articlename-## (where the ## is replaced by a number, e.g., anet-how_to_install_lamp_debian_8-01).
Alt-Text: a brief description of the image in case it does not load.
Caption: brief description appearing beneath the image.

Any uniquely identifiable information should be obscured, preferably through the use of prominent placeholder names (such as “example.com” or “192.168.0.2”).

Original Work

All articles written for Atlantic.Net must be original works. If you’ve already written a particular tutorial elsewhere and would like to do something similar with us, then take this opportunity to improve upon your initial effort! Atlantic.Net will not tolerate plagiarism nor the re-use of previously existing work.

Similarly, all images and screenshots should also be unique.

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