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Guidelines for Submissions to the VOICE Newsletter

Last updated: April 18, 2006

Content

General
Some general notes about how things work.
Legalese
Legal terms for submitting an article.
Possible topics
General and specific topics for future articles. Look here if you would like to write an article but don't know what to write about or aren't sure if your idea is suitable for the Newsletter.
Preparation, content, and structure
Information about how to write an article. Unexperienced authors can find detailed instructions for reviews, how-tos, editorials, reports, and interviews.
Formatting and HTML coding
Detailed information about what you should, can, and shouldn't do to structure and markup your article.
Links
Links to related pages and tools.

General

First and foremost, please do not hesitate to ask if you have questions regarding these submission guidelines.

The VOICE Newsletter is a project that is completely based on volunteer work, which applies to authors, publishers, editors, and translators alike. Nobody gets paid other than by possible sponsoring by our readers (as if that's going to happen).
The complete staff donates their time to this project, yet they have jobs, families, friends, and hobbies. Please consider this and help to minimize waste of time by following the guidelines below.

The guidelines may seem a bit daunting at first but we have tried to provide enough ideas and information for even complete novices to writing and HTML to succeed. Depending on your level of expertise you will find that you can skip several parts.

Here is how it works: You write an article and send it to editor@os2voice.org. If it consists of more than one file, please pack them with Info-ZIP. Please be sure your article is a valid (X)HTML or plain text file. If you submit an article as plain text, you may use Usenet- or e-mail-style markup for bold and italics. (X)HTML files need to use the VOICE Newsletter styles (see below).

There is no requirement as to length, since this newsletter is only in XHTML and INF format. It can be as long or as brief as necessary, so be thorough in your descriptions and commentaries. However, please remember that you are not writing your master thesis, so you don't have to begin at the very beginning à la And first the earth cooled... The reader will get bored very soon if you begin the review of a word processor with a nicely worked-out history of word processing software.

Your article will then be reviewed and run through a spell checker (something that you should also have done before sending the article). If there are any changes we think should be made that are not related to spelling or grammar, we will let you know and we can discuss them. We do not make any major changes without input and approval from the author. We will work on it with you to get it in shape. We are not professional editors, but we believe we have done some decent work on the Newsletter.

As to professionalism of writing, please refrain from vulgar and abusive language, illegal subject matter, and slander/libel. While a casual writing style (writing as you would talk) can be acceptable or make sense in some cases — as a stylistic device, in editorials or glosses — we strongly encourage you to choose a more professional approach in general (this does not mean that you cannot be funny). Our aim is to encourage readership and author participation by presenting a tasteful, yet useful medium for OS/2 related information.

Therefore VOICE reserves the right to reject any submitted article for any reason.
The editorial deadline for an issue is the 15th of the previous month.
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Sorry, but alas we cannot spare you the following. It is required for our and your own safety.

By submitting an article for the VOICE Newsletter you grant VOICE the irrevocable and perpetual right to translate, publish, store, and distribute the article (defined as text, included images and code) via any media without any compensation. You also grant VOICE the right to apply modifications to the translation if required for better comprehensibility. Otherwise you retain the full copyright. By submitting an article you also assure that it is free from copyrights of third parties, or that these third parties agree to the terms mentioned above, and that you are liable for any possible copyright infringements in your article (text, images, or code).

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Topics

If you are not sure whether your idea for an article is suitable for the Newsletter, have a look at the following list of general kinds of articles:

Here are some concrete suggestions for topics that we think are of particular interest:

Reviews

HowTos

Reports

Interviews

Preparation, content, and structure

Before you start, take some time to think about the target group of your article: Who are you going to write for? This question is extremely important as quite a number of things depend on the answer. The target group determines what kind of knowledge can be taken for granted, as well as specific areas of interest. Furthermore, different target groups face different kinds of problems, and have different ways of tackling these.

A few words on style. Dealing with the question of How to say it? in-depth is way beyond the scope of this document but we try to give some directions.

There are several levels where you can move between extremes. There is much room for variety but please consider the following:

Rules of thumb:
Too much of a good thing can kill you.
Many things are more efficient in small doses.

All kinds of article types share some common characteristics:

The following should give you a rough idea of what to include in different types of articles and how to do it.

Experience report

Essentially, this type of article describes a product, service, event, or problem, the key characteristic being that it presents the author's personal experiences. This is usually done diary-style or anecdotically, i.e., the facts and events have a chronological or associative relation, not one of content.

As a result, and compared to other article types, the experience report is the easiest on the writer but also the hardest on the reader. It can be quite entertaining but the scattered facts and its subjective approach make it hard for the reader to see what information is essential.

Due to the above, experience reports are not found in professional media, except for a very restricted set of purposes. Generally, they are only used to report cases of, e.g., extremely bad support, or as glosses (see below). As far as the VOICE Newsletter is concerned, also reports about events are acceptable in this form, although we recommend a mixture of experience report and normal report.

Please do not use this type unless you have good reason to do so.

Reviews

A review presents your findings from a product test, a product being hardware, software, or a book. The following focuses on hardware and software but much also applies to book reviews.

If your article is a review, you should definitely read Esther Schindler's article How to write a product review from the November 2000 issue of Extended Attributes.

The article type of reviews has three subtypes that have slightly different purposes each:

  1. Review of a single product: This type primarily aims to answer the question whether the product is good.
  2. Comparative review of several products of the same kind: This comparison also aims at the product quality. The reader's main question, however, is which one of the products is best.
  3. Technology overview: With very complex products, the article becomes more of a description of different approaches to solving a problem and introduces the products as example implementations. Due to the high complexity, such articles don't deal with the matter in such in-depth ways but rather provide overviews and starting points for the reader's further investigations.

Preparations

Content and structure

Essentially, the article should contain the following parts:

  1. Introduction: What is the problem the software aims to solve? Why did you choose this particular package? How did you go about deciding on it? What alternatives did you consider? What were your initial impressions about it?

  2. Setup/Installation: Was it complete out of the box (or zip file), or did you have to purchase or find additional items like cables and drivers (this mostly applies to hardware)? Did you have to read the manual? Was there a manual, if so how good/helpful was it? Did you still have to boot to plain DOS or Windows to run any kind of setup or calibration software? What hardware are you using it with (major PC specs if applicable, i.e., CPU, RAM, HD) and what version of OS/2? Any minimum hardware/software requirements for this application? What kind of support is provided? Did you have reason to ask for help, if so how was the response?

    Normally, installation itself shouldn't be talked about, since a well-working one is expected from every product. But if you had problems or you think that certain things have been solved in a very intelligent way, do comment on that.

  3. What is it capable of and how does it work: What does the manufacturer claim that the product can do? Does it hold to this promise? Don't recite the feature list! Deal with the features that are interesting for the reader instead. Give some details on how you use the application. No need to get into every detail, just the basics is fine. Be aware that your way of doing things isn't necessarily the same as our readers'. Graphics and figures are nice and help a lot in showing how a product works.

    Many people seem to be tempted to write something like a user's guide in this case. If you are reviewing a product, don't write about which menu you have to select to invoke a feature. Better tell the reader how good that feature works.
  4. Evaluation: List your detailled likes and dislikes here. In general, the readers will expect you to first list the likes and then the dislikes. Comment on usability, especially in regard to the target group. Is it better or worse than comparable products? Are you missing a feature which is essential for solving the problem? Did you have to contact the manufacturer or vendor for support?
  5. Conclusion/Final Thoughts: Are you satisfied with this product? List its main strong and weak points. Did you have to contact the manufacturer or vendor for support? If so was it any good? Can you give a comparison to any similar product as far as quality and general usability? Is it a good value? Would you make the same decision again, or advise others to buy it? For whom is it suitable?
  6. Resources: List any URLs for getting information about the device and any software used specifically with it, if any. Also give the manufacturer's suggested retail price and/or a general price range for it and possibly the vendor or vendors where it can be purchased.

How-tos

If your article is a How-to, i.e., it explains how to achieve certain things with certain applications, tool, etc., please mind the following:

  1. Restate what the problem was and what the steps and tools you used to solve it were.
  2. Try to bring the steps into a chronological order and leave out things that aren't related since they might just confuse the reader.
  3. Begin the article with a short description of the problem, maybe a statement about why you think it is worth the hassle, and perhaps a short lookout on how it can be solved.
  4. List the required tools (if not too much this can also be done at the very point in the process they are used at, perhaps at the beginning of each chapter). Do these tools require any other things? If complex preparations are required to use the tools, describe them before beginning with the description of the problem-solving itself.
  5. Is any extra-knowledge required to solve the problem that is not directly related to the steps? Describe it prior to dealing with the problem-solving itself. Don't insert chunks of it in between like, e.g., And, by the way, abc works by doing xyz.
  6. List the steps which are required to solve the problem.
    • If there are different approaches and they take longer to deal with, create a separate chapter for each one. Don't mix alternatives in one paragraph so the reader doesn't get confused.
    • Always take into account that the reader probably knows a lot less than you. Don't take power-user knowdledge for granted. So be detailed, but don't explain basics that aren't required for the reader to be able to reproduce the steps (and understand them).
    • Don't list information that isn't really related to a specific step in that step's chapter/paragraph. If it could come in handy though, donate a separate chapter to it after the problem-solving process, or use the digression box style (see below).
    • Troubleshooting information, i.e., how to determine what went wrong where, would be nice if the issue is a complex one.
  7. List sources where interested readers can obtain further information which deals with the background, digs deeper, etc.

Editorial/Gloss

Editorials give your personal opinion regarding a certain topic and often try to persuade the reader to agree with you and, as a result, do certain things.
Glosses usually deal with a topic in an ironic or sarcastic manner. Sometimes, glosses are written as fake articles of another type, e.g., reviews, reports, or interviews.

A common characteristic is the increased use of stylistic devices.

Editorials are not structured very strictly. Nevertheless, the following applies:

Glosses that are faked articles generally follow the structure of the faked article type.

Report

Essentially, a report describes an event that the author has attended or a topic that the author has researched, the main difference to an experiences report being that the author himself takes a backseat and the focus lies on the topic.

While preparing the article, you may want to get some comments from people involved, i.e., visitors of an event or the ones concerned.

Interview

Interviews provide different ways to obtain answers to questions. The key question — which you have to answer yourself — is What does the reader want to know? or What information could be interesting for the reader? The answer to this determines who, how, and what you are going to ask.

There are different types and levels of interviews:

Interviews can have different kinds of focusses:

Depending on your target group, you may want to either choose a focus for an interview with a given person, or think about whom to ask about a given topic to get the desired information.

Preparations

Interviewing

Apart from the general rules of conduct, there are a few things more to consider:

Content and structure

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Formatting and coding

Formatting the text in certain ways can increase readability a lot. VOICE uses XHTML and CSS to define article structure and presentation. Please ensure that your article conforms to the following to keep the Newsletter's interface consistent.

Structure

For structuring an article and presenting information, the usual standard XHTML tags for headers, paragraphs, line breaks, lists (unordered, ordered, and definition), tables, etc. plus a number of special styles are available.

Headers

The first level header (<h1> tag) is reserved for the article title only, so article headers start at the second level. While XHTML supports up to six header levels, please avoid unneccessary complexity. In general, using the second to fourth level headers (<h2>, <h3>, and <h4> tags) should be enough.

No numbering of headers, please. The VOICE Newsletter is neither a scientific nor legal publication.

Paragraphs and line breaks

Use paragraphs and line breaks to illustrate your train of thought. Please note that while using long paragraphs with many line breaks is quite common in printed media, they are hard to read on a computer monitor.

Lists

Please use the different types of lists as they were intended to. Lists are not a replacement for headers!

Ordered lists should only be used if there actually is an order or priority in the sequence of list items, e.g., when consecutive steps for a setup are described. If the order is not important, the unordered list is the way to go.

When explaining a number of terms in a wider sense, e.g., terms, parameters, commands, etc., use a definition list. Please do not use tables for such purposes unless the information you present is tabularly and would require more than two columns.

Tables

Tables should be used to present tabularly information only. They are not a means for layout. If you want to list definitions of terms that would result in a two-column table, a definition list usually is the better alternative.

Always provide a caption that defines the table content. These should be numbered in the following way:

Tbl. 1. Performance test results for AMD Athlon processors

Provide headers that define the content of each column or row. Special styles are available for marking parts of a table or single cells.

Keep them simple: Please don't include images in tables and avoid nested tables since both kinds are not supported by IPF and make generating the INF version of the Newsletter very complicated. Furthermore, they make it hard for people with screen readers to understand the page.

Images

Images can be in just about any format, but we prefer PNG, JPG, or GIF. Note that the different formats are also suitable for different purposes. JPEG is likely to result in washed out fonts in screenshots of dialogs, for instance.

Try to keep them to 256 colors or less (this is a requirement of the INF version), and the smaller the file size the better, as some people download the Newsletter to read off-line. If the image width exceeds 600 pixels, you may want to consider using thumbnails in the text.

You may want to mark relevant parts of an image with colored arrows, circles, or boxes to direct the readers' attention.

Always provide alternative text for people with text-mode browsers or screen readers, please.

Add meaningful captions below images. Usually, they can repeat the alternative text. These should be numbered in the following way:

Fig. 1. LAN interface setup dialog

Styles

Please see the following tables for a list of available styles, notes on usage, and examples. We have tried to keep style names as self-explaining as possible. Inline styles begin with a lower-case i and block element styles with a lower-case b.

Unless explicitely stated, styles inside paragraphs are applied by enclosing the text like this:

<span class="classname">text to use a style with</span>

Where a tag is given in angle brackets, it has to enclose the text like this:

<tag>text to use a style with</tag>
Tbl. 1. Markup inside paragraphs
Name Usage Example Classname/Tag
With special tags
emphasis A newly introduced term that is used for the first time in the article, terms in foreign languages, slightly emphasized things. This was the first time a computer was used for such calculations. <em>
strong emphasis A strong emphasis, e.g., for a warning. Do not format your drive unless you have a working backup. <strong>
acronym An acronym or abbreviation. If you move the mouse pointer over the acronym, an explanation is displayed that is provided via the title attribute. For many widely-used computer abbreviations and acronyms, this will automatically be taken care of by our scripts. V.O.I.C.E <acronym title="long description">
code Any snippet of program code in a wider sense. E.g., HTML, CSS, REXX, C, Pascal. SysSetObjectData() <code> or iCode
keyboard input

Keyboard input to be entered by the user.

A - or + between two keys means that they have to be pressed simultaneously. In the example, you would have to press both the Ctrl and C keys.

 [Ctrl-C] <kbd> or iKeyboard
quote A quote from real persons or books, or program messages. Note that the browser adds quotation marks automatically. You have selected to delete the file test.zip. Continue? or To be or not to be? <q>
citation, quote source The source of a quote. This could tell you whom the To be or not to be? quote from above originated from. Hamlet <cite>
variable, syntax A variable, variable name, or program argument. Often used to explain command syntax. directory or filename <var>
With classes
address All kinds of addresses. 192.168.1.1 or comp.os.os2.bugs iAddress
command A command that has to be entered at a command line and executed by pressing the Enter key. unzip test.zip -d x:\temp iCommand
command output Output that is displayed by a program at a command line. unzip: cannot find either test or test.zip. iOutput
entryfield Text that has to be typed in an entry field. The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog. iEntryfield
files, paths The name of a file or folder, or its partial or fully qualified path in the file system. CONFIG.SYS, OS2\INSTALL, or C:\OS2\BOOT\OS2DASD.DMD iFile
GUI elements, active

For active GUI elements, which cause some action to occur when clicked: menu items, push buttons, checkboxes, radio buttons, lists, combo boxes.

A > seperates elements that have to be selected consecutively. In the example, this would mean that you first have to select the menu item File and then New.

 Browse or File > New iGuiActive
GUI elements, static For static GUI elements, which are used for information purposes: window and dialog titles, group names. Groups are borders, usually surrounding several associated active GUI elements. Shutdown iGuiStatic
WPS objects

Workplace Shell desktop objects, both abstract and with a file system pendant.

A > seperates such elements that have to be selected consecutively. In the above example, this would mean that you first have to open the Local System folder object, then the System Setup folder, and then the Mouse object.

 Templates or Local System > System Setup > Mouse iObject

Unless explicitely stated, styles constituing paragraphs are applied by enclosing the text like this:

<div class="classname">text to use a style with</div>

or

<pre class="classname">text to use a style with</pre>

General purpose containers (<div> tags) can contain other markup constituing paragraphs itself.

Tbl. 2. Markup of whole paragraphs
Name Usage Example Classname/Tag
summary The summary of an article. Usually located directly after the title.

Emacs is an extremely feature-rich and extensible editor. However, these qualities have a price: complexity. Many people have surrendered to the steep learning curve that has to be overcome before one can take advantage of all the program's goodies. To help you avoid the same fate, this article describes the installation and customization of the Emacs editor in great detail.

 <p class="bSummary">
quote Quotes that extend over several lines.

The VOICE bylaws state:

The name of this organization shall be the Virtual OS/2 International Consumer Education, hereinafter called VOICE. OS/2 is defined as a computer operating system marketed by IBM. ISV is defined as Independent Software Vendor. SOHO is defined as Small Office/Home Office. OS/2 and IBM are the registered trademarks of the International Business Machines Corporation.

So this organization is about OS/2.

 <blockquote>
Classes for general purpose containers (<div> tag)
header A general purpose header that can be placed above any paragraph-style markup
A header
Operating System/2 (OS/2) was originally developed as a joint project between IBM and Microsoft. It's intention was to replace the antiquated Disk Operating System (DOS) as the operating system of choice. At the time, DOS was at version 3.x, and IBM and Microsoft both realized that with the advent of the Intel 80286 in the mid-1980's, it was quickly becoming obsolete.
bHeader
digression A box that contains side notes and digressions that don't otherwise fit into the flow of the article.
OS/2 history
Operating System/2 (OS/2) was originally developed as a joint project between IBM and Microsoft. It's intention was to replace the antiquated Disk Operating System (DOS) as the operating system of choice. At the time, DOS was at version 3.x, and IBM and Microsoft both realized that with the advent of the Intel 80286 in the mid-1980's, it was quickly becoming obsolete. Thus, OS/2 was born, initially as a 16-bit, command-line based operating system. Microsoft worked closely with IBM up to version 1.3. While IBM worked on the guts, they worked on the new graphical user interface that was due for later versions. OS/2's kernel was developed by IBM from the ground up as the Personal Computer (PC) version of a mainframe operating system, with all of the time-slicing, stability, and other features previously existing solely on those high-end machines.
bDigression1, bDigression2
entryfield Several lines that have to be entered into an entry field or similar.
The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.
Then it escapes the hunter by hiding behind a bush.
bEntryfield
caution An important note.
While RSU is great to have on standard OS/2 systems, I don't recommend using it on eComStation systems. The eCS Maintenance Tool provides its own method of installing FixPaks over the Internet, and it's already much more advanced than RSU ever was. It also handles post-installation dependencies specific to eComStation (like updating the dialog and icon resources), which RSU does not.
bCaution
warning A warning. Failing to abide by this instructions can lead to severe problems.
Create a backup of your INI files before installing this software. It is still in beta state and could completely break your WPS.
bWarning
finished, checked Notes about a larger section of work that has been finished and the consequences thereof.
Now that we have finished the above configuration steps it is save to reboot the machine and start the server for the first time.
bChecked
reminder for later Things to keep in mind.
As you can see, the configuration steps executed above have changed the application's display the way we wished. We need to keep this in mind for later, when we adapt the printout.
bPin
success, ok Specific characteristics that mark an operation's success. Something that is particularly positive about a piece of software or hardware.
Congratulations! You have finished configuring the most versatile and complex editor ever developed!
bThumbsup
Classes for preformatted text (<pre> tag)
code Several lines of arbitrary code.
Example #1: xcenter.c from XWorkplace 
SOM_Scope BOOL  SOMLINK xctr_xwpMoveWidget(XCenter *somSelf,
                                           ULONG ulIndex2Move,
                                           ULONG ulBeforeIndex)
{
    // XCenterData *somThis = XCenterGetData(somSelf);
    XCenterMethodDebug("XCenter","xctr_xwpMoveWidget");

    return ctrpMoveWidget(somSelf, ulIndex2Move, ulBeforeIndex);
}
bCode
command Input and output at a command line. 
unzip notexist.zip -d x:\
unzip:  cannot find either notexist or notexist.zip.
bCommand, bCommandOutput. Note that bCommandOutput can only be used with span tags inside a bCommand block.
file content Generic file content.
Partial CONFIG.SYS 
BUFFERS=100
IOPL=NO
DISKCACHE=512,LW,32
MAXWAIT=1
MEMMAN=SWAP,PROTECT
SWAPPATH=H:\ 10240 92160
BREAK=OFF
THREADS=1024
PRINTMONBUFSIZE=2048,134,134
bFileContent

In general, images have to inserted in general purpose containers (<div> tags). They are followed by a line break and an image description.
Under certain circumstances, however, placing a caption may be completely superfluous or even ill-advised. In an editorial, a cartoon with a caption that says Fig. 1. Cartoon explaining why xyz sucks would be unintentionally funny, for instance. Should that be the case and it is intended to let the text flow beside the image, the image can be inserted directly into the corresponding paragraph and a class can be assigned to the image itself.

Tbl. 3. Markup for images
Name Usage Example Classname/Tag
image on its own An image that has its own paragraph without text flowing to either side of it.

Operating System/2 (OS/2) was originally developed as a joint project between IBM and Microsoft. It's intention was to replace the antiquated Disk Operating System (DOS) as the operating system of choice. At the time, DOS was at version 3.x, and IBM and Microsoft both realized that with the advent of the Intel 80286 in the mid-1980's, it was quickly becoming obsolete.

Alternative text for the test image
Fig. 1. An image displayed on its own line

Thus, OS/2 was born, initially as a 16-bit, command-line based operating system. Microsoft worked closely with IBM up to version 1.3. While IBM worked on the guts, they worked on the new graphical user interface that was due for later versions. OS/2's kernel was developed by IBM from the ground up as the Personal Computer (PC) version of a mainframe operating system, with all of the time-slicing, stability, and other features previously existing solely on those high-end machines.

 bImageCenter
left-justified image An image with description and text flowing to the right of it.
Alternative text for the test image
Fig. 2. An image displayed on the left side

Operating System/2 (OS/2) was originally developed as a joint project between IBM and Microsoft. It's intention was to replace the antiquated Disk Operating System (DOS) as the operating system of choice. At the time, DOS was at version 3.x, and IBM and Microsoft both realized that with the advent of the Intel 80286 in the mid-1980's, it was quickly becoming obsolete. Thus, OS/2 was born, initially as a 16-bit, command-line based operating system. Microsoft worked closely with IBM up to version 1.3. While IBM worked on the guts, they worked on the new graphical user interface that was due for later versions. OS/2's kernel was developed by IBM from the ground up as the Personal Computer (PC) version of a mainframe operating system, with all of the time-slicing, stability, and other features previously existing solely on those high-end machines.

 bImageLeft
right-justified image An image with description and text flowing to the left of it.
Alternative text for the test image
Fig. 3. An image displayed on the right side

Operating System/2 (OS/2) was originally developed as a joint project between IBM and Microsoft. It's intention was to replace the antiquated Disk Operating System (DOS) as the operating system of choice. At the time, DOS was at version 3.x, and IBM and Microsoft both realized that with the advent of the Intel 80286 in the mid-1980's, it was quickly becoming obsolete. Thus, OS/2 was born, initially as a 16-bit, command-line based operating system. Microsoft worked closely with IBM up to version 1.3. While IBM worked on the "guts," they worked on the new graphical user interface that was due for later versions. OS/2's kernel was developed by IBM from the ground up as the Personal Computer (PC) version of a mainframe operating system, with all of the time-slicing, stability, and other features previously existing solely on those high-end machines.

 bImageRight
left-justified image inside of paragraph An image without description and text flowing to the right of it.

Alternative text for the test image Operating System/2 (OS/2) was originally developed as a joint project between IBM and Microsoft. It's intention was to replace the antiquated Disk Operating System (DOS) as the operating system of choice. At the time, DOS was at version 3.x, and IBM and Microsoft both realized that with the advent of the Intel 80286 in the mid-1980's, it was quickly becoming obsolete. Thus, OS/2 was born, initially as a 16-bit, command-line based operating system. Microsoft worked closely with IBM up to version 1.3. While IBM worked on the guts, they worked on the new graphical user interface that was due for later versions. OS/2's kernel was developed by IBM from the ground up as the Personal Computer (PC) version of a mainframe operating system, with all of the time-slicing, stability, and other features previously existing solely on those high-end machines.

 iImageLeft
right-justified image inside of paragraph An image without description and text flowing to the left of it.

Alternative text for the test image Operating System/2 (OS/2) was originally developed as a joint project between IBM and Microsoft. It's intention was to replace the antiquated Disk Operating System (DOS) as the operating system of choice. At the time, DOS was at version 3.x, and IBM and Microsoft both realized that with the advent of the Intel 80286 in the mid-1980's, it was quickly becoming obsolete. Thus, OS/2 was born, initially as a 16-bit, command-line based operating system. Microsoft worked closely with IBM up to version 1.3. While IBM worked on the guts, they worked on the new graphical user interface that was due for later versions. OS/2's kernel was developed by IBM from the ground up as the Personal Computer (PC) version of a mainframe operating system, with all of the time-slicing, stability, and other features previously existing solely on those high-end machines.

 iImageRight

Besides the normal cells, the following is available for formatting tables:

Tbl. 4. Markup for tables
Name Usage Example Classname/Tag
caption Describes the content of the whole table.
Tbl. 1. A test table
test test test
test test test
<caption> Placed directly after the table tag.
header Describes the content of a column or row.
Column 1 Column 2 Column 3
test test test
test test test
<th>
category header A sub-caption that describes the content of the following table columns and rows
Tbl. 1. Test results of experiments made
Column 1 Column 2 Column 3
Test No. 1
test1 test1 test1
Test No. 2
test2 test2 test2
<th class="category" colspan="x"> Note that this has to get a colspan attribute assigned with x usually being the actual number of columns the table consists of.
marker color 1 A backgroundcolor for marking a table cell. Test <td class="mark1">Test</td>
marker color 2 A backgroundcolor for marking a table cell. Test <td class="mark2">Test</td>
marker color 3 A backgroundcolor for marking a table cell. Test <td class="mark3">Test</td>
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How to write a product review by Esther Schindler
The essential steps to writing an effective product review, by Esther Schindler, extended attributes, November 2000
HTML Tidy
A freeware tool for checking and formatting HTML code. It is also capable of correcting errors.
WWW Consortium
The WWW Consortium offers extensive informationen on the HTML standards defined by itself, an online validator for web pages, and more.

Again, if you have any questions regarding the submission itself or how to write an article, feel free to ask.

Thank you,

The VOICE Editors