Article Guidelines

These are the guidelines for writing articles for ATMac. If you are writing a guest article this should give you an idea of where to start:

1. Each article needs to have just one specific and focussed topic. If you want to talk about more than one thing, you can always write more than one article! Make sure you've cleared your topic with me before you write and submit your article.
2. Articles are generally 250-500 words in length. Longer articles can be broken up and published as a series of shorter articles, though, and articles which are mostly images/video/audio might have fewer words.
3. All text must be legal for ATMac to use.
   1. Don't copy other articles!
   2. Make sure quotes are clearly marked, you say who the quote is from, and there's a link to the source of the quote if it's on the web.
   3. If in doubt, check with me.

4. Each article needs an icon - this is displayed on the front page, in the archive pages, and in the top-left of the article itself. If you look at the front page you'll get a good idea of what these usually look like.
   1. If you are writing about a specific app or program, your icon should be the icon of that app or program.
   
   
   2. If you are writing about a specific gadget, person, or something else that can be captured in a picture then try to get a clear close-up photo of just that gadget/person/etc. with as little stuff in the background as possible.
   
   
   3. If you are writing more generally, we have generic icons for iPhone/iPod Touch, iPad, OS X, Apple, Accessibility, and a bunch of other things.

   If you aren't sure which icon you'll need, or how to get the icon from the app or program then just ask me.

5. Aside from the icon, each article should have at least 1-2 other "inserts". These are usually screenshots or photographs, but videos or audio (MP3) is also great. How-to articles may need lots more images, use your judgement here.
6. All images, video, audio, or any other inserts etc. must also be legal for ATMac to use.
   1. Screenshots you take yourself are fine.
   2. Photos/videos/audio/etc. you've taken or somebody has taken for you (at your direction) are fine. Photos/videos/audio/etc. where the person taking them has given you permission to use them are fine. Anybody who is identifiable in the photo/video/audio needs to give you permission to use their face, or you can crop or blur the images/video so they aren't identifiable if they'd rather not be in it.
   3. Images from the program's website which are marked as for use of PR, press, or media are fine. The icon of a program or app itself is fine. For other website images, check with the authors - most are happy for you to use them but asking is necessary.
   4. Embedding any video that's already uploaded to a public video site like YouTube or Vimeo is fine.
   5. If you need any other photos, try searching via the Creative Commons website, the green bar up the top needs to have "Use for commercial purposes" and "Modify, adapt, or build on" ticked before you search. Save the address of the website where you got each photograph, as we need to link back to that website to credit the author of the photograph.

   I know this can sound a bit intimidating and scary, but don't get stressed about it. If you aren't sure, just ask me.

7. When you write you article, please leave the formatting as plain as possible. Any formatting that you do has to be taken out and re-done the way ATMac does it, so it's best to leave it out altogether and just include a note with your article describing any formatting that you want.
8. If you want to put in a link, just put where you want the link to lead to in brackets or braces - don't make it an actual link in your text.
9. Similarly, don't include your images/pictures/videos/etc in the article itself. Put notes like "Picture1.png goes here" and then attach Picture1.png to your email when you submit your article. It's much easier for me if you do this.

As always, if you have any questions or worries or trouble please contact me and I'll do my best to help you.

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