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HTML FORMATTING

When you first get started at All About Jazz, the idea of HTML formatting may seem a daunting task. It's really quite simple.

For the most part, the only tags you need to concern yourself with up front are the paragraph and italics tags. Use the paragraph tag to introduce a new paragraph and use the italics tag to highlight the title of a recording. As you continue down the road, you will find the addition of other tags a logical and useful extension of this process.

We have also provided special pages devoted to formatting HTML links and including images.

• Use the paragraph tag <P> between paragraphs.
  Please note: If you use the <P> tag you don't need to also use a line break tag (<BR>) - as the paragraph break tag will place a blank line between the two paragraphs.

• To force a skip to a new line, use a line break tag <BR>. Note: typed text automatically wraps around to new lines as necessary, so this tag is very rarely used.

• To italicize a word, use <em> and </em> (eg. <em>jazz</em>)

• To bold a word, use <strong> and </strong> (eg. <strong>jazz</strong>)

• To hot link a URL: <A HREF=http://milesdavis.com TARGET=_blank>Miles Davis</A>

• To hot link an email address: <A HREF=mailto:joe@aol.com>Joe Jones</A>

• To ensure special characters and symbols, such as letters with accents above, below or through them, are properly displayed, look for the corresponding HTML code in the HTML Document Character Set table and insert it.

  Example: For the word élan, look up the "é" character in the table to find that it is &#233;. To insert the word properly use: &#233;lan.

  If you require any special characters and symbols that are not in the table, please contact John Kelman to have them added.

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TEXT FORMATTING

• Format song titles in "double quotes." For record titles, book titles, film titles or television show titles, use italics.

• For band names, record labels, suites, or venues use mixed case, with no quotes, bold, or italics.

• Where appropriate, abbreviate years using a preceding apostrophe: '54; '90s.

• Commas and periods are placed inside double quotes. All others go outside, unless they are part of a song title or artist quote. For example:

  "Autumn Leaves," her favorite standard, ...
  instead of
  "Autumn Leaves", her favorite standard, ...

• Do not use UPPER CASE unless you have a very good reason... use italics instead. Use italics instead of bold or underlined text when you want to lend emphasis.

• Please handle dashes in text as follows:

  To obtain the long em-dash that we prefer, type two single dashes without spaces on either side. The submission script will automatically convert those two dashes into the longer dash. For example: "The AAJ article editor will follow up with the photographer--ask for permission--then credit accordingly." Note: if your word processor automatically converts those two dashes into a long em-dash, you should just replace that character with two single dashes when you fill out the submission form.

• When you mention an album by way of comparison, please provide the label and release date as in the following example, or in the surrounding text:

  Kind Of Blue (Columbia, 1959)

• First references to an artist should use his/her full name, and you should mention what instrument he/she plays (either upon first introduction or not long afterwards).

• In the case of possessives for names ending in "s," AAJ's convention is to add only an apostrophe, so it would be Miles Davis' Kind of Blue, not Miles Davis's Kind of Blue.

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CONFIGURING MS-WORD AND PAGES FOR USE

Using a word processor like MS-WORD or PAGES (for Mac) is a great way to simplify the writing process, with a built-in spell-checker, ability to do global Find and Replace and more. However, there are some settings that need to be made in order to use these word processors for article submission.

• To properly configure MS-WORD, go to the Tools Menu, and select AutoCorrect Options. Under the two tabs - AutoFormat and AutoFormat As You Type - ensure that the boxes "Straight Quotes" with "Smart Quotes" and "Hyphens (--) with Dash (--)" are unchecked. The two tabs will look something like this:
  
  

• To properly configure Pages, go to the Preferences Menu and uncheck the "Use Smart Quotes (" ")" box. The screen will look something like this:
  

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A NOTE ABOUT AUTO-NOTIFICATION

On the submission form you will see a box marked "E-mail notifications," where we ask that you place the email addresses of the publicist, label, and/or artist involved with a particular review or story. You can usually find this information on the press sheet, artist's or label's web site. (Please just add the email addresses, one per line, with no extra text or punctuation; and please limit the list to an absolute maximum of 25 addresses.)

This box serves an important purpose because everyone on the list gets an automatic email from the publisher the minute a story goes live, thus formally reminding them about new activity at AAJ and inviting them to route readers our way.

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A NOTE ABOUT PHOTOGRAPHY

AAJ is happy to receive your photos for inclusion in articles other than CD reviews. Please follow these guidelines:

• Photos must be of professional quality. We reserve the right to decline use of your images if they are deemed of insufficient quality.

• We do not, as a rule, use photos of the artist with the contributor unless there's a specific and compelling reason to do so.

• Images should be submitted in JPEG (.jpg) format, using 72 pixels/inch resolution.

• For CD covers, the size of smallest dimension (height or width) should be 150 pixels. Save the file at a high quality so it looks sharp and bright. If there's a border around the image, trim it before sizing the image to spec.

• Vertically oriented images should be sized to between 200 and 250 pixels wide; horizontally oriented images intended for left or right justified should be sized to 300 pixels wide; images intended to be centered on the page (e.g. group shots) must be sized to 450 pixels wide. In all cases, vertical proportion should be constrained to match any changes to the horizontal proportion.

• Html code for insertion of left/right justified images (horizontal or vertical): <IMG SRC=/photos/2008/johndoe.jpg WIDTH=240 HEIGHT=300 ALIGN=LEFT VSPACE=2 HSPACE=12 BORDER=1>.

• Html code for insertion of centered horizontal images: <CENTER><IMG SRC=/photos/2008/janedoe.jpg WIDTH=450 HEIGHT=240 BORDER=1></CENTER>.

• Images cannot contain watermarks or the name of the photographer. AAJ provides credit and a hotlink, where available, to the photographer's website, AAJ Visual Arts Gallery or Contributor Profile at the bottom of the article.

• If you provide photos taken by people other than yourself, please provide the name and, if applicable, website URL of the photographers for inclusion.

• Upload your images to AAJ using these Upload Instructions and, if you don't know how to insert your images into the article, place the name(s) of the image(s) and photographer(s) in the Contributor Comment box on the Article Submission Form.

• CD, DVD and book covers should be uploaded to the /coverart/ directory for the current year; all other images should be uploaded to the /photos/ directory for the current year;

• If you have trouble uploading the images to AAJ, you can send them by email to John Kelman. Please remember to include the photographer name(s) and website(s) as applicable;

• If you are embedding images into articles, please note the following rule of thumb: if it's a photo that is to be left or right justified on the page, if the artist is facing left the image should be right justified; if the artist is facing right, the image should be left justified.

Next: Additional Tips  

last update: September 17, 2008