Technical Specs/Requirements
Source Material
At InformIT, we're pretty flexible when it comes to how you write your articles. We do prefer articles to be written Microsoft Word (it's what our editors use), but if you have special needs we can work to accommodate you. For instance, we have also accepted articles written in OpenOffice, HTML, or plain text. We do prefer the .doc format, however, so if it is at all possible please try to use Word or a compatible word processor.
Our editors can format the article for you, so as long as you clearly identify headings, sub-headings, and figures (more on figures below in the Image Guidelines section), you'll be all set. However, we do have a special template pre-loaded with the styles our editing and conversion team use that your editor can send you. If you are familiar with Word's .dot templates and would like to speed up the editing process, you are more than welcome to submit your document pre-formatted. If you are a prior Pearson author, you'll find that our template uses most of the same styles as the Pearson Global template your book editor provided you with.
Images
Articles can have figures, however we do have standards for the figures that are submitted in order to ensure a minimum level of quality for our readers. First things first, all images/screen shots/line art must by submitted separately from your article. Please do not embed figures in your document; instead, use the PD (Production Directive) style to note where the figure should be inserted and the filename of the specific figure to be used. The FC style is used for adding the figure caption. Our editors will sort through the figures to make sure each one matches all of the directives listed in the article, and our conversion team will create thumbnail versions to appear inline with the article.
We do not accept GIF files, but you may submit other common formats such as JPG, PNG, or TIF. Please ask your editor before submitting any other formats. For full screen shots we recommend a minimum resolution of 640x480, although 800x600 and higher are better. We do not crop images, so if you want to highlight a dialog box or portion of an image, you'll have to either capture the exact image you want or do the cropping before you submit the image to us. Please save your images at 72dpi minimum (300dpi is preferred), 32-bit color.
If you're not sure what settings your images have, don't worry — just send us a sample before you submit your article and we'll let you know if they will work or not.
Source Code
We can include downloadable source code with your article. In the article itself you will simply include a sentence informing readers that source code is available, while highlighting the specific words you would like to use as the hyperlink. Follow that paragraph with a Production Directive letting us know that the highlighted text should be linked to the download file, and let us know the name of the file.
It is recommended that you submit your source code as a .zip or .sit file, even if you have only one file to submit. Most other formats cause some browser confusion when attempting to download, and some firewalls will block certain types of executable files from even being downloaded. We have no specific naming standards, but we suggest you keep the filenames simple, such as "source.zip" or "source01.zip" if you'll be submitting more than one source code file.
All source code must be submitted at the same time as the article and accompanying figures.
Video Articles, Screencasts, and General Audio/Video
Many authors (and readers) are realizing the value of demonstrating techniques on video, and screen captures with voice-overs are becoming increasingly common. Most of our video content is created using software such as Camtasia which will capture a video recording of everything happening on-screen, corresponding audio voiceovers, and allow special techniques such as zooming into screen details. It has decent post-production editing capabilities as well, allowing cuts, transitions, audio track edits, etc.
We are increasingly using the YouTube video player for our content. Regardless of the player used, Google has put together an excellent page detailing optimal settings for your audio and video. We highly recommend you record your screencasts following the best practices found at YouTube's Advanced encoding settings page.
Speak clearly and slowly, and please watch/listen to your submission before you send it to us. While it's too difficult for us to go into detail on proper recording techniques in this document, if you use some common sense standards you'll be fine. Some details to look for:
- Can you hear the audio clearly, or is it fuzzy, distorted, or drowned out by background noise (air conditioners, traffic, etc)?
- Is the room well lit, or are there harsh shadows?
- Can you clearly see the main subject of the video (whether that is you, a computer, or other object)? Sometimes compressing the video into certain codecs makes the video too grainy to make out an object that was perfectly clear in full resolution.
- In screen captures, is there any inappropriate material hiding in your taskbar or elsewhere on your screen? (You may laugh, but we had a screen shot submitted once where the author was clearly looking at some naughty pics whose titles were visible in his taskbar.)
In short, does the audio or video recording meet the standards you'd expect InformIT to follow? If we don't think so, we'll probably end up rejecting it anyway, so review it before you send it to us to save everyone some time.
Widgets/Linking
When submitting your articles in Word, simply use the hyperlinking feature to embed the links within the document. Our macro will pull out the URLs and create the proper HTML for them.
If you are submitted a text file, simply include the URL in parenthesis behind the words you want to have highlighted (http://www.informit.com). If it's not clear which words you want to be included in a hyperlink, leave a note to the editor.
More on Widgets coming soon!
Extras
Please send us a photo of yourself! It helps "humanize" the site, and we can use your photos to help promote your articles, podcasts, or other contributions. Don't just dig out your latest vacation pic of you at the ballgame with 50,000 of your closest friends, or sitting on the couch with your kids. Hey, we love both sports and kids, but we can't crop them out of the images! Here are our basic guidelines:
- Original must be at least 72dpi in resolution, and no smaller than 200 pixels wide by 200 pixels high. We will crop the image into a square.
- Original must be framed as a head and shoulders shot.
- Original must have the author as, at the minimum, 80% of the subject of the photo.
- Original must not show the author with his or her face obscured.
- Original must depict the author, and nothing else.
- File format may be .jpg, .png, or .tif.
The idea author photo is a simple head and shoulders shot in front of a simple background. At the risk of embarrassing a few people, here are a few good examples:
Note that the background doesn't have to be completely blank, but there are no neon signs, fireworks, or balloons to distract from the authors themselves. They aren't making silly faces, the lighting is good, and in general it's not an overly complicated composition.