How to enter, edit, and format an article

Note: These instructions are for community moderators, columnists, and regular contributors who have already had articles published on Opensource.com

If you are submitting an article for the first time, please see our how to get started guide and email open@opensource.com with your article idea for staff to review.

Enter an article on the site

1) Log in to your account at https://opensource.com.

2) Review the submission and style guide.

3) Navigate to this page: https://opensource.com/node/add/article.

3) Enter the article

  • Title: Catchy, 1-2 line headline; only the first word should be capitalized unless there is a proper noun.
  • Lead Image: Use the [Browse] link to look for an image in the channel folders in /images.
    • *New* - after you select the image, add SEO terminology for the channel to the Alt and Title tags for the image.
  • Channel: Select which category / topic the article belongs to.
  • Article Types: Choose article, podcast or video
  • Tags: Separate with commas, use common terms, correct misspellings. Tip: Use existing tags, let the auto-complete help you.
  • Body. Add the article here; The default is to use the WYSIWYG editor. You should copy and paste content from a tool like GEdit or Notepad++ that doesn't add formatting/HTML; ensure there are no additional <span> or <div> tags in body by switching to Full HTML mode.
  • Default CC License. Default CC BY-SA 4.0 license is selected. If not using this license, select the appropriate license from dropdown. If other, choose that and type in other license or copyright.

4) Save.

5) Inform staff that the article is ready for review by emailing osdc-admin@redhat.com with a link to the article. Note: We are not automatically notified of new draft content in the Drupal system.

**For staff only**

The Opensource.com staff will schedule and publish the article once it's edited and ready for publication. Any changes will be sent to authors for final review.

How to edit and format an article on the site

  • Grammar and other guidelines
    • add a page break after intro paragraph(s)
    • make all dashes M dashes, no spaces between words and dashes
    • all commas and periods go inside quotation marks
    • replace "curly" quotation marks with "straight" ones
    • use serial commas
    • spell out numbers below 10 (however, can spell out any numbers you deem necessary)
    • date format: November 19, 2012 (do not use: 19th)
  • Links
    • highlight select words in sentence
    • box will open
    • add link, set to open in NEW window, add title
    • update
  • Interviews
    • write a 2-3 paragraph introduction for the interview telling the reader who the interviewee is and what the company does, explain what the interview will tell the reader, include any key tidbits
    • under introduction add interview banner (in photo file LIFE)
    • enter interview questions as H3 header format
    • enter interview answers as paragraph format
  • Reposting
    • If this article is from other source or blog, add one of these sentences (in italics) to the bottom of the article
      • Originally posted on (name of blog, hyperlinked to exact article URL). Reposted under Creative Commons.
      • Originally posted on (name of blog, hyperlinked to exact article URL). Reposted with permission.
    • Ensure copyright or creative commons license is attributed
      • If using CC BY-SA (what we use on Opensource.com) then no updates to make
      • If using a different CC license, uncheck button for CC BY-SA and enter correct license information into text box below
      • If using copyright, uncheck button for CC BY-SA and enter correct copyright information into text box below
    • Call-out boxes
      • For author of article when "Authoring info" is the company, at top of article add this code:
        • <dl class="alignright wp-caption" style="border: 1px solid #dddddd; margin: 16px; padding: 8px; float: right; text-align: center; background-color: #f3f3f3; width: 175px;"><h4>Authored by NAME OF AUTHOR, TITLE name</h4></dl>
      • For pulling out a quote, use this code

        • <dl class="alignright wp-caption" style="border: 1px solid #dddddd; margin: 16px; padding: 8px; float: right; text-align: center; background-color: #f3f3f3; width: 175px;"><h4>QUOTE HERE</h4></a></dl>

      • For an image and text, use this code
        • <dl class="alignright wp-caption" style="border: 1px solid #dddddd; margin: 16px; padding: 8px; float: right; text-align: center; background-color: #f3f3f3; width: 175px;"><a href="https://opensource.com/WEBSITE%20WHERE%20IMAGES%20LINKS"><img src="https://opensource.com/%3C/span%3E%3Cspan%20class%3D"jive-link-external-small">[IMAGESOURCE].png" alt="IMAGE TITLE" title="IMAGE TITLE" width="100" height="100" class=""><h4>TEXT HERE</h4></a></dl>

How to attribute articles reposted to another site

Purpose: For use by editors of other publications wishing to repost our articles. For an article that is relevant to another publication and that they are interested in reposting.

  • At the bottom of the article, see the specific Creative Commons license or copyright that is attributed. If reposted from another site and reposted to Opensource.com, the last line of the article will give you further information.

ex) Originally posted on the BeMyApp blog. Reposted under Creative Commons.

  • Many articles are licensed CC BY-SA, some are other Creative Commons licenses (like, CC BY-NC 4.0), and others are copyrighted (our site was given permission to repost).

For CC BY-SA, please repost the article and give attribution to Opensource.com, the author, and the original site where the article was posted if there is one. We suggest you place this at the beginning or end of the article.

You can do this by creating an account for Opensource.com, posting the article under that account, and then within the article itself adding the author name and title.

ex) Authored by Jen Wike, content editor and strategist for Opensource.com

Or, if the article was originally posted from a different site, and then reposted to Opensource.com, AND is a license that allows you to repost, include attribution to all three.

ex) Originally posted on (name of site + link to original), reposted from Opensource.com (+ link to Opensource.com article), authored by (name of person).

For articles using other Creative Commons licenses, please check the guidelines for reposting here:http://creativecommons.org/licenses/

For all copyrighted articles, please contact the original author / publication for reposting. Only repost if permission granted by this party.