Documents should be formatted using standard HTML formatting codes. We also recommend running your document through an HTML validation utility. If possible, please use a text editor to generate HTML. Word processing utilities such as Word often add extraneous characters that make editing challenging and also neglect to insert appropriate line breaks. If you must use a word processor, there are several tools available to "clean up" the output. Dreamweaver 4 has a built in Word clean up command. The W3C's HTML Tidy has Word clean up features as well. In addition, authors should use the following conventions:
Title of the article should be the same in the
<title> </title> and in the
<h1> </h1> tag sets at the top of the
document. The title in the <h1> </h1>
set should also be centered (use <center>
</center>). Author's name should be centered on the
next line and should reference the bio at the end of the article.
Please help us index your article more precisely by adding
keywords and a description inside of <meta>
tags. Keywords are one or two words each that describe the main
concepts your article is related to. A description is a sentence
(not more than 200 characters) that summarizes your article.
Example HTML code:
<html>
<head>
<title>Title of the Article</title>
<meta name="keywords" content="ACM, Crossroads, ACM Crossroads, writers guide,
submission guidelines">
<meta name="description" content="Instructions for preparing
all manuscripts submitted for publication in ACM Crossroads">
</head>
<body>
<center>
<h1>
Title of the Article
</h1>
</center>
<center>by <I> <a href="#authorbio">Author
Name</a></I></center>
.....article body and references.....
<P>
<hr>
<P>
<b><a name="authorbio"> Biography </a></b><br>
.....something about the author.....
</body>
</html>
Since the Title of the article is H1, if there are any word titles to sections in the article, they will be at the H2 level. Subsections will be at the H3 level. Do not use numbered sections and subsections...Use descriptive words only (like ``Introduction'' and ``Conclusions''). Capitalize the first letter of each word in a heading.
Type all long dashes using two hyphens (--).
Use italics to highlight words you are emphasizing. This should rarely be necessary; the text should already read with the appropr iate emphasis.
Use boldface to highlight words you are defining, when you introduce and define a term and when you use mathematical terms and e quations.
Use the numbered reference format found in CACM (explained below) for all citations. References cited should be followed by the reference number enclosed in square brackets, for example, [12]. Use the word ``References'' as the section title for this part of the article (instead of using Endnotes, Bibliography, or any other word).In lists (ordered or unordered) if any element of the list is longer than one line, insert a <P> trailing EACH element.
If code is embedded within a sentence and space is intended to
fall on either side of the code, should be placed on either side.
Code MUST be in fixed width font blocks e.g. <CODE></CODE>, <PRE></PRE>
Code should either be entirely plain, or entirely marked up.
If marked up it should follow the following schema:
Special symbols embedded within the text should be found in this ISO8859 table