So I decided to write up a little article on how to go about writing an article. I figured maybe if I provided a step-by-step guide on how to do it, maybe more people would be interested in trying it out. It does seem like a daunting task when you first go about it, and until you know the in's and out's of the system, trying to get a good quality article really can be a pain in the butt. And this is coming from someone who has done a ton of these, across multiple different platforms throughout the years. With that said, let's get our feet wet!


First things first. How does a person even go about starting an article? It is really quite simple. On the home page, on the right hand side below the search bar, there is a dropdown box. For right now, the only option in the box is an article. As the software matures more, different types of content (tech articles, product reviews, etc.) will become available for people to use. Until that time, lets just concentrate on a basic article. Other content types will, for the most part, be the same when it comes to creating them. The overall layout and some of the options may be different, but until they are available, there really isn't any reason to discuss them. Ok, so once you have selected Article, hit the GO button and let's create an article!


Now that we have an article started, what do we do?!? Hopefully, since you are attempting to write an article, you have a topic you want to write about. So how about we name the article. This part can get a little confusing if you try to over-think it. In the box labeled "Title", type in the name of the article, then hit enter. The "SEO URL Alias" will be automatically filled out for you, so don't worry about changing anything in that box. There is also the "Tags" box. We really don't use tags much on here, so I usually just leave this area blank as well. Tags are basically like keywords for the article, so if you want to add some, go for it. Just don't go overboard.

The next part you are probably wondering about the HUGE box on the right hand side labeled "Publishing Options". I've provided a screenshot of what I see as an admin, so if you're doesn't look like this (which I hope it doesn't!), don't worry. You will most likely have a lot fewer options, so it won't seem as confusing to you. I'm sure it will probably still seem somewhat confusing. Let me just put it this way - don't mess with any of it. Any articles created by users will have to be reviewed by the site staff. Once reviewed, and any necessary changes made, we will then publish it. When we go to publish it, we will make sure all the appropriate options are selected. If you have questions about any of it, feel free to ask, and I will most likely be more than willing to tell you about it, but I really don't see anyone needing anything different than just the default values that are set.

Ok, so we tested the waters, gotten our feet wet, so the only thing left is to jump in and get to writing the article! There really isn't much for me to talk about here, as it should be pretty self-explanatory. But, you know me, so let me talk a little about what we would like to see when it comes to content... Since this website has always been focused on the technical side of the 60V6 engines, we are really looking for technical articles. No, I don't expect book quality publications here, but I do expect the articles to be helpful to the rest of the community. If you are going to write an article about replacing the upper intake manifold gaskets, include the tools required for the job (sizes of all the various sockets and wrenches), part numbers of the gaskets, any miscellaneous items needed for the job (RTV? coolant?), etc. Take pictures of the work you are doing, especially parts that might be confusing to someone with little to no experience working on these engines. Don't expect everyone knows as much as others. Act as if it was the first time you were doing the job. Don't dumb it down, of course, but make it easy to read, easy to follow, and descriptive enough that members are going to recommend your article to others.

In order to make it like this, you are going to have to use the tools you have with the editor. This is a pretty typical editor, and a lot of the features are the exact same ones you can find in the forum post editor. There are some additional tools, mainly to do with tables, line breaks, and page breaks. By hovering over the button, a small text box will display a brief description of what each button is for. Most are pretty self explanatory, but if you have a question, let me know and I'll try to explain it further. Or, click on the button and try it out! Worst thing that will happen is you have to delete it.

Now that we've got some content in our article, how about adding some pictures to go along with the words. Again, this is similar to how the forum works. Let me just throw out there, I would rather that the images get uploaded to our server instead of being linked in from Photobucket, or similar image hosting sites. It just makes it easier to integrate the images inside of the article, as I will show below. Ok, so to add images, click on the "Manage Attachments" button located below the article text box. Doing that will load up the Asset Manager.



The Asset Manager will show any attachments you have previously uploaded, so if you want to reuse an image in an article ever again, it will be easy, and will avoid us having the same picture uploaded multiple times. Once the Asset Manager is open, you will see a button in the upper right corner labeled "Add Files". Click on that, and a box will pop up to allow you to browse your computer to find the picture(s) you want to add. Clicking on the "+" button below the browse button will allow you to upload up to 3 files at the same time. Another option, for people who already have images up on Photobucket and want to use them in an article, is to click on the word "Website" above the browse button. This will then ask for the URL to the image. Paste it in, and the image will be copied over to our site for your use. As you add more and more images, the lower box will begin to populate with the new images, to allow for insertion into the article. When you are done uploading, click on the "Insert Inline" button, and it will automatically place the images into the article, wherever the cursor currently is. If you just select "Done", then the files will still be available for use, but they will be listed as downloadable attachments at the bottom of the article. This is useful for files other than images (PDFs, Excel spreadsheets, etc) that you want to include for people's use in the article.


If you click on "Done", you can still insert the images into the article later, its just a little more work. In the toolbar, there is an icon that looks like a paperclip with up and down arrows next to it. Click on that and select which image you want to insert. When inserting it this way, it will have [ATTACH] tags surrounding it. This will show the image full size, within the constraints of the article. If you want to change the size, and placement, of the images (like I have done in this article), you will need to edit the opening tag to look like this: [ATTACH=CONFIG]. By adding the "=CONFIG", at allows you to configure the image to your liking. Once you've done that, you still need to do one more step for it to get to the point where you can configure it. On the far right side of the toolbar, there is the following icon: . Clicking on that icon will switch between the regular editor and the WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) editor. Clicking on that twice will allow for the images to now be shown.

Now that you can see the images, how about we edit them. Hover over the image, and you will see a pencil appear on the image. Click on that pencil, and a dialog box will appear. The dialog box allows you to select where on the page you want the image to show up, the size you want the image (thumbnail is usually the bext option, and allows a reader to click on the thumbnail to see the larger image), as well as additional information about the image, if you want to add it. I haven't figured out what the "Styles" option is yet, so just ignore that for now. In the "Styles" text box, you can define things like the border and padding around the images. For the images in this article, I have entered the following into the Styles text box: border: border : 3px solid; border-color : black; As you can tell, it adds a black border, 3 pixels wide, around each image. To place your image in different locations throughout the article, just drag it around to the approximate location, save the article, and see how it looks. When you want to go back and continue editing your article, hover over the title, and a pencil will show up to the right of the title, similar to the pencil show for editing the image. Click on that pencil, and you are back to the editor to continue with your article.

Well, I think that pretty much covers the basics of writing an article. Feel free to post comments and ask questions about parts you don't fully understand, or want to know more about. I'll respond to the comment, as well as update this article as needed to address the questions and comments. Hopefully this will take away some of the fear people may be having with writing an article for the site. And just remember, all articles submitted by the community will be reviewed by the site staff prior to being published. If you can't seem to get it all figured out, but have a good portion of it done, send me a PM or email with questions, and I will be more than happy to look over what you have and try to assist you in getting the article figured out.