AUSTRALEX 98 GUIDE TO PRODUCING AN HTML VERSION OF YOUR PAPER FOR SUBMISSION



Not confident producing your own HTML?

We have put together an HTML template to help you out.

By having a look at the template with your web browser, you will get an idea of how your paper will look. Note that there is space on the left and right of the text. Text is more readable when the lines are shorter. The spaces either side of the text makes the lines shorter and thus, more easy to read.

(You may find it easier to print out these instructions before you begin customising the template for your paper.)

Now open your template file in a word processing program or text editor.

You will notice that there is text in this file which doesn't appear in the browser window. This text, which is within angle brackets < >, is part of the Hyper Text Markup Language (HTML). It is this information which tells the browser how the page will look. These bits of HTML between the angle brackets are called "tags".

As we have already set up the page with the relevant tags, all you have to do is replace the sample text between these tags.


Giving your page a title

At the beginning of your template file, you will see the following text:

 
<HTML>
<HEAD>
<TITLE>Australex 98 PAPERS - Author's Name Here</TITLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF">

The text between the <TITLE></TITLE> tags is displayed in the bar at the top of the window when viewed in a browser. This is also the first text that is seen when a page is loaded.

Replace the text after the hyphen with your name, eg:

 
<TITLE>Australex 98 PAPERS - Noam Chomsky</TITLE>

(The next bit of the template file just puts space on the left hand side, and thus can be ignored.)


The title of your paper

The next text to replace is the title of your paper. Several lines below the <TITLE></TITLE> tags you will find the following text:

<H2><FONT COLOR="#BB0000">Put The Full Title Of Your Paper Here</FONT></H2>

Replace the text between the <FONT COLOR="#BB0000"></FONT> tags, with the title of your paper, eg:

<H2><FONT COLOR="#BB0000">Cartesian linguistics</FONT></H2>

or

<H2><FONT COLOR="#BB0000">Grammatical relations in Chinese: synchronic and
diachronic considerations</FONT></H2>


Author information

Next comes the author information. You will find this directly below the previous text. It currently looks like this:

<P>
<BIG><B>Author's FirstName LastName</B></BIG>, Department, University,
City, <A HREF="MAILTO:Your@emailAddress">Your@emailAddress</A>
</P>

Replace the sample text with the appropriate information. An example of this might be:

<P>
<BIG><B>Noam Chomsky</B></BIG>, Department of English, University of
Queensland, Brisbane, <A HREF="MAILTO:chomsky@mailbox.uq.edu.au">
fellini@mailbox.uq.edu.au</A>
</P>

NOTE: You must also replace your email address into the double quotes, <A HREF="....">, as well as between the tags. This makes a link so that people can email you directly from your paper.


Save your file

If you've completed this successfully, you've done the hardest part. It would now be wise to save this file. Use the "Save As..." function in your word processing program so that you can rename your file, while keeping the original one in tact (you may want to go back to it later if you make a mistake, or if you want to use it again ).

NOTE: It might be a good idea to include a number in the file name so that you can keep track of different versions of the file.

Make sure that the filename extension is either ".htm", or ".html"; eg "chomsky01.htm".

It is also very important to remember to save the file in ASCII, or plain text format. Many word processing programs (like Word Perfect and Microsoft Word) add other characters not readable by browsers when files are saved in the word processor's default file format.

View this new file in the browser to look at the changes you have made. If the page doesn't look right, check to see that you have accidently deleted an angle bracket, < >.

NOTE: The browser won't "see" the changes you've made until you have saved those changes.


Subheadings

The next text refers to subheadings. If you will not be having any subheadings at all, you can delete them. That is, you delete the <H4></H4> tags, and the text between them.

The <H4></H4> (Heading, level 4) tags around a subheading makes it stand out from the rest of the text. To further separate the subheading from the previous text, we put a <BR> (a line break) before it. Thus, anytime you want to use a subheading, you could just type:

<BR><H4>Your subheading here</H4>


Body text

Next comes the body of the paper. Most of your paper will consist of ordinary paragraphs. Replace the text between the <P></P> tags with that of your first paragraph. Text between the <P></P> tags will wrap within the window, so there is no need to put "returns" at the end of each line. (The browser will actually ignore these anyway).

Replace the second and third sample paragraphs with your second and third paragraphs.

Each paragraph must have its own tags. That is, each and every paragraph must be enclosed with the <P></P> tags. Without the tags, all the text will run on in one big block of text. Returns, tabs and extra spaces are ignored by the browser.

NOTE: The way that the text is formatted in a word processing program doesn't reflect what it will look like in a browser. Putting extra returns between paragraphs or other sections can make it easier for you to read in a word processor, but won't affect how the file is displayed in the browser.

NOTE: If you want to know how the page is looking, save the file (preferably with a different name, eg by adding one to the number at the end of the file name: "chomsky02.htm"), then view it in a browser.

So, anytime you want to have a paragraph, you could just type:

<P>Your paragraph here.</P>


Pre-formatted text

Text between the <PRE></PRE> tags is rendered in a mono-spaced font (like Courier or Monaco) by your browser. Also, extra spaces and returns ARE recognised by the browser, but ONLY between the <PRE></PRE> tags.


There are a number of reasons that you would want to use pre-formatted text.

  1. They are the ideal for inter-linear text, as in the example shown in the template.
  2. They are good for putting together tables.
  3. Effective diagrams can also be assembled using mono-spaced characters.

When using <PRE></PRE> tags, please take note of the following:

Use spaces instead of tabs to ensure your text will look as it should.
It is not always possible to guarantee that all browsers will interpret a tab in the same way.

Remember to put a return at the end of EACH line within <PRE></PRE> tags.

Without a return, the browser will think that lines are joined together. Yes, this is opposite to the usual case for HTML where returns are ignored. But it is an important distinction to make.

Please keep lines within <PRE></PRE> tags to about 60-65 characters.

Remember the space either side of the text? While this does increase the readability of the body of your text, it also decreases the space available for <PRE></PRE> text. Thus keeping within the 60-65 character limit reduces horizontal scrolling. Another reason for this limit is for those who will print the page from the browser. The 60-65 character limit prevents lines from being cut off, or automatically wrapped by the printer.

NOTE: Of course, once you are confident with the <H4></H4>, <P></P>, and <PRE></PRE> tags you can put them in any order.


Other formatting

You will notice that in the paragraph following the pre-formatted text in the template example, there is some text that is in BOLD, and some that is in ITALICS. This effect is rather simple to achieve:

BOLD: Enclose the text you want to be in bold with <B></B> tags, eg:

      I am in <B>bold</B> type.

ITALICS: Enclose the text you want to be in italics with <I></I> tags, eg:

      I am in <I>italics</I> type.

NOTE: You can use bold or italics in pre-formatted text. Just remember that the tags take up space in the file, but NOT when viewed in the browser.

NOTE: DON'T FORGET TO SAVE YOUR FILE REGULARLY


References

The style of the examples given in the template are as set out in the "Notes for Contributors", The Australian Journal of Linguistics.

The references are in the form of a list. The entire list sits between list (unordered) tags <UL></UL>. Each individual list item is enclosed in list item tags <LI></LI>. The other formatting is achieved with italics, <I></I>, and bold, <B></B>.

(The rest of the template can be ignored as it just ensures the space on the right hand side, and lets the browser know that it has come to the end of the page.)


Other important notes

These papers are to be ASCII (7 bit) TEXT ONLY:

  1. That means we ask you not to include images of any kind.
  2. However, please feel free to include any ASCII-text based diagram, using the <PRE></PRE> tags.
  3. Unfortunately, we will not be able to support phonetic or other characters not in the ASCII character set.

We ask you not to use frames. Use tables and lists instead.


Sending your file to us

Please check your spelling, and view your page in a browser to make sure it works before you send it to us.

Again, remember to save your file in ASCII, or plain text format. Many word processing programs (like Word Perfect and Microsoft Word) add other characters not readable by browsers when files are saved in the word processor's default file format.

Then, make sure that your file has been named in the following way:

"yourname.htm" or "yourname.html"

(Please use only alphanumeric characters when you name the file - no spaces, dashes, slashes, asterisks, etc.)

Then send the file to: maryl@lingua.cltr.uq.edu.au as an attachment (as you did with your abstract.)

This page and its content was developed by Michelle Louise Harris. All rights are reserved. 1998.
Last Modified: 25 May 1998