Creating an Ezine in ASCII: Some General Tips



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Creating an ASCII zine is not a complicated process, although there are

a few guidelines. Any word processor, including TeachText, DOS Editor,

Microsoft Word, WordPerfect and the like, can create ASCII text. Simply

use the "Save As" function and save your file as "plain text" or "text

with line breaks." Here are some other suggestions:



* Don't let your line lengths exceed 50 to 55 characters. If you do,

your readers may get odd line breaks that make your copy look like

barbed wire. Rather than indenting paragraphs, put a blank line

between them. Don't use tabs. Don't split words with hypens (it makes

your zine more difficult to read and search). Also, remember that your

work is going to be read on a computer screen. Your paragraphs should

be short and to the point.



* Place a "hard" return at the end of every line of text. You do this

by hitting the "Enter" or "Return" key. It's a hassle but a necessity.

* Avoid special characters such as curly quotes. Saving your file as

plain text should resolve this, but be alert. A program that many

zine editors use to wrap text, among other ASCII housekeeping, is

BBEdit Lite for the MacIntosh.



* Don't use a lot of snazzy ASCII art. Ezine editors with time on

their hands often create mastheads and other graphics by using symbols

such as % or & and creative spacing. While this can add variety to

an ezine, often readers will only see a jumble of symbols and letters

that make no sense because of the way different word processors

interpret spaces.



* At the top of the ezine, include its title, number, date, and a

tagline explaining its mission or purpose for the uninitiated. Also

include a table of contents and an e-mail address where readers can

reach you.



* Keep the size of each issue to a minimum, especially if you plan to

distribute your ezine by electronic mail. Any issue that weighs in at

more than 60K is probably too much. The last issue of my ezine was

6,200 words and totaled 38K and I found that manageable. Remember,

the more easily digested your ezine is, the more diners you'll have.



* Include a copyright notice (or an anti-copyright notice, if you

prefer) and specify under what circumstances your zine can be

redistributed.



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