Creating Articles

We rely on volunteers to write the majority of the articles. You don't need any special permission or training to write articles; anyone can do it. Here's a general outline on how to find subjects to write about, tips for writing, and how to get the article reviewed and live to the public.

1. Search Bugzilla for a list of articles that have been requested but not assigned to anyone. If you have a specific subject in mind that's not on the list, see Requesting an article first.
   If you create an article without a request in Bugzilla, the reviewers won't know about it, so it won't be made public.
2. Post a comment on the bug saying that you're going to create the article.
   • If you have EDITBUG permissions on Bugzilla, you can assign the bug to yourself.bold text
3. Read the Best Practices for Support Documents page and the Style Guide for a good understanding of how to approach the article, and the Knowledge Base Policies page to know what type of support is allowed. If you have any questions regarding formatting, what content to include, or anything else, you can ask in the bug.
4. To start the article, go to the New Article page.
   For technical reasons, article titles cannot contain the following characters:
   || ::::: | ::/:: | ::?:: | ::#:: | ::[[::  ::]:: | ::@:: | ::!:: | ::$:: | ::&:: | ::':: | ::(:: | ::):: | ::*:: | ::+:: | ::,:: | ::;:: | ::=:: | ::<:: | ::>:: ||
   {MODULE(module=>quick_edit,title=>Quick edit an article)/}
5. Once you've started working on the article, update the URL field of the bug with the URL to the article.
6. If you need help formatting the article while editing, click on "Quicktags" for buttons you can use to format selected text, or "wiki help" at the bottom of the edit screen for information on wiki syntax.
7. When you've completed the article, mark the bug as FIXED. The article will then be reviewed for technical content and for stylistic purposes.

• • If the article is ready in the opinion of the reviewers, they will mark the bug as VERIFIED and the article will go live.
  • If the article needs further work in the opinion of the reviewers, they will reopen the bug and comment on the changes they want. You can then make further changes and resubmit it for review.

If for any reason you don't intend to work on an article whose bug you've accepted, reassign bug to default assignee and QA contact (this is an option on the bottom of the bug report).