Do you have a great idea for an article but you don’t know where to post it to get your peers to read it?
The Dev Tips category is the perfect place for you to share your knowledge and find out what other developers are doing. We suggest you go here to learn or post about new tools, techniques, best practices, or any other topic that you think a member would want to learn about!
Here’s how to get the most out of using the Dev Tips feature.
Interacting with Dev Tips
On the Dev Tips landing page, you can view all recent articles.
When you click on a Dev Tips article, you’ll see that it looks very similar to a regular forum topic. However, one handy feature unique to Dev Tips is that some articles have a table of contents on the right that allows you to quickly jump to a section by clicking on the header title.
For example, in the article shown in the screenshot below, you might be most interested in the ‘Latest articles and videos’ section. To get there without scrolling, click on ‘Latest articles and videos’ on the header list on the right, and you’ll be taken to that section.
Creating Dev Tips
Creating and editing a Dev Tips article works very similarly to creating any other topic. The main difference is that newly-created articles enter a review queue to ensure quality and that no content is shared that is in violation of the code of conduct. Dev Tips are reviewed within 24-48 hours on US business days.
- To create a new Dev Tip, click on ‘New Topic’ at the top right.
- Then, you will go to a window that asks you to enter a title, add relevant tags, and to format the body of your post.
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Your formatting should carry over if you copy and paste text. If you need to make any changes to the formatting, use the toolbar over the text body box. You can also use markdown, BBCode, and HTML to edit the formatting. On the right, you will see a preview of the formatted text.
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As long as you follow the correct order of the header levels (header 1 before header 2, header 2 before header 3, etc., only alternating after you’ve established the correct order), the table of content should automatically be created for you.
Tip:
You can make your posts more accessible by adding alt text to your images. Alt text describes what can be seen in an image. This helps with understanding what is being shown and also allows visually impaired community members with screen readers to know what is being displayed.
When you upload an image, it will show like this in your text editor box:
Add text in front of the vertical line to ad alt text, like this:
The image will now show a hover text at the bottom that includes your alt text.
Hover over the bottom portion of the images in this post to see their alt text.
- When you’re done creating your post, click on ‘Create Topic’ at the bottom left.
- You will see a notification that your post needs approval. Click Ok or the X at the top right to close the notification.
- You can view all your pending posts on your profile page.
- Once your post has been approved, it will be visible to the community, and you’ll be able to share your knowledge and expertise with other developers.
Happy posting!