Software Category Review Format

Style

This site encourages an informal, chatty style rather than a formal or scholastic approach.  For full details see this site's style guidelines.

Scope

Software category reviews are comparative reviews of a particular class of software such as "Registry Cleaners." Consequently, the reviews should include at least two products with recommendations as to the best. If you only want to review one product consider writing a product review instead.

Structure

Category reviews should generally follow this pattern:

• This is what these products do, and this is when you might need them
• This is my top pick, and here's why
• These are some other products to consider with some brief pros and cons for each
• List of related topics on this site (see below)
• Author contact details (see below)
• List of specifications for each product reviewed using standard headings. See "Product Details" below

Links

Rather than hyperlink each product back to the developer's site, we prefer to reference each product by hyperlinking it to the full product details at the end of the review. These details include a link back to the developer's site as well as a lot of other useful information - see below.

The reason for this is that all links are open and visible for all to see with no possibility of hidden affiliate links.

An example showing you how this should be presented  can be found here   Details on how to do the linking itself are here.

Related Topics

For the convenience of site visitors, you should add at the end of your review a list of cross-references to other related topics on this site. At the same time you should add links back to your article from any article you cross-reference.

The most difficult part of this task is deciding exactly what you want to link to, and making sure the corresponding links back to your review are correct. (You may find "Search" very useful here.)
This quick example should be enough to get you started.

By way of example let's say I've written a review on encryption products (A) and want to add a cross-reference to another article on encryption (B).

(A.) http://www.techsupportalert.com/best-free-drive-encryption-utility.htm
and
(B.) http://www.techsupportalert.com/best-free-file-encryption-utility.htm

1. Open A in Edit mode, and navigate to the end of the review just above the editor acknowlegement.

2. Type in the heading "Related Topics" in bold face. <return>

3. Paste in the link to B as a string. (ie. "best-free-file-encryption-utility.htm").

4. Select the string you have just pasted and click "Insert/Edit Link" in the FCKeditor.

Paste the link in the URL box, and check that the protocol is set to "other."  Click OK.
(PHnote If you find the above doesn't work for you, try selecting the "http://" protocol, instead.)

5. With the string still selected, click "Insert/Remove Bulleted List" in the FCKeditor.

6. Type over the string so it becomes "Best Free File Encryption Utility" (but don't destroy the link).

7. Add a suitable log message, and click "Submit".

8. View the article and check that the link works.

9.  Go to
http://www.techsupportalert.com/best-free-file-encryption-utility.htm
and repeat the above process, but this time you link back to the original article (A).

A quick check with "Search" reveals that there are two further encryption topics that should be linked.
(C.) http://www.techsupportalert.com/content/encryption-not-enough.htm
and
(D.) http://www.techsupportalert.com/best-free-encryption-utility-for-persona...

The above process is then repeated for these two topics, and of course, topics A. and B. are also updated (copy-&-paste is useful here).

Contact Details

Insert at the end of your review text a paragraph along the following lines:

"This software category is maintained by volunteer editor Joe Bennett. Registered site visitors can contact Joe by clicking here."

Notes:

1. Feel free to link your name (Joe Bennett in this case) to your blog or website. Optionally, you can also add a small, 50 words or less, bio about yourself providing the bio is relevant to your category review and is not in itself an ad.  For guidelines see here.

2. Link the "here" (the last word in the example above) to your Drupal contact page. For Joe that's user/7/contact.

To find the link address to your contact page go to your Drupal account and click the Contact tab. Then note the address in your browser's address bar. The bit you need is user/XXX/contact where XXX is your Drupal user number.

Instructions how to create the link to your contact page can be found here

3. Don't ever put your real email address (or even your techsupportalert.com email address) in your reviews otherwise the address will be harvested by bots and you will be spammed.

Instead always use your Drupal contact page as your email address is not revealed there. Additionally, the contact form is subject to CAPTCHA verification to further reduce the chance of spam.

4. Note that only logged-in site users can view your contact form. That's a "feature" of Drupal and it's not a bad thing. Besides anyone can contact you via comments

Product Details

Include at the end of the review full specifications for of all products mentioned. Each product's details should be presented in the following format:

AVG Anti Virus
Website: http://free.grisoft.com/
Download link: http://free.grisoft.com/downloads
Author: Grisoft
Version: 7.5.516
Date: 12/20/2007
Download file size: 31.5MB
License: Free for personal use
Operating systems supported: Windows 98/Me/NT/2000/XP/Vista
64 Bit version available: No, this program will not run in a 64 bit environment
Portable version available: No
Other languages supported: No
Additional software required: No
Other relevant information: Support provided via online user forum

Notes:

Capitalization: For each entry the first letter after the colon should be capitalized so it's "Other languages supported: No" not "Other languages supported: no"

Product name: The product name should be in bold face

Website: This should be the product page on the author's website not the homepage . Sometimes the product page is the homepage, but that's OK.

Download link: The download link should be to the web page containing the download link, not to the download file itself. Sometimes this is the same as the website page, but that's OK.

Author: The author is often not stated. If so, enter the company name or "Unknown"  

License: There are many types of freeware license so be as specific as possible.  For example, unrestricted freeware, free for educational use, free open source, free under GNU license, etc. 

Operating systems supported: For Windows list each version supported separated by a "/  Also state non Windows versions where supported

64 Bit version available: Choose from one of the following:

• Unknown
• No, this program will not run in a 64 bit environment
• No, but this program will run with reduced functionality in a 64 bit environment
• No, but this 32 bit program will run in a 64 bit environment
• This is a native 64 bit application
• Yes, available here [insert link]

Portable version available: Choose from one of the following:

• Unknown
• No
• Program is portable - does not require installation
• Yes, available here: [insert link(s)]

Other languages supported: If non-English languages are supported, explicitly list them. If there are a large number say "Many - see here [insert link]"

Additional software required: Some products won't run unless additional software is installed. A common example is the Microsoft .NET framework. Always try to include this type of information.

Other relevant information: Any additional information that may be of assistance to site visitors. If nothing, then omit this line.

Authoring Information
When changing or updating your reviews, please checkout the field "Authored on:" under "Authoring Information". This field should normally be left blank, unless you have some special reason for not allowing the system to automatically insert the current revision date.