Blocks and Beyond 2019: Beyond Blocks
A VL/HCC 2019 workshop in Memphis, TN, USA, Oct. 18, 2019

Instructions for Final Submission of Demo/Poster Summaries

You need to do two things to complete the final submission of your Blocks & Beyond demo/poster summary document:

  1. By the end of day on Wednesday, November 06, 2019, you should submit your IEEE copyright form.
  2. By the end of day on Wednesday, November 06, 2019, you should submit your final demo/poster summary PDF to the PDF eXpress Plus system.

If you encounter any issues with making these deadlines, please email fturbak@wellesley.edu ASAP.

Here are the steps to follow:

  1. Submit Your IEEE Copyright Form

    This step can be done at any point in the process, but you might want to do it before submitting the summary document so that co-authors have time to consult about it. It should be completed by Wednesday, November 06, 2019. Follow the instructions on the Blocks and Beyond 2019 Copyright page to start the proces of submitting your IEEE copyright form.

  2. Revise Your Submission:

    Revise your submission to address all of the comments of all the reviewers and any additional comments from the organizers.

  3. Format Your Paper

    All submissions must be created using the 8.5" x 11" (US Letter), Two-Column Format template (LaTeX or MS Word) provided at the IEEE templates site.

    If you use the LaTeX template, use the following \documentclass declaration; do not use the compsoc option.

    \documentclass[conference]{IEEEtran}

    The main text of the summary document is limited to 2 pages. This 2-page limit does not include acknowledgments (optional) or references, which follow the main text of the paper.

    If you added page numbers to your original submission, please remove them from your camera-ready version.

    Note on copyright footer: The IEEE paper submission FAQ says "A copyright footer must be applied to the paper prior to uploading manuscript to PDF eXpress." However, you do not need to add such a footer in your workshop paper. We will add this footer (with the appropriate ISBN number) when we assemble the papers into a proceedings.

  4. Create/validate your submission PDF

    All camera-ready submissions must be PDF documents that have been validated using IEEE's PDF eXpress Plus tool. You can choose either to let PDF eXpress Plus create your final PDF from source or you can validate a PDF you have created yourself. Only papers that pass validation by PDF eXpress Plus are accepted by the IEEE Xplore digital library.

    1. Begin by visiting the PDF eXpress Plus site at:
      https://www.pdf-express.org/plus
      • If you've visited this site before, log in with Conference ID 48857XP and go to step 4c.
      • If this is your first visit to the site, click on the link "New Users - Click Here" and fill in your information. You will need the Conference ID, which is
        48857XP

        You will also need to specify a password for this particular conference ID.

        Click "Submit" when done and go to Step 4b.

    2. On the Create Account Page, fill in any missing information, click "Submit" when done, and then click "Continue".

    3. On the Home -- Title Status page, click "Create New Title" and enter some version of the title for your paper. (The title is not official in any way; it is only used by you to distinguish submissions if you have more than one). Click "Submit File for Checking or Converting"

    4. On the Upload File page, either (1) choose a PDF file to validate or (2) choose a source file to convert to PDF (e.g. .doc/.docx). Then click "Upload File" and read the message on the resulting page.

      Soon, you should receive an email from the system reporting the status of the validation/conversion.

      • If the validation/conversion is successful, the email will say so, but will not include the validated/converted PDF file as an attachment. To see the validated/converted PDF file, go to step 4e. The email will claim that the paper needs to be uploaded by 8 November 2019, but this is incorrect. The correct date for uploading the paper is 6 November 2019.
      • If the validation/conversion is unsuccessful, the email will give hints on how to fix the problem. Go to step 4e and try again. If you have problem validating a PDF file you saved from a .doc/.docx file, you might instead try using PDF eXpress Plus to convert the .doc/.docx file directly.

    5. Click "Continue" to return to the Home -- Title Status page. This page shows the status of your paper(s). On this page you can:

      • Click on a title to view the validated/converted PDF associated with that title.
      • Click on "Try Again" to retry validation/conversion for a paper
      • Click "Refresh File Status" to refresh the page.

  5. Upload your final submission to PDF Express Plus

    This step must be completed by the end of day on Wednesday, November 06, 2019.

    For the B&B 2019 workshop, you will use PDF eXpress Plus (not EasyChair) to upload the final version of your submission.

    1. In PDF eXpress Plus, go to the Home -- Title Status page.

    2. Click on the "Approve for Collection" link for the title you wish to submit.

    3. On the resulting page, labeled IEEE PDF eXpress, you will be able to change the default File Name for your PDF file. Please ignore the advice on that page, and name your file using the following convention:
      lastNameOfPresentingAuthor-firstTitleWord-secondTitleWord

      E.g., presenting author Phil E. Buster of paper "Time Consuming Blocks" would use the filename Buster-Time-Consuming.pdf

    4. Click "Approve File for Collection" to submit your final version.