Re: Electronic Editing

[Leslie Bialler lb136@xxxxxxxx]

Patricia M Godfrey wrote (inter alia):


> When one is editing an MS on the computer, as opposed to the traditional
> way of marking up a paper copy, one needs various functions not commonly
> used in word processing. To make a word processor a suitable medium for
> such editing, various "additions" (macros, templates, XPL programs in the
> case of XyW) need to be created. Leslie did a very nice set for XyW for
> CUP. For example, we Used Styles to spec the various parts of the MS
> (1st-, 2d-, 3d-level heads, block quotes, epigraphs, etc.), then when we
> were all finished editing ran a macro that converted (or possibly copied;
> I forget) the US tags to visible tags that printed out in the left
> margin, telling the author and the typesetter what the element was. . . .

Yes indeed, the SS/US styles combination is majorly useful for editing and
redlining. The printout is done by creating a temporary file that adds a printed
version of the codes. The user is prompted to ab the file, named XXX.TMP upon
sending the file to the printer and, indeed, were the user not to do so, the macro
would display an error message when next invoked.

>     To sum up: no word processor is really an effective tool for online
> editing, but XyW comes closest and is absolutely necessary. . . . The catch is
> the wretched conversion filters, which are particularly bad when converting to
> Word 2000 (which apparently cannot accurately read files created in its own older
> incarnations). You get all the formatting garbage cleaned out in XyW (publishers
> want simply formatted files, but authors, whether out of ignorance or a desire to
> be fancy, I don't know, always overformat), then it comes back in when you convert
> back to WP or Word.

Yes, we tell our authors to please supply electronic files but do not attempt to
desktop publish. We have Quark ops. who do that, and quite well, too.

--
Leslie Bialler, Columbia University Press
lb136@xxxxxxxx
61 W. 62 St, NYC 10023
212-459-0600 X7109 (phone) 212-459-3677 (fax)
> http://www.columbia.edu/cu/cup