An important part of editing is marking type specification levels in a manuscript. The Chicago Manual of Style describes the process like this:
"Each item in the opening of an article or of a preface, chapter . . . , appendix, or other section of a book (title, chapter number, etc.) is marked for its particular type size, style, and placement. . . . Specifications for text, subheads, block quotations, and similar elements must also be given, at least at the first occurrence of each. Thereafter, handwritten 'codes' added during editing identify similar elements for the typesetter. . . . Increasingly, however, a much more abbreviated form of markup is being used that relies on the typesetter to follow directly the design layouts and detailed list of specifications provided by the publisher's design department. All the editor need do is provide, during editing, the traditional codes for elements that would not be obvious to the operator. The various levels of subheads, for instance, must be indicated for the typesetter, usually by circled alphabetical or numerical codes (A, B, C or 1, 2, 3, etc.)." (14th edition, 2.135.)
A footnote adds this:
"Such codes written by hand on the manuscript correspond to the codes used on electronic manuscripts, which are part of the electronic files; both serve the same identifying function. If a manuscript (or printout) coded by hand is to be produced electronically, the handwritten codes are translated into electronic codes."
Now, if you're editing directly in Microsoft Word, you don't *have* any handwritten codes. So how are you going to mark spec levels?
@BODY:Some editors mark them by entering typesetting codes directly into the manuscript, as I've done at the beginning of this paragraph. If you're a QuarkXPress user, you'll probably recognize that code as an XPress Tag. QuarkXPress translates XPress Tags into style sheets, which work a lot like styles in Microsoft Word. Entering all those codes seems like a lot of work, though, even if you have each code in a macro and assign the macros to function keys. Those codes also mess up the pristine appearance of your beautiful Word document, and they may confuse authors and reviewers. There ought to be a better way.
Well, you could just mark spec levels with styles. For example, you could mark part titles with Word's Heading 1 style, chapter titles with Heading 2, and subheads with Heading 3. If you're typesetting in Microsoft Word (some people do), applying styles should take care of all of your paragraph-level formatting.
If you're typesetting in QuarkXPress, however, you may want to try our QuarkConverter program (which is also included with Editor's ToolKit Plus). QuarkConverter adds XPress Tags for all the styles in a document, for character formatting (such as italic and bold), and for various typographic niceties, and it converts special characters (which include dashes and quotation marks) from PC to Macintosh or vice versa. It also converts Word index entries into QuarkXPress index entries, which means you can index in Word but have page numbers in your index reflect the pagination in your QuarkXPress document. You can learn more about QuarkConverter here:
http://www.editorium.com/14846.htm
No matter what typesetting program you use, I'd love to know how you code your electronic manuscripts or otherwise prepare them for typesetting, and I'd be glad to include your comments in our next newsletter. If you're willing to share your procedure, please send an email message here: mailto:hints [at symbol] editorium.com. Thanks!
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READERS WRITE
Subscriber Audrey Dorsch (exchange@ica.net) sent this recommendation for a mouse:
"I put up with a temperamental mouse for years. (Don't ask me why except for ingrained thrift that resists replacing anything as long as it still functions.) When it finally gave up the ghost I treated myself to a Logitech cordless mouse with scrolling wheel and an extra, thumb-operated, button. All the buttons are programmable for whatever function I choose. What a joy. Worth every penny of the $85(CDN) it cost."
Maarten Reilingh (maarten@ulster.net) kindly provided the procedure for changing screen resolution and other settings on a Macintosh:
"To change screen resolution use the Monitor control in the Monitors and Sound control panel.
"To change menu and other display fonts and font sizes use the Appearance control panel (Fonts tab).
"Control panels may be accessed in various ways depending on how your OS is configured, but usually they are available from the Apple pull-down menu. Once you open these control panels, everything else is pretty intuitive; just select the desired settings."
Hilary Powers (hilarypowers@earthlink.net) described her interesting uses of voice-recognition software:
"I get a lot of mileage out of an elderly voice command program called Kurzweil Voice Pro. It doesn't do continuous dictation - but I'm not really into dictation anyway, and it's fine for three or four words at a time.
"It's brilliant for control of the machine, as it can fool virtually any Windows program into thinking its input is really coming from the mouse or the keyboard. "Page-down!" would do just what your correspondent wants, with no special programming or training (beyond the basic read-in of the voice).
"And you can record any sequence of keystrokes and call it anything you want. Fr'example, I have 'Style-that!' pick up the selected text, move to the style sheet document, and drop the text there. Then (after I enter the part of speech or do whatever note-taking I need re the style item) 'Head-on-back!' moves the insertion point in the style sheet to a new line, returns to the main file, and deselects the text.
"There needn't be any externally obvious relationship between what you say and what you get - if your author makes a consistent mistake that's too complex to correct with a search&replace operation or a macro that runs through the whole file, but always takes the same keystrokes to fix once you find it, you can call it something satisfying like 'Curl-up-and-die!' Then you put your insertion point where the sequence needs to begin, speak rudely to your computer, and watch it do the work. Very satisfying....
"I've actually bought L&H Voice Express, which is supposed to do all this and continuous dictation too, but haven't been able to make it work for me -- mainly because I'm too comfortable with Kurzweil to go through the learning curve, but also because it seems to be much more sensitive to its microphone input. Headsets drive me buggy, and KV works happily enough with a good desk mike cantilevered out so it sits close to my mouth. L&H VE gets confused and grumpy with the same system, so it's not predictable enough to feel worth working with. L&H bought Kurzweil a couple of years ago, and was at least for a while selling the Kurzweil product as well as its own. Dunno if it's still available, but it might be worth a try."
Thanks to all for their suggestions.
