And another thing

[ksmith]

So I was sent guidelines for digital manuscript preparation, a concept which is new to me. Started digging into it because I thought since I'm rewriting the chapters anyway, I may as well reformat them as well.

I have been typing two spaces between sentences for close to 15 years. Now, I am no longer supposed to do that. Single space only. Thank God for global search/replace is all I can say.

Margins 1.25" all around.

I'm going to have to ask whether chapter files linked into a Master Doc is still ok. I am getting the impression that it really isn't anymore. Looks like one file with page breaks is the way to go. I mean, I can do it. It'll be one hell of a long file, but hey, I have more RAM now, and I'm guessing my publisher uses supercomputers.

No more underlining for italics? Put in the actual italics instead?

Tabs are Death. Lucky I don't use them.

I foresee an email to my editor's assistant confirming some of this. In the meantime, I think I will leave some things be.

No more underlining?

Am I the last person to get the memo?

Comments

[just-shai.livejournal.com]

My word processing program is set to auto correct the two spaces thing, because I have the same habit. I have no idea where it came from, I just do it.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

Great idea! My thumb's developed the two space auto-twitch--autocorrect will save time.

It used to be the norm. I thought it left more room for correcting/copyedits.

It's the italics removal that's going to make me twitch. I mean, it will be nice to see the internal thought in the manuscript look as it does in the finished book, but still...one you take out that u-lining, it will be a stone bitch to reinsert.

And the guideline states "do not use the underscore for italic." And I'm still, like, twitchy. Are you quite sure, she said, as the instructor threw open the cabin door and handed her the parachute.

[(Anonymous)]

I'm told the idea behind the single space after periods is that with modern proportionally spaced fonts, the fonts include a little space after periods anyway, so adding two is too much. I got retrained (been doing word processing and copy editing since about 1980) a loooong time ago, but people who don't word process as a job often still do it the old way.

It's pretty easy in Word to global search and replace underscore to italic. In the Search and Replace window, click on More. Then with the cursor in the Search box, select Format, then Font, and in the Underline box pick the single line and click OK. Put the cursor in the Replace box, select Format, then Font, then select Italic; in the Underline box select (none), then click OK. (This assumes there's nothing you want to KEEP underscored, of course.)

Just in case you want to keep it underscored in draft....

El

[(Anonymous)]

Just because I'm anal....

And, of course, after what I described above, you do a Replace All.

El

[sartorias.livejournal.com]

Nobody has told me that.

ditto about the two spaces. Hmmm.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

Thank you for this--must memory this post.

One thing I can't seem to make MacWord do is autocorrect 2 spaces between sentences and change them to one. I tried entering the sequence into Autocorrect, and then typed two spaces in the ms only to find that they didn't change.

I did change some underlining to itlaics. It looks so weird.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

According to the guideline preface, Harpercollins has started doing everything in-house--"has started" meaning "started doing sometime in the three years since I turned in a completed manuscript." Editing, copyediting, design, composition, and layout, all up to file prep for printing. I don't know if other houses do this, or parts of it, or what. I know a friend who wrote for Baen had stopped the two-space thing years ago, and I know that other writers have been turning in manuscripts electronically for years. I don't know if HC is behind the curve, ahead of it, even with it, or carving their own unique trail.

[aeriedraconia.livejournal.com]

The two spaces thing is a leftover from the days of actual typewriters. I do it automatically too. I'm trying to relearn but I'm obviously going to have to go into auto correct to catch that.

[kristine-smith.livejournal.com]

MacWord Autocorrect didn't seem to take the two spaces to one correction. Luckily, Global Search/Replace will recognize the request.