When writers don’t understand the word processing program they are using (most use MS Word which looks simple but is, in fact, amazingly complex – too complex for the needs of most of us), they unintentionally insert their desired formatting directly into their document. The two most common ones I encounter are:
Using tab key or space bar to center the title or text
Using tab key or space bar to indent a paragraph
These look fine on the screen, as well as the page their printer produces. But if the writer has used a font that is hard for me to read, I need to change it. Since every font occupies a different width, (even if they are both the same “point” or height), centered text will shift accordingly. Or if their plan includes an ebook, what was centered no longer is relative to a piece of paper that has a determined width. It is likely to end up on the right of the screen or even on two lines if the reader enlarges the font for their reading comfort.
Or if the paper addition is going to be set with a blank line between paragraphs instead of an indentation, the book designer is going to have to get rid of the tab or spaces. (These can be corrected sort of automatically, but the proofreader is likely to find some paragraphs out of alignment.)
The worst nightmare woke me last week when I received a manuscript from a new client who grew up with typewriters and had fully retired by the time her son bought her a computer so could stay in touch by email. If you are old enough to remember typewriters, you might be able to guess what she did: at the end of every line of type, she hit the key labeled “Return,” which on electric typewriters was designed to rotate the carriage one line and return the carriage to the left margin for the beginning of the new line. (An improvement over manual typewriters where you had to take your left hand off the keyboard and push a lever the full width of the page.)
However, “Return” is misnamed on a computer keyboard. What it does actually is indicate there is a new paragraph about to begin. This may or may not be a return to the left margin – for often the Style is set to automatically indent. And/or it may automatically skip a line to indicate a new paragraph.
Here’s what I was facing: every new line she typed began a new paragraph. Yes, I could read the text perfectly because the margins opened on my computer exactly
as they were on hers. However, if I deleted a word or two the line may
have ended too soon, leaving a wide
white space. Worse, if I added a word, letter, or even a punctuation mark, the line was
likely to
run over the margin and show up on the next line – a line of only one word because after that word the paragraph indicator was still in place. Consequently, I now
had a manuscript as erratic as this paragraph.
(To make matters even worse, she had hit Return twice at the end of every line to double space her document. Fortunately, MS Word has a search-and-replace function that makes correcting this fairly simple – if you know how.)
As it turned out, after talking with her about her marketing plan – and she had thought it through quite well – I decided that she had succeeded in writing for her intended audience (her contemporaries – of which I am one), so there was no need to hire me to work on the manuscript. It was ready for proofreading. With one big HOWEVER:
Before it could be proofread, someone was going to have to remove the paragraph indicator at the end of every line which did not end a paragraph. I diddled with the depths of MS Word and found no way to automatically delete them without deleting the ones that were appropriate. The next step is to hire someone much more patient than I am to check every line and remove paragraph marks where they don’t belong.
Anyone looking for a part-time job? Punctiliousness and patience a must.
(Don’t get me wrong – I hate MS Word, but it’s what most folks are using. I work most projects in Word 2003 for Windows for most of my editing projects because of its simplicity, even though I use a Mac for just about everything else.)
Next week I’ll offer guidelines for turning your editor’s nightmare into a dream. Until then, delight in the process…
Download PDF: Editor’s Nightmare #2