Cross-Application Editing

[KillerMuffin]

How does everyone do it? WH recently edited something of mine. I use WordPerfect and he uses Word. (Some people are misguided that way ). It was interesting the method he chose to put his editorial comments in, one I didn't expect. It works well, however.

Most people use Word, it's what comes with most computers. Some don't, though. How do you edit something in another format?

I do my editing for Word stuff in WordPad for Windows using .rtf. I add my comments for each paragraph in a different color after the paragraph. I NEVER touch an author's original work, unless things like words running together happens. That's a formatting thing and I'll space them. The most I will do is write in caps COMMA or PERIOD where I think one ought to go.

 

[Weird Harold]

For those interested...

How does everyone do it? WH recently edited something of mine. I use WordPerfect and he uses Word. (Some people are misguided that way ). It was interesting the method he chose to put his editorial comments in, one I didn't expect. It works well, however.

I used endnotes insted of the hidden comments I normally use from the reviewing tools capability of Word 97/2000. The help menu says the comments will translate to WP 5.x format but KM had reported that "the words get all runny" when translated from Word DOC to RTF to WP DOC

My goal in editing cross-platform, is to format changes and comments in such away that the recipient can easily find ALL of them so no deleted text or stray comment shows up when the story is submitted.

Yes, I do change the author's text -- whenever I am reasonable sure that the author can change it back if desired.

When every other possible avenue is exhausted, Word saves documents into an HTML format, that anyone who can get on Lit can read. Cut and paste from the HTML format will usually transfer formatting and color coding into any format Word 97 can't handle. Combined with Word's ability to read more formats that it can save back into, it is a last resort, only one small step above plain ASCII text files or e-mail.

Anyone who has Word 6.0 or newer, should explore the reviewing tools in Word; both for exchanging information with your editor and for editing on your own.