Quote:
Originally Posted by starrigger
You could try that--although I'm skeptical of how successful you'd be. But there are reasons for manuscript format being different from book format. And that is that ms. format is easier to edit.
And before you say, well, do all the editing right in the digital file...I'd say, no thank you. I think most writers and editors would agree. And it's not just because the tools aren't up to the job. It's because you see a lot on the paper edit that you don't see on the screen. I can't explain it, except that it's just different. Things jump out at you that you'd miss otherwise. It's an important part of the editing process, for me at least.
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Way back in time we programmers had these tools called "code generators". If I remember correctly they were generally associated with "4GL" languages that were going to eventually make all us programmers redundant.
Anyways, you'd inevitably find places that you'd goofed, and the generated code didn't quite do what you wanted. The second that you fiddled that generated code you were screwed. You could never go back to your original design tool to make enhancements and then re-generate. Because you'd loose your manual tweaks. So as much as possible, you did your tweaks in the design tool and then regenerated.
It seems to me this is the same thing. Convert your ms format to book format to proofread. Then fix the errors in the ms format and regenerate the book format. Rinse and repeat.