Best way to do italic and bold

[bookman156]

Originally Posted by fbrzvnrnd

The two things are not one against the other: I believe that we will have a new type of editor who - on the one hand - organizes the text and its requirements, on the other hand formalizes and programs it. Not everything has to be marked. Computer runs query, but the information are handles by editor, author and publisher.

You have a lot of faith in editors. Most I know do not even know the difference between 'less' and 'fewer', not to mention 'the past ten years' and 'the last ten years'. Some editors struggle with genitive apostrophes. And as for the Oxford comma, well, you're expecting a lot of this transition of editorial skills to hypertext.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by bookman156

You have a lot of faith in editors. Most I know do not even know the difference between 'less' and 'fewer', not to mention 'the past ten years' and 'the last ten years'. Some editors struggle with genitive apostrophes. And as for the Oxford comma, well, you're expecting a lot of this transition of editorial skills to hypertext.

Ok, I know the difference between "less" and "fewer" (I complained in my local supermarket about their checkout sign that said "10 items or less"), but I have to confess that I'd regard "the last ten years" and "the past ten years" as interchangeable. Can you enlighten me?

[bookman156]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I have to confess that I'd regard "the last ten years" and "the past ten years" as interchangeable. Can you enlighten me?

Hah, I also regarded them as the same until my production editor many years ago drew a ten-year line on a piece of paper with an atomic explosion at the end. That made it quite clear that there is a distinct difference between what you did in the past ten years and what you did in the last ten years.

[fbrzvnrnd]

Originally Posted by bookman156

You have a lot of faith in editors. Most I know do not even know the difference between 'less' and 'fewer', not to mention 'the past ten years' and 'the last ten years'. Some editors struggle with genitive apostrophes. And as for the Oxford comma, well, you're expecting a lot of this transition of editorial skills to hypertext.

I believe that everyone has the right to make mistakes. Here there are a lot of new mistakes ready for us

[HarryT]

So you should only talk about "the last year" if you're on your deathbed? I'm not sure that distinction is made by too many people.

[bookman156]

Originally Posted by fbrzvnrnd

I believe that everyone has the right to make mistakes. Here there are a lot of new mistakes ready for us

Making mistakes isn't a right, it's just getting it wrong. The more nebulous you make something, the less clear the way is. And if you're too strict in laying down the rules, you get perfunctory unintelligence in their application. If you start tagging very enthusiastically, you have to know precisely what to tag and what not to tag, but you cannot know that without defining a path between vague and sharp, and how will you do that?

[bookman156]

Originally Posted by HarryT

So you should only talk about "the last year" if you're on your deathbed? I'm not sure that distinction is made by too many people.

Well, if you spoke about the last year of someone's life you'd be implying they were dead now, but if you spoke about the past year of their life that would imply they were still alive and getting on with it. But yes, in practice, most people tend not to distinguish. But knowing the difference can be useful sometimes.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by bookman156

Well, if you spoke about the last year of someone's life you'd be implying they were dead now, but if you spoke about the past year of their life that would imply they were still alive and getting on with it. But yes, in practice, most people tend not to distinguish. But knowing the difference can be useful sometimes.

Yes, useful to know. Thanks for enlightening me!

[bookman156]

The difference between 'tall' and 'high' is another good one. A child standing on a chair may be higher than her mother but she is probably not taller.

[HarryT]

Everything you've mentioned with the exception of last/past is something I'd personally expect any literate person to be familiar with, but perhaps my expectations are too high. I sometimes think I'm the last person left on Earth who still cares about the difference between "who" and "whom" .

[bookman156]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Everything you've mentioned with the exception of last/past is something I'd personally expect any literate person to be familiar with, but perhaps my expectations are too high. I sometimes think I'm the last person left on Earth who still cares about the difference between "who" and "whom" .

Well, some people try to be so correct that they end up using 'whom' when 'who' is actually correct. So one has to be careful from the other end too.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by bookman156

Well, some people try to be so correct that they end up using 'whom' when 'who' is actually correct. So one has to be careful from the other end too.

Very true.

[bookman156]

My favourite pet peeve, which you're always hearing even on BBC news, is 'centred around' rather than 'centred on'.

[HarryT]

Or people who use the word "literally" when they actually mean "figuratively", as in "I literally died of fright!" .

[fbrzvnrnd]

Originally Posted by bookman156

Making mistakes isn't a right, it's just getting it wrong. The more nebulous you make something, the less clear the way is. And if you're too strict in laying down the rules, you get perfunctory unintelligence in their application. If you start tagging very enthusiastically, you have to know precisely what to tag and what not to tag, but you cannot know that without defining a path between vague and sharp, and how will you do that?

Mine was a hyperbole . But I noticed that perfection is detrimental to the changes, and especially in this era of transition from one media to another, the error is actually "a way to find other ways" to make digital narrative or information. I think we will make a lot of mistakes for a long time, partly because the tools we work with are not suitable to really make digital publishing.