INTRODUCTION

There are many programs that can be used to manipulate electronic text. This chapter, however, focuses on the most common situation that copy-editors face – that of using a word-processing program to amend files, which are then imported into a publishing program for page layout. Other software and situations in which text is copy-edited, for example copy-editing files in Portable Document Format (PDF) and websites, are discussed later in sections 16.5 and 16.6.

Some features, such as fields, are not present in all word-processing programs but are mentioned here for completeness. In addition, software manufacturers use different terms for similar tools, for example Track Changes, Document Review, so a generic term has been used where possible, in this case revision marking. The glossary (pp. 485–506) should help to explain any unfamiliar terms.

The term ‘typesetter’ is used loosely to mean whoever is doing the page make-up using publishing software, including designers.

What is on-screen editing?

Like the term ‘copy-editing’, the definition of an on-screen edit (sometimes known as an online edit) can be hard to pin down. It is tempting to think of the computer as an electronic red pen, used as a device to work through the text in a serial fashion, making amendments singly as you go. But this vastly under-uses the resources of the hardware and software, and ignores the potential benefits of the computing power literally at one's fingertips.