Peter T. Daniels wrote:

> i18n@... wrote:
> >
> > Peter T. Daniels wrote:
> >
> > >
> > > > and search for "Insert an international character by
> > > > using a shortcut key." You might be pleasantly surprised.
> > >
> > > And if one routinely uses 15 or 20 of them?
> >
> > One might keep a list of the commonly used ones available in a short
> > file for cut and paste as needed...even whole words or phrases could be
> > prepped that way. The benefit would depend on how frequently they are
> > used and the relative difficulty of typing them, so YMMV.
>
> How would that be any more efficient than Insert > Symbol?

Just one more solution among a list you have been provided. YMMV" means
"your mileage may vary". Whether it is more efficient or not, or if you
choose to use it is entirely up to you. Not interested in debating it -
try it if you want to, don't if you don't want to. Whatever decision you
make is fine by me :)

>
>
> Authors are sometimes asked to do that. Coyeditors serving as
> typesetters, who are concerned with page layout at the same time as
> content and style, don't have the option.

Well, that is an interesting issue. I am sincerely interested in your
opinion on this matter: Do you feel that there is a blurring of roles
here between copy editor and typesetter? I have felt for a while,
without pursuing it too deeply, that "writers" are often forced by
modern organizational constraints, to be either "copy editors" or
"typesetters" or both, in addition to their writing duties. Or, if the
two latter responsibilities are separated form the writing, the
nonetheless land in the same place. Do you think those are separate
skill sets best managed separately?

BTW, translators often have similar issues - they are expected to be
copy editors as well as translators, and sometimes even typesetters.

That being said, if I sense the above solution holds some appeal, then
perhaps it is possible to write a macro that will do all of the
necessary cut and pastes, and can be assigned to a single keystroke
combination? That way, at least you can do all the updates periodically
in one fell swoop.

Here is another variation on this theme that may assist you. I am not
sure, because I haven't explored in detail yet, but perhaps openoffice
(available for free at openoffice.org) will allow you to create such a
macro, *and have it run periodically and automatically*. Sort of like
"auto save" works.

For your needs, I wouldn't rest on the fact that OO tries to get the
layout the same as Word, but it is pretty safe (I think, again, YMMV) to
assume it can create the proper Word file, which word can therefore open.

So, if you worked on the copy editing tasks first in OO (under this
possible scenario) and then used Word to work on the layout, that might
work out for you.

Yet another variation, if you were to go the OO route, is that OO can
write the file in a plain text based XML format as well. That means you
could (probably - depending on your skill and comfort level) save the
file as XML using the in between markers as described above, edit them
in a plain text editor or XML editor, resave the file, then use OO to
open and save as a Word doc, and proceed as before for layout.

Not saying any of these are more efficient for anyone n particular, only
that they are scenarios that are worthy of consideration in the general
case. YMMV, because as perl programmers are fond of saying - TIMTOWTDI:
"There Is More Then One Way To Do It".


Best,

Barry

PS - the last one reminds me, that you might be able to use perl itself
in a variety of ways to script a macro for you, maybe with or without
using openoffice.Then, it could certainly be made to run periodically
without intervention for you. But that is a programming task you
probably won't want to take on yourself. It is not so complex that your
publisher (or whoever gave you the assignment) might not find it
worthwhile to have someone assist you, because they could use the work
(as a "work for hire") to amortize the cost over similar projects. Or,
depending on how your deal is structured, maybe it is something yo could
commission yourself to save you time (if you are paid a fixed amount
and the time saved and billed elsewhere was worth more then the cost to
you, for example).