On 9/7/05, i18n@... wrote:

>Do you feel that there is a blurring of roles here between copy

editor and typesetter?

Tossing in my tuppence, the author is the only copy editor, and
proofreader that mass market publishers have.

a) Look at the number of typos in mass market books
b) Look at the absence of copy editing in books --- both fiction and
"popular" non-fiction.

c) Look at author's contracts. Specific formats required, so the book
can go straight to press, with no intermediate steps.

>but perhaps openoffice (available for free at openoffice.org) will

allow you to create such a
macro, *and have it run periodically and automatically*.

Have ever looked at macro programming for OOo? Whilst such a macro
is possible, it is not trivial to implement.

> but it is pretty safe (I think, again, YMMV) to assume it can create the proper Word file, which word can therefore open.

That depends upon how complex the formatting is. Assuming that a
DocBomb is not accidentally created in the process.

[DocBomb. Document created in OOo, that when opened with Word2003
gives WinXP SP2 the Blue Screen of Death. (Or any other version of
windows and MSOffice.)]

> Yet another variation, if you were to go the OO route,

OOo only handles Plane Zero of Unicode. If you need anything from
Plane 1, or higher, you are stuck. [The fix requires a complete
rewrite of the OOo internal code.]

xan

jonathon
--
Does your Office Suite conform to ISO Standards?