Electronic+Editing

The following was originally published May 5, 2010 at http://blogs.njit.edu/msc35/2010/05/04/electronic-editing/
 * Chapter 16: Electronic Editing**
 * 16.1: Electronic Editing in the 21st Century**
 * 16.2: Modes of Communication**
 * 16.3: Delivery of Information**
 * 16.4: Collaboration in the Digital Age**
 * 16.5: Electronic Editing Tools**
 * 16.6: Electronic Editing and the Role of the Editor**

The 21st century challenges us [technical editors] with unprecedented demands. Digital information and electronic records have become ubiquitous and have give rise to new genres, new media beyond print, new modalities beyond words, and new expectations for quick turnarounds. More and more frequently, content and structure are divided between content strategists and information architects and integrated by yet other information designers, often threatening the cohesion, coherence, and unity that make communications effective. Modules and re-use have become watchwords in the composing of communications, making it difficult to tailor compositions to specific audiences who, from a marketing point of view, now require more personalization than ever before. As boundaries grow fuzzier each year between technologies and communications about them; technical communicators now share their claim to audience, task analysis, information designs, system engineering, product management, and graphic arts. At the heart of technical communications lies the vision of assuring effective and inclusive communications sensitive to audiences’ social and cultural contexts. To do so, we must reshape our roles and contributions so that we take a lead in identifying and designing the improvements that are still in dire need of progress. Within projects, this process of shaping technologies and communications to the demands of context, purpose, audience, and medium may be called interaction design, contextual inquiry, information architecture, content strategy, information development, usability, or knowledge management. The challenge for the coming decades requires us [technical editors] to show our workmates the unique knowledge and skills that we as technical communicators bring to these areas and to assume roles of leadership Today we have the choice of voice, video, text, instant message, social networks, gaming networks, [|Skype], [|Google Voice], voice enabled Twitter and [|Facebook] and [|LinkedIn] etc. Add to this mix [|//Mashups//], a web page or application that uses or combines data or functionality from two or more external sources to create a new service. //Mashups// can be considered to have an active role in the evolution of [|social software] and [|Web 2.0]. The term //Mashup// is also used to describe a remix of digital data. These choices and the advances in mobile communication devices are responsible for this communication paradigm shift. The ability to take all this communication with you has changed us as much, or more, than the communication applications themselves. The way we treat or interact with one another socially has forever changed. A new dichotomy has arisen between the craft of technical communication and the technology of communication. Making the appropriate choices is essential to the very nature of collaboration and the finished product as well.
 * 16.1 Electronic Editing in the 21st Century**
 * 16.2: Modes of Communication**

The term markup is derived from the traditional publishing practice of “marking up”‘ a manuscript, which involves adding handwritten annotations in the form of conventional symbolic printer’s instructions in the margins and text of a paper manuscript or printed proof. For centuries, this task was done primarily by skilled typographers known as “markup men” or “copy markers” who marked up text to indicate what typeface, style, and size should be applied to each part, and then passed the manuscript to others for typesetting by hand. Markup was also commonly applied by editors, proofreaders, publishers, and graphic designers, and indeed by document authors. So here was the genesis of today’s markup languages.
 * 16.2.1 Markup Languages**
 * 16.2.2: Presentational Markup**

Used by traditional word-processing systems, binary codes embedded in document text that produced the what-you-see-is-what-you get (WYSIWYG) effect. Such markup is usually designed to be hidden from human users, even those who are authors or editors. Embedded in text and provides instructions for programs that are to process the text. Text with such markup is often edited with the markup visible and directly manipulated by the author. Popular procedural-markup systems usually include programming constructs, such that macros or subroutines can be defined and invoked by name. An example of descriptive markup would be the troff’s **.bd**, which instructs the processor to switch to a bold-face font. This markup is used to label parts of the document rather than to provide specific instructions as to how they should be processed. The objective is to decouple the inherent structure of the document from any particular treatment or rendition of it. Such markup is often described as “semantic”. An example of descriptive markup would be HTML’s tag, which is used to label a citation. There is considerable blurring of the lines between the types of markup. In modern word-processing systems, presentational markup is often saved in descriptive-markup-oriented systems such as [|XML], and then processed procedurally by implementations. In recent years, a number of small and largely unstandardized markup languages have been developed to allow authors to create formatted text via web browsers, for use in [|wikis] and web forums. The markup language used by [|Wikipedia] is one such. Hypertext Markup Language enables the display of text and graphics on the Web. HTML includes code within a document to give instructions for text. Editors may need to have a basic understanding of HTML to make recommendations on increasing usability and ensuring consistency throughout a document. Some may feel more comfortable consulting a specialist to assist with editing HTML specifications. Even with the use of HTML, editors still must check for spelling and grammatical errors as the markup language does support these tasks. [|HTML5] is a specification that defines the fifth major revision of the Hypertext Markup Language ([|HTML]). One of the major changes in HTML5 is in respect to how [|HTML] addresses Web applications Extensible Markup Language allows users to define their own tags, unlike the limited use of predefined tags in HTML and its precursor SGML. XML can also be used to create searchable documents. It is integrated into some word processors such as Microsoft Word 2003 and later versions. Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) is a [|style sheet language] used to describe the [|presentation semantics] (that is, the look and formatting) of a document written in a [|markup language]. Its most common application is to style web pages written in [|HTML] and [|XHTML], but the language can also be applied to any kind of [|XML] document. While the following may go beyond the traditional role of the editor, a passing knowledge of these technologies are useful because they contribute to an evolving media style, grammar or syntax. Languages such as Ajax (shorthand for [|asynchronous] [|JavaScript] and [|XML], a group of interrelated [|web development] techniques, and CGI, Java, MySQL, Java Applets among others are used to create interactive [|web applications] Gone are the days of the floppy and the zip disk. Analog faxing is slowly bowing to internet faxing and some say that traditional fax machine will soon be obsolete. Even CD’s are fading as the optimum means of delivery of information. Today, the editor has thumb drives; Online Storage, podcasts, internet radio and TV, and a plethora of options are available to deliver information to the world. [|YouSendIt] is a Web-based secure digital file delivery company, which lets users securely send, receive, and track files on demand. It is an alternative to sending large [|e-mail] attachments, using [|FTP], and sending [|CDs] or [|DVDs] or [|tape] or [|USB flash drive] via [|courier]. The sender can enter the recipients’ e-mail addresses, attach the file and send it; the recipients receive an e-mail notification with a [|URL] that lets them download the file. [|Personal encryption] while not a new technology can be particularly useful in electronic editing. It not only protects your data and your communications, but it is also a method of authentication making sure that it has come from you. Applications like [|WebEx], that provide on-demand collaboration, on-line meeting, web conferencing and training as well as desktop sharing. of collaboration to mange and produce those possibilities.
 * 16.2.3: Procedural Markup**
 * 16.2.4: Descriptive Markup**
 * 16.2.5: HTML**
 * 16.2.6: HTML5**
 * 16.2.7 XML**
 * 16.2.8: Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)**
 * 16.2.9: Web Programming Languages**
 * 16.3: Delivery of Information**

A significant portion of technical writing is done not by individuals, but by various types of groups. The Internet brought about remarkable improvement in the way researchers collaborate. Email exchange of word processor documents with tracked changes used to be the standard technique for collaborative writing. However web based tools like [|Google docs], [|Zoho] and other collaboration tools have made the process fast and efficient. Various versioning tools and synchronous editors are available for those who need additional functionality Email has made exchange of written material fast and efficient. Almost everybody uses word processors these days among which MS Word is the most popular. MS Word has an option to track changes and comments in a document. Using this feature allows others to edit or add comments to your document without changing the original text. These changes can be later merged with the document or rejected. There is an option to hide tracked changes too. Sending the manuscript to the editor without removing the tracked changes is a common mistake. However collaborative writing using programs such as Microsoft Word or [|Adobe Acrobat] in this way can be quite time consuming if more than two contributors are present. Besides maintaining different versions of the document is difficult and confusing. These limitations have been resolved by various online collaborative writing tools. The earlier ‘web writing tools’ supported only text and were popularly called wikis. The editing functions available were rudimentary, but multiple authors could be accommodated and versioning was easy and straight forward. Later more advanced text based editors with more features than a wiki, like [|whiteboard] were introduced. With the advent of web 2.0 technology, web based graphical editors were introduced with powerful word processing capabilities comparable to stand alone applications. Google Docs and [|Zohowriter] are the frontrunners among web based graphical editors. Both support sharing of documents either privately with selected individuals or publicly, along with basic word processing functions including ‘making bulleted lists’, sorting by columns, adding tables, images, comments, formulas and changing fonts. ‘Google Docs’ allows you to upload your files including MS Word documents which can be subsequently edited. Zohowriter has several export options like [|PDF], MS Word and HTML. Both have extensive versioning support and you can easily revert back to any previous versions of your document. However one functionality which is conspicuously absent in both is the bibliography management. Researchers accustomed to [|bibliography management] software like [|EndNote] and [|Reference Manager] can hardly function without it. Hence if you want to use your word processor and bibliography management software, but still want to collaborate and keep track of versions, the best solution is Concurrent Versions System (CVS) commonly used by software developers. CVS in simple terms is a system that lets groups of people work simultaneously on groups of files like document files. CVS consists of a central ‘repository’ of the most recent versions of the file on a server along with all previous versions so that any collaborator can request an older version. [|Freepository.com] is an online server providing this service free. You or your collaborators may at any time create a personal copy of these files by ‘checking out’ the files from the central repository into a local repository. All the above methods for collaborative writing methods are asynchronous and do not allow editing of the same file at the same time. Synchronous editing tools are still in its infancy. [|SynchroEdit] is a browser based multi-user real-time editor, but it is still in beta stage of development. [|Coword], a system developed by School of computer engineering at Nanyang Technological University Singapore, converts MS Word into a real-time multi-user collaborative word processor. Changes made to the document are immediately displayed for all users to see and it is available as a freeware. However synchronous collaboration is required only in very few cases. [|Collaborative writing], like any group activity, has problems of scheduling, communication, and conflicts. It is important to have a writing plan before embarking on the project. It includes a clear description of the writing tasks, sequence of completion and a realistic completion date for the project. A group leader who is in charge of the overall production of the document can assign different tasks to the members. A style guide is important to ensure a consistent format and style. Procedures for resolving possible conflicts should be agreed upon before the start of the project. Electronic editing has changed the interaction between authors and editors. It’s easier to write detailed queries when they don’t have to be scribbled in the page margin. Authors can make revisions electronically in the edited files, although some publishers require authors to mark up hard copy to discourage extensive changes. The ease of electronic file transmission encourages multiple rounds of revision, so it is important for editors and clients to keep track of successive versions and to always work in the most recent file. In designing the editing features of Microsoft Word, Microsoft’s designers clearly envisioned “collaborating” on documents. Word’s features are designed for the purpose of passing a document among multiple colleagues who make few changes, or substantive changes, to the document. These tools can become clumsy when used for the high number of small changes typically made in copyediting. Acrobat’s ability to display a document exactly the same way over the internet and across multiple platforms and printing devices makes it a good way to allow multiple reviewers to see and review a highly formatted document.
 * 16.4: Collaborating in the Digital Age**
 * 16.4.1: Email and Word Processors**
 * 16.4.2: Text Based Tools**
 * 16.4.3: Graphical Tools**
 * 16.4.4: Versioning Systems**
 * 16.4.5: Synchronous Editing Tools**
 * 16.5.6: Tips for Efficient Collaborative Writing**
 * 16.5: Electronic Editing Tools**
 * 16.5.1: Word**
 * 16.5.2: Adobe Acrobat**

Software Programs such as [|InDesign], [|Framemaker], [|QuarkXPress], and others are used to combine graphics and text to produce a document. Usually these documents are intended to be printed, but they can also be slide show presentations or Web sites. Extensive typographic control and graphics handling capabilities are typical features of page layout software. These programs have good built-in or add-on graphics features or integrate well with standalone graphics software programs. These are also programs that are suitable for commercial printing and generally well-accepted by service bureaus and commercial printers. The basic functionality of these tools allows the capture of a whole computer screen, individual windows, or user-specified capture areas. Basic editing functions, like the ability to highlight and write on your [|screen captures] are also available. There are many software programs, freeware and commercial such [|CamStudio], [|HyperSnap], [|Camtasia], among others that are available. The [|traditional role of the editor] in [|electronic editing] has been the gatekeeper, the organizer, the copyeditor and the audiences’ representative. That will not change, but become more complex as technology evolves. The editor will no longer be the one who determines what the public should know but rather the one who organizes and lays out the content for the reader (as a collective body) to determine for them self. With access to powerful search engines and the ability to find content which relates to readers’ interests, readers (information consumers) will determine what they should know and the editor will simply help them find it.
 * 16.5.3: Page Layout Software**
 * 16.5.4: Screen Capture Tools**
 * 16.6: Electronic Editing and the Editor**


 * Works Cited:**

Killian, Michael. //Ideas that Drive business Communication//. 2009 [] “YouSendIt” //Wikipedia.// Web. 17 August 2007. Dorman, Marilyn, Sharon Nevile,Jennifer Wright. //Editing in the 21st Century: What are the// //Challenges, and Where are the Opportunities in Curriculum Development and Teaching?// The third International Conference on The Book. [|//http://b05.cgpublisher.com/proposals/46/index_html 2005//] Mirel, Barbara (Editor), Rachel Spilka (Editor) Reshaping Technical Communication: New Directions and Challenges for the 21st Century. Routledge. 2002 Collaborative writing software online with Writeboard. Write, share, revise, compare http://www.writeboard.com/ Updated on: Unknown, Accessed on:27/07/2007. Docs and Spreadsheets. http://docs.google.com/ Updated on: Unknown, “Wikipedia Markup Languages.” //Wikipedia.// Web. 17 March 1970. Powers, Hilary. Electronic Editing: With Your Computer, Not Just On It. http://www.editorsforum.org/forum_index_articles/work_support_03-16-04.php March 16, 2004 Presented by. Wagner, Mitch. “Nine Easy Web-Based Collaboration Tools” Forbes.com, Februaty 26, 2007 “2.26.07http://www.forbes.com/2007/02/26/google-microsoft-bluetie-ent-tech-cx_mw_0226smallbizresource.html