Quark (no, I have not stepped on the toe of a rather posh, Eton educated duck, but am starting a sentence about the software, beloved of all designers) is a bit annoying.
Picture the scene, I am on my first day of work experience, after a morning of heaving dusty books from one place to another (NB dont wear white shirt on work experience, they nearly always make you tidy up filing cabinates) a lunch gawping at the city types with neat shoes (women) and fucked up hair cuts (the men) my afternoon was spent proofing a section of a book on film, 1001 films to see before you die or something to that effect. I had the original manuscript with film titles and other bits in italics, but the Quarked page didn't have any italics.
Why? Why? I hear you cry.
Because if you transfer stuff from Word into Quark, the italics disappear. So I've spent all afternoon marking italics onto a piece of paper. What a micky ficking waste of time. There was someone else doing this as well. You would think the software designers could sort that out.
But I did learn many useful things today including,
If you make tea for people who are really busy, it makes them like you.
Big books (like the one I worked on today) are written by a collection of writers with one general editor (who in this case is external) I asked how they choose the writers and she said they have a number of writers on a number of topics who they ask again and again. Or they take new people recommended by the general editor. The people she mentioned were all either well respected film critics (for Le Monde or the Boston Globe) or academics. You could tell the difference.
The proof reading mark for italics is ital in a circle next to the words underlined.
Defenestration is the act of throwing a thing or esp. a person out of a window. (Now don't worry I didn't defenestrate anybody, but it was a word I didn't know in the section on Hitchcock's Rear Window.)
(FUCK: I'm addicted to BRACKETS)
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Glad it's all going (well). There's a (really) good bit about work exp on the NUJ site I found today, that give some leeway to (at least) get travel expenses.
ReplyDeletePerhaps you should find a dodgy haircut (man) and say (whilst wearing neat shoes) - "Oh but dahling, don't you know quark is just so last year, everyone who's anyone (in Cornwall) is using Indesign these days..."
Or perhaps not... xx
Just saying Hi and thanks for your comment. Only beginning to catch up on this whole blogging thing.
ReplyDeleteHope the rest of your work experience is less dusty and frustrating.
xx
Hope your work experience has got a bit more interesting as the weeks progressed.
ReplyDeleteAt least your getting lots of editing practice.