The Joys of Editing #93

[faustus]

Today we have naming of files. Yesterday,
We had US spelling. And tomorrow morning,
We shall have what to do about citing. But today,
Today we have naming of files. Scrabulous
Beckons like sirens from one of the other open tabs,
And today we have naming of files.

--- Prof Reed



Yes, when I'm sending a file off to a project, I habitually name the file after that project, so it's Russ.doc or Companion.doc or Priest.doc or Cambridge.doc or Clute.doc. What happens to it after that is not my problem, save for when the editor sends the edited file back called DrA.doc. If I've not been up to date with file housekeeping I have half a dozen or more called DrA.doc.

I'm slowly editing 56 chapters, which have come to me in dribs and drabs, where some of the files have come to me labelled with the author's name, some with the subject of the chapter and some with the name of the project. Add to this that some of the files have been sent back to the authors, some of whom have renamed the files, some of whom haven't. As I've worked on them, I've renamed my versions "[chapter number] [author surname] DrA edit" or "[chapter number] [author surname] DrA edit with q" if there are still queries. Except, of course, when I've got the chapter number wrong. And given the numbering protocol may lead to a reordering of chapters this is not the final labelling.

And because I'm crap waaaaa I occasionally find that the editing was done on a different machine or I haven't downloaded the file and have to go wading through hundreds of email to find the attachment. Gmail is searchable - but if you have to guess that contributor's naming protocol that doesn't necessary help.

Comments

[drasecretcampus.livejournal.com]

I would hate, of course, to have to go round disowning the third edition of Film Studies but they a) went to press without letting me proof read the updated version and b) waited until they'd sent it off to tell me I couldn't do it a week later when had they said at the time I would have either stayed up all night to do it or at least found time to look at the sections I'd updated. If I'd known this was going to happen I would have suggested they just reprinted and didn't change anything. As it is, I know there's a mistake on the back cover.

Maybe I'm lucky. Maybe that's the only mistake. Maybe all my edits were incorporated without problems.


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