Digital Proofreading
With the growing importance of e-books and digital publishing projects, which may include elements such as PDFs and web pages, the need for content to be accurate and consistent remains a top priority for publishers. Even publishing projects that will ultimately be delivered in a printed format may involve production processes that necessitate digital stages. As a result, in-house and freelance editorial staff are increasingly required to add on-screen proofreading to their armoury of skills.
Every student will have sole use of a computer, pre-loaded with all the essential software.
Learning outcomes
At the end of this course, you should be able to:
- recognise how digital workflow affects the proofreading role
- use on-screen proofreading techniques to mark changes efficiently and effectively
- increase your accuracy and consistency when proofreading on-screen
- understand the basic principles and terminology of mark-up languages (HTML/XML).
This course contributes to PUB 20 of the Book & Journal Publishing National Occupational Standards.
Who will benefit from this course?
Everyone responsible for the editorial consistency and accuracy of web-based projects and e-books or of digital elements such as PDFs, CDs, DVDs and PowerPoint presentations. The course is particularly suited to those making the transition from print to digital.
Programme
- How proofreading is changing
- Hard and soft proofs: pros and cons of paper vs on-screen
- What tasks are required in digital proofreading?
- Where is the boundary between editing and proofreading in digital workflow?
- Digital content checklist
- Working methods: options for marking changes
- Depending on who is correcting the source files, what are the options for marking changes digitally?
- Marking changes to PDFs
- Acrobat tools and shortcut keys
- Alternatives to Acrobat
- Using BSI proof marks and stamps
- Rethinking conventional mark-up – making the most of the software tools
- Marking changes in MS Office files
- Pros and cons of and tips for using MS Word’s Track Changes
- Options for marking changes in MS PowerPoint and MS Excel files
- Improving accuracy and consistency
- Is accuracy of reading on-screen worse than paper?
- Adapting traditional methods to on-screen reading
- Using software tools to improve accuracy and consistency
- Marking changes to websites
- Options for marking up web pages on-screen
- Marking changes to e-books
- Common problems and mark-up options
- Introduction to HTML and XML coding
- Coding principles: how codes are used
- Mark-up languages: some important abbreviations
- Proofreading in content management systems
- Advantages and disadvantages of working in a CMS
- Common proofreading problems
- Easily missed mistakes
- Spacing, alignment and position
- Special characters: common mistakes and display problems
- Collating changes: what to do when changes conflict
- Repetitive strain injury and eye problems
- Style and grammar issues
- Importance of house style
- Dashes and hyphens, capitalisation and numbers
- Some grammar gremlins
- Terms used in publishing
- The human element
- Which factors affect proofreading performance?
- Resources
- Reference works and further reading
- Internet resources.
Note that most of our short courses can also be run as In-Company events.
- Dates: 28 September 2015, 24 November 2015
- Duration: A one-day course
- Price: £425+VAT
- A number of discounts are available
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