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Chapter 8: Desktop Publishing Basics, Part 2

Tips for Data Entry

30. Spell Out Acronyms

In a first reference, spell out the phrase represented by the acronym, with the acronym in parentheses. In subsequent references, the acronym may be used alone. Example: This booklet was produced by DiskBooks Electronic Publishing (DBEP). The author of the DBEP Guides ...

31. Get The Person's Name Right
Use full names when possible: Thomas A. Jones, F. Scott Doe. If there is a doctorate, spell it out in a first reference and then use the Dr. title thereafter:
C. Everett Koop, M.D.;
Dr. Koop.
Dr. is used before the full name when part of a mailing address,
Dr. C. Everett Koop, but not in a signature block:

J. F. Cogan, Th.D.
Senior Pastor`

32. Abbreviations
When abbreviating company or agency names, omit both periods and spaces, unless the entity prefers otherwise. Be careful of plural abbreviations. Do not use an apostrophe unless the context requires that possession be shown.

Examples: All the CEOs attended the workshop.
Each CEO's name tag was printed on a laser printer.

33. Collecting Information From Application Forms

There is no way to control what people may write on applications when applying to attend a workshop or seminar. However, you can control how that data is entered in a database and reproduced in subsequent agendas, name tags, and lists of participants.

Example:
Applicants from the same agency (Allegheny Intermediate Unit 3) may show the following information when filling out forms:

Allegheny IU
AIU
IU 3
Allegheny IU #3
Intermediate Unit #3

In each case, this agency should be translated as Allegheny IU 3. After registration information has been entered in a data base, sort each involved field in alphabetical order. This will enable you to quickly identify and correct errors and inconsistencies, especially if the data has been entered by more than one person.

34. Omit Titles
In a list of names or on an agenda, omit all titles such as Miss, Mrs., Ms., Mr., and Dr. If you wish to show a doctorate, it should be abbreviated in its proper form after the name. (A person with a DR before the name may be a doctor of medicine, philosophy, education, dentistry, or veterinary medicine).

Examples:
Jane Doe, MD
John Doe, Ph.D.
James Doe, D.D.S.
Joanne Doe, Ed.D.

A title is used with a full name when it is part of a mailing address. A title may be used with a surname only in a second reference but do not use Miss or Mrs. unless you know for a fact that the woman does not prefer Ms. As a general rule, a woman who prefers Miss or Mrs. will be less annoyed by Ms. than will be the case when the converse is true.

35. Mailing Addresses Can Be Complicated

A rural address should be written Route x, Box
or Rt. x, Box
R.D. (Rural Delivery) and R.F.D. (Rural Free Delivery) are obsolete.

Use the U.S. Postal Service two-letter abbreviations for a state's name. However, use conventional abbreviations when the name of the state is not part of a mailing address.

Example:
Harrisburg PA 17105
He lives in Harrisburg, Pa. (or Penna.)

At one time, the United States Postal Service (USPS) requested that mail addresses be typed in solid caps without punctuation. However, advances in optical character recognition (OCR) software now makes it possible for the USPS to scan addresses which have been typed in a conventional manner; punctuation omitted.

36. Take Your Time
Write time as 8:30 A.M. or 4:30 p.m. These forms should not be used:
8:30am or 4:30 pm

37. Use And ...
Avoid using "&" (ampersand) unless it is part of a tradename or a lack of space demands it. Don't use the symbol @ unless it is part of a price, formula, or e-mail address.

38. Hyphens, Dashes, And Automatic Hyphenation
A dash joins a range of times in an agenda, and is longer than a hyphen. (If your software can't produce a dash, use two hyphen (--). Non-breaking hyphens join the components of a phone number so they are not separated by word wrap. Breaking hyphens are used by the hyphenation command to automatically break words at the end of lines. Never hyphenate a word manually by typing a hyphen. Such a hyphen will prevent proper word wrap after a future edit or font change. Invoke the hyphenation command instead. However, during automatic hyphenation, you can type a hyphen in a dialog box to force a word break at a specific spot.

Examples:

Typewriters are an out-of-date means of writing reports. (Breaking hyphens)

9:30 -- 10:00 A.M. Registration (Dash) 717-697-8122 (Non-breaking hyphens)

39. The First Shall Be First
Try to list names with first name first. If the names are drawn from a database file, both FIRST and LAST should have separate fields. Then they can be listed and displayed properly but sorted by last name.

40. Teachers: We Teach Students

Use student and not child when referring to person(s) being taught or trained. A child is a person of a specific age range. The word student does not imply a particular age range. Anyone can be a student, including you and me. It is inappropriate to refer to a 19-year-old as a child. Never use a disability as a noun or adjective. Incorrect: the disabled students are..., the handicapped require.... The preferred usage is students/persons with disabilities.

41. Watch Mixed Upper And Lower Case

The computer world is hung up on mixing upper and lower case in tradenames.

LaserWriter PageMaker WordPerfect

When keying these terms and others like them, always preserve the upper/lower case mix, even when the remainder of a heading is in solid caps. Where a registered trademark is involved, the capitalization is part of that trademark.

Example of a headline:

PageMaker SUPPORT GROUP HOLDS WORKSHOP ON USING LaserWriter.

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Appendix A: Desktop Publishing Glossary

Body and headings: as a general rule, a bold sans serif font (such as Arial or Helvetica) is best for headings and titles, while a plain serif font (such as Times) is better for body text. As of this writing, "Time Magazine" follows the general model of bold sans serif font for headings and plain serif font for body.

Body: a paragraph or paragraphs under a heading.

Brochure: a handout which describes a process, product, or event.

Bullet: a short, descriptive statement; may be part of an outline; often started with an eye-catching symbol.

Camera-ready original: a clean copy of a product which is ready for quantity duplication; in desktop publishing, camera-ready originals are often created with a laser/ink jet printer.

Carriage return: the symbol which marks the end of a paragraph.

Click art: graphic images which are available for instant use in a document.

Compose: the act of combining text and graphics to create a product ready for publication.

Desktop publishing: the use of a computer and a high-resolution printer to produce camera-ready originals which will have a typeset appearance. The production of an original may use one or more applications. Desktop publishing may involve the use of page formatting software such as PageMaker. High-end word processors (such as Microsoft Word and WordPerfect) include features which may be used in many desktop publishing routines.

DPI: dots per square inch, the measure of the resolution of a printer.

Dummy: a rough layout of a document to give a general idea of the appearance of the printed product.

Font: the ability of a computer and printer to create printed characters in a specific style, such as Times or Arial or helvetica A professional printer may consider a font to be a typeface in a particular point size such as Times 12 or Times 18.

Footer: information which appears at the bottom of every page in a section of a manuscript. A footer may include an embedded page number. See "header" .

Format: selecting the fonts, indenting, spacing, and other appearance features which are appropriate for a specific document or segment of a document.

Graphics: the elements of a format which are not textual in nature; usually images, borders, or frames.

Grayscale: in a black and white document, the percentage of a filled area which is black as opposed to white; zero percent grayscale is white and 100 percent is black. Percents between 0 and 100 are varying shades of gray.

Gutenberg: the inventor of movable type, in the 1500's. Before movable type, a page of text was created by carving it out of a block of wood. Gutenberg is credited with putting the printed page in the hands of the common people. The Holy Bible was the first book printed with moveable type. Now, the desktop publishing revolution, with microcomputers and high resolution printers, has put the typesetting of the page in the hands of the people.

Gutter: space along the inside margins of a book's pages which allows for the binding process. When the book is to be bound in an office with a process such as spiral binding, the typical gutter is an extra half inch along both inside margins.

Header: information which appears at the top of every page in a section of a manuscript. A header may include an embedded page number. See "footer" .

High-end, as in high-end word processor: applications which have advanced features useful when creating camera-ready originals. Microsoft Word and WordPerfect are considered high-end word processors.

Hung: a form of indenting a paragraph where the first line is not indented and all remaining lines are indented an equal distance. Hung paragraphs are often begun with a bullet and a tab stop. (See "bullet" .) If a typist attempts to hang a paragraph manually by using the space bar, return, and tab keys, the file will be damaged in a way which will make it impossible to make future edits while maintaining the current font.

Imbedded page number: including a word processor's pagination command in the text of the header or footer. With Macintosh and Windows word processors, this is as simple as clicking the page number icon while the header/footer window is open and the cursor is flashing.

Justification, full right: a block of text where all lines end at the same point along the right margin, creating a straight line.

JPEG: Format for electronic publishing of photos. With Windows, the extension is .jpg

Kerning: controlling the amount of horizontal space between letters of a word.

Keyboard shortcuts: using key combinations to give a command instead of pulling down a menu with the mouse and selecting a command. The hand (with fingers on the keyboard) is usually quicker than the mouse, after the keyboard shortcuts have been memorized.

Layout: the combination of text and graphics to create a printable product.

Leading (ledding): the amount of vertical space between lines of type.

Margins: the space between the edge of the paper and the beginning of text of graphics (top, bottom, left, right). For manuscripts which are to be bound into books, the left/right margins will be know as inside and outside. The inside margin will include a specified amount of space to accommodate the binding, known as a gutter.

Original: a sheet which comes out of a printer, before it has been copied. Originals should be used for duplication, instead of duplicating a copy of an original.

Page breaks: the point at which the software starts another page. You can use a hard page break command to start another page before the copy gets down to the bottom margin. However, you cannot delay a page break past the bottom of the page without making changes to the format. These formatting changes can include a smaller font size, less leading/kerning, a margin change, or a more compact font.

Page formatting software: all high-end word processors can create camera-ready originals of desktop publishing quality. However, page formatting software, such as PageMaker for Macintosh and Windows, can offer more powerful options.

Paginate: putting numbers on the pages. All application used in desktop publishing can number pages automatically. Therefore, it is unwise to manually type page numbers at the point you assume a page will break. Future editing, such as adding or deleting text, may cause the pages to break out of synch with the typed page numbers.

Proportional spacing: the letter "i" takes up less horizontal space than the letters "w" or "m" . In a non-proportional font, all characters are given the same amount of horizontal space, giving the text a typewritten (amateurish look). "Courier" is an example of a non-proportional font, while "Times" is proportional.

Printer: the device which creates a camera-ready original from a document created on a microcomputer with desktop publishing software. To be used in desktop publishing, a printer needs two criteria: a resolution of at least 300 dpi (dots per square inch), and the ability to print proportionally-spaced fonts. Laser/ink jet printers can meet both these criteria. Dot matrix and daisy wheel printers cannot.

Printer, Laser: This is the first choice for desktop publishing. Resolutions begin at 300 dpi and speeds begin at about ten pages per minute.

Printer, Ink jet: This is the second choice for desktop publishing. Resolutions begin at 300 dpi but speeds are as slow as one page or less per minute.

Printer, Daisy wheel: A device which receives information from a computer and prints it on paper by using a circular printwheel containing a molded character for each key on the keyboard. Such printers are often called "letter quality" because the product is judged good enough to mail to someone. Daisy wheel printers are comparatively slow and noisy as the printwheel pecks away at the paper. A daisy wheel printer is generally considered to be unsuitable for desktop publishing because of the limited choices of fonts and styles.

Printer, Dot matrix: A device which receives information from a computer and prints it on paper by using a printhead containing stiff wires. Characters are formed when a specific configuration of the wires strike the ribbon. The principle is similar to the way numbers are displayed on a sports score board. A dot matrix printer is generally considered to be unsuitable for desktop publishing because of the low resolution of the printouts.

Resolution: degree to which a printer can create a typeset appearance in a camera-ready original, measured in dots per square inch (dpi). The minimum resolution for desktop publishing is considered to be 300 dpi.

Sans serif font: the term "serif" refers to the little ornamental tails on the such letters as Fs, Ts, and Ls. The term "sans" is Latin for without. Therefore, a sans serif font is one without tails. arial or helvetica is a commonly-used sans serif font.

Scaling: a proportional increase or decrease of the size of a graphic.

Scanner: an office machine which can "take a picture" of a printed page and turn it into a computer word processor or graphic file. A scanner uses a process called optical character recognition to create a word processor file from a printed page, complete with automatic word wrap and tab stops.

Serif font: A serif font has little "handles" on the characters which tend to make them flow together, making blocks of text easier to read.

Shade pattern: Many applications offer the option to fill a graphic area with a wide variety of fill patterns.

Smart quotes: quotation marks which look like regular printed characters instead of double apostrophes. Warning: the command used by a word processor to create smart quotes may be translated as an odd character when a document is saved as a text (ASCII) file for use over E-Mail; in such a case, the smart quotes option should be turned off before a file is sent over E-Mail.

Spine: the bound edge of a book If text flows along the length of a spine, it must be read when the book is lying face up. If both vertical and horizontal text are used on the same spine, the respective text must read in both the bookshelf and the face-up positions.

Typeset: an appearance which seems to have been created by setting type and printing with a movable type press.

Typeface, or just face: the physical appearance of a set of characters, such as Times or arial or helvetica. Desktop publishers tend to use "font" instead of face.

Typestyle: a general enhancement for a typeface, such as: BOLD, ITALIC, or OUTLINE.

Word processor: a computer program which allows the typist to create pages of electronic text which can be saved to disk as a computer file, and printed with a printer on paper. Standard features of a basic word processor include the following: automatic word wrap; block copy, move, and delete; global search and replace; spell checking.

Word wrap: the process used by a word processor to automatically end a line of text at the margin and start a new line. The typist never presses RETURN until it is time to start a new paragraph. Failure to observe this rule may make it impossible to make future edits while maintaining proper margins.

WYSIWYG: Desktop publishing acronym for What You See Is What You Get. This means the printer prints the page as it appears on the screen. Pronounced "WHIZZY-wig."

G. Edwin Lint, BS, ThB, MA, -- Editor

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