Book Review of “Effective Onscreen Editing” by Geoff Hart

Virginia Janzig

Geoff Hart’s book, Effective Onscreen Editing (Diaskeuasis Publishing, © 2007), is a readable and useful addition to the general literature on how to be a good editor.

His main points are that onscreen editing can be fast and effective and can reduce errors when edits are incorporated.

Three of the main topics of the book are what onscreen editing is, what its advantages are, and how to implement it for yourself and introduce it to your team. The focus of the book is how to edit onscreen using Word for either the PC or the Mac.

The book describes using the software tools, editing nonstandard files, editing with software other than Word, finding and using research sources, and safeguarding your work and health. Other topics include information on working with clients and additional detail about Word software.

The book has two primary audiences:

• Those who have never edited onscreen and need to know how and where to begin, how to be effective, and how to use the tools
• Those who are currently editing onscreen but want hints and tips on how to be more effective, both with tools and with clients

Most of the information on tools, basic editing techniques, Internet resources, security information, and health concerns is available but can only be found in separate sources. Geoff Hart’s contribution is to bring these topics together in one manageable book and to explain them from an editor’s point of view. He has done an excellent job of describing not only how to be an effective onscreen editor, but also why this methodology is advantageous to our profession. Those managers and editors who are new to this kind of editing can use this book as a set of guidelines to help them understand why and how to implement this technique. Those who already are familiar with onscreen editing can browse to find specific information on new tools, new ways to use familiar tools, how to work with nonstandard files, and much more.

The book has a strong emphasis from the point of view of an independent editor and provides a great deal of information on working with clients. Many of the issues are not relevant to editors in a corporate environment but can be easily passed over.

The chapters on tools, resources, and security provide clear procedures and workarounds. Geoff Hart covers all the tools in Word and how to use them effectively and efficiently. I knew many of them but was surprised and delighted to find some new ones. I also found several ways to improve my use of some of my current tools, such as search techniques, creating effective comments, and using style sheets and exclusion dictionaries. In most cases, I had to test several of the recommendations, which slowed down my reading, but proved that the time and effort were well worth it. For example, on page 215:

“Word offers a nifty shortcut that can quickly reveal whether a global search and replace operation would be safe. Type the search term in the “Find what” field. Then select the option “Highlight all items found in”, immediately below this field, and use the dropdown menu to specify where Word should search for that term (e.g., the main document, headers and footers, comments). Clicking the “Find All” button will highlight all matches in the text in a single step.”

The differences between the PC and the Mac are clear and helpful and are not disruptive. He also covered other software, which makes the book more valuable, especially if you are working with clients who have older or less conventional systems.

Overall, he had good discussions of various editing techniques and especially of Internet resources: how to find them, how to use them, and how to establish the credibility of the source. For example, on page 410:

“As a general rule, give precedence to sites with clear and rigorous editorial policies for controlling the quality of their data.”

In particular, I was pleased to find excellent suggestions for editing less common files, including databases and spreadsheets, as well as Web pages, ASCII, and RTF files. The information also covers editing different tagging languages such as SGML and SML. For example, on page 336:

“The key to opening our horizons wide is the following: most applications, in addition to saving files in their own proprietary format, can also save their files in a range of other formats.”

One of the most important chapters was on the need to save and back up work regularly, as well as make external copies. This chapter also included valuable information on confidentiality, for the client as well as for you.

I do have a few minor criticisms. Three chapters seemed out of place. Chapter 3 is about client relationships, not directly with onscreen editing. It’s important, but I would have made it an appendix. Chapter 13 is about Internet resources. Again, this material is important, but it is not directly part of the onscreen editing process. I would have put it either after the safeguard information or in the appendix portion. Chapter 15 concerns information on backups, upgrades, confidentiality. This information is important information, but it is placed between two chapters directly addressing onscreen editing. I would have made this the last chapter before the two chapters on how to get started with onscreen editing.

I struggled a little with the overuse of long sentences with semicolons. The sentences were all grammatically correct (although I object to the use of “then” as a conjunction). But I found that the long sentences were harder to read, and I frequently had to go back to reread the second clause to make sure that I understood the point.

But these criticisms do not take away from the value of the book. None of the information is extraneous. It is written to editors (and managers) by an experienced editor who has clearly drawn together all the pieces of the work environment that we face daily. He has explained how to make our work easier and more valuable, and has given us a lifeline in a field in which we all sometimes feel we are flailing alone and in the dark. Thank you, Geoff.