I did it. I finished the changes to my manuscript, and sent it to the editor for his final edit. Is it ever final? He sent it back with more suggestions. Sigh. This man is relentless. But I have him to thank for knowing the difference between a 0.5 inch tab and a 0.5 inch indent.
At first it was kind of like the Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle: you can't know with certainty both where it is and where it's going next. Heisenberg was referring to electrons in an orbital. My job merely involved lining up letters in text. How could it be so difficult?
But it was. Every time I tried to use the indent feature the entire manuscript shifted to the right. I groaned and kept on using the tab key. Looked exactly the same to me. What was my editor's problem?
It turns out that when an editor highlights the page to proof it the whole page becomes a blue rectangle when the tab key has been used. Whereas if the writer uses the indent feature, the blue highlight follows the indents and the page looks more like a jig-saw puzzle piece. Hence, the former brands you as a rookie writer. The latter says you've been around the block. At least once.
To change the entire 391 page manuscript I had to first highlight the whole enchilada, then do a search for any instance of a tab and replace it with nothing. Nothing? We are talking more scary than Fatal Attraction. The entire manuscript shifted to the far left. Now I went into Inspector in Pages and set all the first paragraph lines to be indented 0.5 inch. Voila! (Word has a similar function).
And now I can save my pinkie finger from tab-thritis. It's a beautiful thing.
1 comment:
Sally,
It's great to chance onto a blog where you learn something new! Here I am trying to edit my first book and realize I never even thought about the difference between a half-inch and the tab issue you describe here. The good thing is that your willingness to share this aggravation may save others. Thanks for helping me around the block!
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