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Before the text is perfect, i.e. a bit of copywriting theory

Most text documents prepared on home or office computers are created only in simple text editors, Microsoft Word, or Open Office Writer.

This is problematic because such programs do not have the functions necessary for correct composition and breaking. Even good and free programs would do a hundred times better in this role, but office suites reign supreme anyway. Therefore, it is worth knowing what to do to make the text "withstand" multiple openings in various editors with different basic formats and that it always looks impeccable.

First - the format

This is the only thing you should consider before starting work. Theoretically, it can be assumed that the final format for non-editable documents will be PDF - because it is common, relatively light, and easy to convert almost any file to it. However, PDF is generally not suitable for continuous editing or preliminary work. Here you can choose from several variants, incl. DOC, DOCX, ODT, RTF. DOC and RTF are quite old formats that are used almost exclusively when the experience of document creators suggests that it is a good choice - you need to have some experience here because the possibility of DOC from the current DOCX is radically different RTF is definitely poorer.

ODT is a format used by open-source software but increasingly supported by Microsoft editors. DOCX, Word's native saving format, can also be opened in Open / Libre Office. Both of these formats are equally good as long as you are consistent. In companies and organizations based on Open / Libre Office, it makes no sense to focus on DOCX, and where Word has priority, ODT will not work.

With the most basic documents, all 4 formats allow for more or less equal work comfort. The problem is to create complex documents: with references, footnotes, bibliography created in an external program (e.g., Zotero or Bibus), tables, and charts. These elements are placed in a slightly different way and not always - despite theoretical compatibility - will be transferable between editors. The same applies to styles and page numbering, which are much worse supported by Microsoft's software than OO.

Ultimately, however, the choice of format is an internal matter. Everyone is good as long as it is justified by the software used and the type of frequently performed operations, but it is important to think about it before starting work.

Second - basic mistakes

One of the simplest and most effective tips on the organization of work and time says that it is worth preparing a terrible sketch because it can be corrected, and the blank page is not subject to editing. Ultimately, however, the idea is to refine this preliminary draft more and more. After the "manual" development phase, that is, after giving all thoughts in the form of unambiguous sentences, you should focus on eliminating basic errors. In this group, it is worth mentioning a few specific types, so:

  1. typos, especially the malicious ones like "her / my," "also / too," and others that turn words into words present in the dictionary. Neither the basic Word dictionary nor the Open / Libre Office can handle them. There are two options - either use auto-correction, which is a bit risky (more on that in a moment) or use another program. Such is, for example, LanguageTool, either in an integrated or stand-alone version or even online in the case of individual sentences. Even then, it is not possible to eliminate all errors, but from the very start, various language errors will be indicated (in total, the current LT version supports several hundred for the Polish language), including many typos-traps;
  2. industry-specific words are the second problem that is hard to fix. When it comes to internal documents, there is nothing wrong with using them, but if the document is to go beyond the organization, industry words and abbreviations such as CPC, B2B, targeting, parsing, etc., add to the difficulty of the documents unnecessarily. The created content should be easy to assimilate and understandable (unless the document is to become a draft act or ZUS communication, then this rule ceases to apply for some reason);
  3. stylistic monotony, even though it is stigmatized in primary school, is a common mistake. It consists in repeating the same words in subsequent sentences or even in the same utterance. This is a specific mistake because it does not diminish the substantive value of the text but significantly hinders its reception. Currently, the "monotony fashion" results primarily from poorly understood website positioning guidelines, as well as a few less significant errors. To eliminate this kind of error, it is worth using the thesaurus tool available in the context menu of any good text editor.

ODT jest formatem używanym przez oprogramowanie o otwartym kodzie, ale coraz lepiej wspieranym przez edytory Microsoftu. DOCX z kolei, natywny format zapisu Worda, może być otwierany również w Open/Libre Office. Oba te formaty są równie dobre, pod warunkiem zachowania konsekwencji. W firmach i organizacjach bazujących na Open/Libre Office nie ma sensu stawiać na DOCX, a tam, gdzie palmę pierwszeństwa dzierży Word, ODT się nie sprawdzi.

With the most basic documents, all 4 formats allow for more or less equal work comfort. The problem is to create complex documents: with references, footnotes, bibliography created in an external program (e.g., Zotero or Bibus), tables, and charts. These elements are placed in a slightly different way and not always - despite theoretical compatibility - will be transferable between editors. The same applies to styles and page numbering, which are much worse supported by Microsoft's software than OO.

Ultimately, however, the choice of format is an internal matter. Everyone is good as long as it is justified by the software used and the type of frequently performed operations, but it is important to think about it before starting work.

Co zrobić z autokorektą?

AutoCorrect is a powerful but often neglected tool. It allows you to "silently" correct common mistakes and avoids some typos. Most of the people working at the computer make specific errors that can be eliminated in this way. The following is an example of an autocorrect list that can help you eliminate several types of errors:

  1. which→ : obvious mistake, typo;
  2. too→ also: both words appear in the dictionary, but most people hardly use the word "too", so you may risk adding it to the autocorrect;
  3. apropos → by the way: if the expression contains letters that do not appear in the Polish alphabet, then they should be used, and the auto-correction excludes the need to manually insert the symbol.

Editing

There are some editorial and editorial habits, the non-fulfillment of which is not a linguistic error, but the inclusion of which proves the author's high personal culture. This is the case, for example, when removing single-letter conjunctions from the end of lines of justified text. Here you have to use the "Find and Replace" option on regular expressions, which is not particularly difficult but requires the right sources to be consulted.

Much more significant errors remain in the documents, e.g., an incomplete or incorrectly inserted table of contents. Instead of using the editor's tools, many people write tables of contents by hand, which is inconvenient and unsightly. Likewise, chaos often creeps into footnotes or comments. If they are to remain in the document, each of the editors should put in order - remove comments left for themselves and write the rest in a language that others can understand.

Finally, it is also worth protecting the title page, if there is one in the document, reviewing the structure of the paragraphs (preferably by tracking bastards and widows), possible hyphenation rules, and to be sure, it is also worth opening the file after changing the format to be sure that even the smallest details remain unchanged from the original version.

Summary

The creation of the text does not end. It cannot end at the sketch stage. Regardless of the document's purpose, it is always necessary to ensure the proper presentation of all information, at least to a basic degree. This sometimes means the necessity to make changes and edits quite deeply interfering with the structure of the document, so it is safe to work on a copy, not the original text - it will be painful to lose a file, but at least a previous version will be available.

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