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Topic: a couple of dopey questions, if you please
| Author | Message |
| clydeplatypus | Posted – 8/18/2008 3:35:17 PM | show profile | email poster Hi Sometimes the simplest questions are less obviously answered than are slightly more difficult questions. With that in mind here are a couple of simple ones, thanks in advance for your help: 1. Is there any value to learning InDesign to work on Web sites? What are most Web sites done in? I've heard of "content management systems" but - is there one or two that everyone uses (along the lines of Quark XPress vs. InDesign for print)? Are they similar enough to each other that I can learn one and get by on using another? 2. Who actually edits books? I see lots of job descriptions - but it seems that somewhere between acquisition (Acquisitions Editor) and Copy Editing (copy Editor) that there would be some "editing" going on. But I never see in a job description for book publishers "Edits the manuscript". Also it seems to me that someone who was good at knowing which books to publish / acquire might not be the greatest at "polishing" them - are acquisitions editors supposed to have both types of skills? Thanks again, Clyde |
| stephanerd | Posted – 8/20/2008 4:55:52 PM | show profile | email poster 1. As I don't build websites, but rather use blogging platforms for the type of work I do, I don't have much of an answer for this one, though I believe Quark and InDesign are mostly used for print purposes. Those building websites often work in programs such as Dreamweaver, I believe. But I'm just guessing here. 2. Not all publishers are large enough to be able to distinguish between the editors who acquire, and the editors who polish, but larger publishers hire what are known as developmental editors, who go through the manuscript drafts and mark them up, write in suggestions, etc. When a final draft has finally been reached, the manuscript is usually then sent off to the production department, where outside proofreaders and copy editors are hired to do additional editing. ------ www.freelancedom.com |
| noname1234 | Posted – 8/20/2008 6:13:55 PM | show profile 1. Regarding website content management systems, while there are a few systems that are commonly used (Vingette and Drupal, to name a couple), they are almost always quite customized to fit the needs of the particular company, esp. if it's a big company. In fact, many big companies build their own content-management systems from scratch. There's really no way to learn these systems the same way you would learn software like InDesign; you need to learn them "in action," on a functioning website. And yes, if you've worked with one CMS, it's easy to transfer the skills to any other. (Good) CMS's are made to be very user-friendly (like updating your Facebook page), so they're not hard too hard to pick up (or shouldn't be). |
| WordyBird | Posted – 8/20/2008 8:31:48 PM | show profile "And yes, if you've worked with one CMS, it's easy to transfer the skills to any other. (Good) CMS's are made to be very user-friendly (like updating your Facebook page), so they're not hard too hard to pick up (or shouldn't be)." Noname is right. And once you've worked with a good one, it's easy to spot the horrible ones. (Said the person with the headache from working with a real doozy today.) |
| Lula | Posted – 8/21/2008 3:53:56 AM | show profile If you're a writer looking to work online, learning a CMS is an important skill to have - and blogging platforms are just user-friendly CMSs (CMSs'? CMSes?). As mentioned, once you get the gist of how they typically work, it's fairly easy to transition from one to another. If you'd like to be able to design websites as well as write for them, you should start by ignoring the software and learning: 1. HTML 2. CSS (In that order.) Once you understand how the coding languages work, you can easily move to a WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) program, such as Dreamweaver, to speed things up. But learning those languages is key - web design is tough, as there are a million things that go wrong and you're essentially problem-solving through trial and error on everything. |
