Sep 16, 2021EDITINGThe Case of the Sticky FigureIt seemed simple enough. The style called for figure captions to be placed above figures (in fact, they were even called figure titles),...
Sep 3, 2021Thoughts on Meeting the Devil: Health Care Jargon, the Art of Note TakingThe title piece of this fine collection is by Hilary Mantel, and it begins thus: "Three or four nights after surgery — when, in the words...
Aug 24, 2021LANGUAGENo Carelessness Until There Is a CureThis is a terribly worded public health message that seems to be spreading like a virus: it is now appended to routine SMSs from public...
Aug 5, 2021LANGUAGEA Period Never Follows an Exclamation Mark: An Exception to the RuleDouble punctuation is ugly, but unavoidable sometimes. For example, it appears in dialogue: He said, "I try to avoid double punctuation."...
Jul 26, 2021TOOLSThe Case of the Jumping CursorI edit PDF documents using Acrobat Reader DC, a free tool. It generally works flawlessly, but which complex piece of software is bug...
Jul 4, 2021MICROSOFT WORDThe Case of the Jumping TableThe deadline was near, and I had to copy a table the author had sent into the main document. A routine task—except that the table would...
Jun 19, 2021TOOLSAgent Ransack for Multi-Folder Search: A TutorialThe books I edit arrive as separate Word files, one for each chapter. I cannot recall ever receiving a book as a single file. For one...
Jun 8, 2021LANGUAGEIndian and British English: A Handbook of Usage and PronunciationIn a previous post (on researcher name coincidences), I mentioned Indian and British English: A Handbook of Usage and Pronunciation by...
May 25, 2021MICROSOFT WORDWord Count for a Selection in Microsoft WordMicrosoft Word bristles with useful keyboard shortcuts. Many are well known, but some obscure shortcuts deserve to be rescued from...