Preparing Copy
This is the first of a three-part series called Help Your Designer, Help Yourself. This segment is about preparing your copy for your designer. Following all or most of these steps will allow your designer to lay out copy in the most efficient way possible and may keep you from incurring additional charges. You’ll help yourself and your designer.
- Use styles in Word or place a consistently used code (for which the designer will later search and remove throughout) to denote headings, sidebars, block quotes, etc., such as <h1> for first-level (largest) headings, <h2> for second-level headings, <block> for block quotes, etc. You may also denote the end of a block quote or sidebar if that element’s length exceeds a paragraph.
- Remove double spaces.
- Use only a single tab when aligning text.
- Do not use multiple paragraph marks.
- Use center alignment, not tabs, to center text.
- Do not use the return key unless you intend to start a new paragraph. Typing on the computer is not like typing on a typewriter: a line break should not be placed at the end of every line of text—only at the end of every paragraph.
When writing your copy…