This month we are upgrading our site to be compliant with HTML5. For this reason, and others, we cannot continue to support as many versions of each web browser as in the past.

You should not, in general, experience problems with any modern, standards-compliant web browser. However, if you do run into any, please note that this site has been tested with and should render properly on the latest versions of the most popular browsers (source: w3schools browser statistics):

• Firefox
• Internet Explorer
• Chrome
• Safari
• Opera
• Camino

If you use some, but not all, older versions of the above browsers then you may experience viewing problems, in which case we apologise for any inconvenience.

We believe that building a modern web site, which will comply with emerging technologies and offer new features, serves our clients better in the long term than continuing to support browsers that are already obsolete or are likely become so during 2012.

We often provide regular clients with editing tips and tricks, and some clients have even incorporated these and other suggestions into their internal work processes.

As an example, try the following wildcard find and replace in Microsoft Word. It will find every hyphen between digits (e.g. as used in page ranges in reference lists) and replace them with proper en dashes.

Open a test document that you know contains hyphens between digits.

From Word's Edit menu select Replace. Tick the option titled Use Wildcards.

– In Find what, enter this: ([0-9])(-)([0-9])

– In Replace with, enter this: \1^=\3

– Now select Replace All.

Used appropriately, the above find and replace can save a great deal of time during editing.

We know a great number of such tips for Microsoft Word, many of which are part of a suite of custom-written macros and toolbars that we use for cleaning up authors' files or for on-screen editing.

If the above tip captures your interest, and you have a suitable project that would benefit from this kind of intervention, then please contact us.

We are looking for a production assistant. This is an entry-level post for a science graduate.

See our current vacancies page for more information about this particular job and how to apply. And see this page for general information about working for Prepress Projects.

We have started our migration to Mac OS X 10.7, also known as Lion.

Our first impressions are favourable. There's a lot to like, but no new features that we consider essential. On this occasion we are in no hurry to upgrade.

Apple has now released the 10.7.1 update and we may a little longer to be certain that we don't need to wait until 10.7.2. In any event, we should have about six staff on Lion by October.

We have decided to invest in Techtool Pro 6 for all workstations to help with on-going maintenance and fault diagnosis. We've been experimenting with Techtool for some time and have only good news to report.

Among other things, we discovered minor directory problems on two workstations, which Techtool fixed admirably, and more quickly than our previous method. And Techtool's volume and file optimisation features have been put to good use too.

You might want to check out Kate Rosengarten's blog, and not just because she recently asked me to provide a guest blog entry.

Kate offers a comprehensive range of professional services and her blog makes good reading too.

I am still mourning the loss of Borders Books in Glasgow, a year and a half after it closed. It was considered the ‘meeting place’ for many Glaswegians. (And I’m sure ‘Glasgow’ could be replaced with any city of your choice.) I’d always turn up early before meeting a friend so I could spend some time browsing the books and hearing new music downstairs at the listening posts. In fact, my friends would often have the same idea and we’d literally stumble upon each other inside rather than outside the store.

Borders actively encouraged browsing. It was possible to spend whole afternoons there. Some days, my friend and I would head straight for the self-help section, purely for indulgent fun. But it felt nicer than a library: there was an unstuffy atmosphere in which you could really relax and enjoy yourself. Borders had a passion for all types of media – books, magazines, CDs – and that passion could be felt throughout the store. Staff didn’t glare at you for leafing through books and magazines. (The magazine selection, including foreign ones, was one of the best things about the store.) It was one of the few places in the city centre that brought together people of all ages and all interests. It was also somewhere to go in the evening because of its opening late (the sort of café culture that we’ve never quite managed to grasp in Scottish city centres).

Amazon came on the scene in the UK around 13 years ago, completely changing book-buying habits (along with supermarkets and television book clubs). Bookshops have survived since, but only just – we now have only one (struggling) bookselling chain on the high street.

I’ll admit that, as a consumer, if I want a particular book I’ll buy it from Amazon because there I will find it at the lowest price. I don’t even need to shop around: I know I won’t find the same quality product cheaper anywhere else. But there’s something about browsing in a bookshop that will never be matched by sitting at a computer and instantly ordering a product. Browsing leads to spur-of-the-moment purchases, and to inspiration. But do these impulse buys lead to enough sales? Am I a hypocrite for desperately missing Borders when I click ‘buy’ on Amazon at least twice a month?

For years now, booksellers have not had it easy. And now the challenge they face is the e-book. Amazon and Waterstones reported recently that downloads are eclipsing printed book (hardback) sales. Are we losing the book as a physical product? Whether this is a good thing seems to be largely down to personal opinion, but what is very clear is that technology is changing how we consume culture: first, it was music, now it is books.

By no means do e-books feel like the final product, the way things will always be: technology is constantly evolving cultural products. It’s exciting to be part of that, but it’s nerve-racking too because we can’t predict the direction in which it is all heading. In our area of work (production) e-books are opening up many new opportunities, but in the world of bookselling there seems to be a sense of printed books versus e-books, and the opportunities for adaptation are not as obvious.

But a new era for Waterstone’s has begun. It has a new owner, and a new managing director, James Daunt. The Guardian recently published an interview with Daunt, but it didn’t actually hint towards how he would tackle the rescue of Waterstone’s. Whatever he does, it looks like embracing e-books is going to have to be part of his plan. We wish him luck.

Last week I embarked on a marketing trip to London, resting in Soho cafés when I could find the time. (One celebrity spotted: Jessica Hynes, née Stevenson.)

London has a rather different publishing scene from the quiet banks of the Tay here in Perth: only six hours away is what seems to be the centre of the world.

I felt a real sense of things happening in London first, then gradually infiltrating their way across the country. For example, I noticed how quickly technology is changing the daily commute; that digital media are very much to the fore in London. Londoners are no longer (rudely?) reading the newspaper that belongs to the stranger beside them on the Tube: they’re blatantly reading others’ iPads instead. Advertising in Tube stations is on huge electronic billboards, like a scene from a science fiction film. (To my amusement, I heard many Londoners curse when they had just missed a Tube train… even though, when I checked to see when the next train was coming, it was due in only two minutes. That’s two minutes of inconvenience to a Londoner.)

Location can impact on a business’s success, but of course it is dependent on the type of business. For the type of work we do, mostly facilitated by email and the internet, it doesn’t really matter where we are based. We have clients all over the UK, and further afield in Europe; in fact, we have only one client based in Perth itself.

Being in Perth doesn’t stop us from visiting clients: we are less than an hour from Edinburgh, the capital of Scotland, from where we can easily catch flights and trains. Meeting clients face to face, and cementing business relationships, is certainly one of the highlights of the job for me.

The publishing scene that I encountered in London was one of huge corporate offices and high security. But most of all, it was a publishing scene of opportunity. I returned to Perth inspired, my head brimming with thoughts and ideas – but how could I turn that into new business? As much as I hate to admit it, it seems I am becoming a marketer.

As it's Green Office Week, our sustainability committee, pictured below, has taken over this blog to tell the world how (and why) Prepress Projects is going green…

We’ve always considered ourselves to be a green company, but that really only meant that we recycled paper and cardboard and didn’t use disposable cups.

These days more and more of our clients are asking for formal proof of our environmental credentials, so we decided to form a sustainability committee to lead the company towards EMAS accreditation. As we have masochistic tendencies we decided that we were capable of gaining accreditation without the need for outside help; this meant a steep learning curve where we did a lot of floundering and reading. However, all this research into environmental management systems gave us a bit of a wake-up call: there was so much more that we as a company could be doing with very little effort.

Easy changes included enabling double-sided printing, changing the computer sleep settings, using rechargeable batteries and removing the water cooler. We found our staff to be receptive to these changes, further cementing our belief that most people would like to do something for the environment, but are prevented from doing so by general unawareness or impassiveness.

The sustainability committee meets regularly so it makes it quite easy for us to work towards EMAS accreditation as well as coming up with new and interesting environmental initiatives.

In March, the company took part in Climate Week, and in conjunction with the Forestry Commission submitted two teams for the Climate Week Challenge. Unfortunately, our innovative ideas on the future of car sharing failed to win but everyone enjoyed themselves, and we will be back next year. The Challenge was also a great opportunity for us to meet the Forestry Commission people (we’ve only been sharing a building with them for more than 5 years) and they have invited us to plant some trees with them later this year to offset our carbon footprint.

Our most popular innovation has to be our food co-operative. Each week a local farm, Gloagburn, makes a delivery run to the office. Gloagburn’s farm shop is very well stocked and supplies many groceries such as eggs, potatoes, oatcakes and millionaire’s shortbread. The eggs are particularly popular, probably because they are free range and high quality but less expensive than the supermarket equivalent.

It’s fair to say that at first our motives were probably more selfish than altruistic, but now we’re converts and are trying to make everyone see that being green can be fun and doesn’t have to be expensive or time-consuming.

Last week I attended a very useful training seminar on employment law held by Creideasach Employment Law Specialists in Alloa. Lucy, our Publishing Manager, has been working hard to ensure that all our policies are informed and up to date, but as she was on holiday I attended in her place.

Realising that employment law can be described as nothing other than a minefield, it made me very glad not to be a lawyer. And, having almost completed a Professional Certificate in Management with the Open University, with a module on finance, I am even more relieved not to be an accountant.

Neither career ever took my fancy. If I wanted to be something, it was probably either a weather girl or a journalist. It was only towards the end of university life, graduating with a degree in history, when I realised publishing could be a possible career: and that wasn’t what I had planned when I entered university to study biochemistry.

Publishing is a tough industry to break into and, unless you are Stephenie Meyer’s commissioning editor, chances are you’re not making that much money. So why do so many people want to work in publishing?

It has a bit of a reputation as a glamorous, exciting industry, thanks to tales from Canongate parties and books like Marian Keyes’ The Other Side of the Story. I can vouch that, even though I work in publishing, my life is definitely not that fancy. Today’s dilemma is whether I should brave going to the sinister-looking local pub for a drink at lunchtime or just stay safe in the office as usual.

So I began to wonder: how many people in publishing always wanted to work in the industry, and how many feel that it was never deliberate or planned out, that publishing simply found them?

I asked around the office. Out of 18 people here, there are at the most five of us who specifically wanted to work in publishing. The majority never aimed to be editors or typesetters. Some of the preferred career choices include egyptologist, fighter pilot and West End actress. Some of the abandoned career choices include navy officer and banker.

It’s funny how things work out. I can’t sum it up better than John Lennon: ‘Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.’

Earlier this week I had the pleasure of attending Uncaged Monkeys in Glasgow, a night of science entertainment featuring, among others, physicist du jour Professor Brian Cox, libel victor Simon Singh and Dr Ben Goldacre, whose book Bad Science has been flitting between staff in our office for a couple of years now. Compering was Robin Ince, a comedian who is unashamedly interested in and enthused by science even if he doesn’t necessarily understand it.

That evening science was exciting, inspiring and witty. The star of the night was undoubtedly Professor Cox, a brilliant ambassador for science because his infectious enthusiasm can kindle even the dullest topic.

Robin Ince and Brian Cox explained how they were inspired by Carl Sagan, the American scientist best known for his television series Cosmos in 1980. In turn, their enthusiasm visibly inspired individuals in the audience. It seemed like we were involved in a string of inspiration, which is a nice allegory for science itself: a chain of knowledge passed down through generations and built upon by future scientists.

Science communication is becoming big business. It’s now a discipline in itself, with dedicated journals. Science is no longer inaccessible and confined to professors in ivory towers, and, thanks to nights like Uncaged Monkeys, it’s even hilarious.

At Prepress Projects we don’t play as big a role in science communication as Professor Cox, but we still take pride in what we do for the public understanding of science. We ensure that the science in the papers and books we edit and proofread is communicated as well as possible. Great scientists could have amazing experimental results, but without being written clearly and concisely those ideas will struggle to reach the wider scientific community and earn the praise they deserve.

At Uncaged Monkeys it quickly became obvious what makes an inspirational communicator: knowledge, passion and enthusiasm. We hope that when we edit scientific material we also exhibit these attributes and contribute in our own small way to communicating the author’s message.

Traffic wardens are often considered as having one of the most unpopular occupations in society. So where do editors rank in popularity?

Say a friend announces on Facebook that he has just seen you’re photos from last night: do you bite your tongue or do you feel compelled to politely correct him?

Generally, I forgive most mistakes. However, it is hard to look so lightly on professionally published material with errors. I cringe to read less people in a government press release. Recently, too, Prepress Projects asked the BBC why it has simply stopped using the degree sign, as in 22°C, when reporting temperatures on its news websites (e.g. 22C). We never did receive a response.

Unfortunately, editors have occupations that infiltrate into their daily lives. I find I am biting my tongue an awful lot more these days so I don’t end up being the annoying friend. But, as editors, are we not advocates for the quality of the English language? Is it not part of our role to maintain this quality, even if that means bringing our work home with us?

An implication of the self-publishing phenomenon, in which authors bypass publishers and so there is less quality control, could be a fall in standards of written English. This is just one example of how technological innovation is quickly changing the world – but I will argue that there is still a place for us editors, and there will be for quite a while yet. Even if that means occasionally annoying our friends.

Yesterday we found ourselves with the office broadband connection 'down'. Following some investigation by our Publishing Technologist, it was found to be an equipment-related failure on the part of our internet service provider. By the time the engineer had sorted us out with new equipment, we had been offline for just over four hours.

Was this a minor hindrance or a major disaster? Did our work patterns change dramatically in those four hours? Did we sit and twiddle our thumbs?
At Prepress Projects we have the advantage of being able to work 'offline', mostly copy-editing and proofreading, two of our principal specialisms. But what about those menacing queries? It's become a natural reaction among many of us to simply 'Google' a query. 'Use a dictionary!', we hear you say – and true enough, many of us found ourselves dipping into the office's extensive collection of English-language reference material. But if, for example, you are trying to expand an unfamiliar organisation's acronym, this can be resolved within a minute going online... but it's a little harder to figure out without Google's help.

As an aside, this raises yet another question... have we become too reliant on online resources such as Google and Wikipedia?

So, at first glance, being offline wasn't too much of a problem for us. In fact, some of us even relished the opportunity to get on with some 'hands-on' work without the interruption of emails and the distractions of Twitter.

But the truth is that the internet is critical to our business. For every 500 or so emails we receive each day, we receive perhaps 10 phone calls at the most. Ten years ago, there were many more phone calls. But 20 years ago? Over the past 15 years, the internet has moved from being a dial-up luxury to a tool critical to running a successful business. (What technology will be next to move from 'luxury' to 'critical'? How will we know?)

So much of our business is no longer dependent on location. The internet and email means that it wouldn't matter if we were based in Perth, Australia, rather than Perth, Scotland (of course, we'd prefer the weather in the former). That's how we've found ourselves working for clients all over the UK and Europe. Every day we deal with authors, editors and suppliers in countries as far afield as Jamaica and Japan. And being online is crucial not just for keeping in touch with contacts: many journal management systems that we use all day, every day, are internet based. The internet is critical for our marketing, too.

Over four hours, perhaps the connection failure wasn't too critical. But if our time offline were stretched and stretched, it could have been disastrous. Is it too much to say that every hour offline was an opportunity lost?

If you were forced offline for a week, how would you, or your business, survive?

The next version of the Mac operating system, Lion, will be released this summer. Needless to say, we plan to upgrade shortly afterwards.
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Thank you to all clients, suppliers, former employees and business acquaintances who got in touch to congratulate us on our 20th anniversary.

We have been reading your kind letters and emails and watching the video clips that you sent all weekend.

There are embarrassingly too many of you to get back to personally quickly, but we will try to do so in the weeks ahead. Thank you again: it certainly doesn't feel like we've been doing this for 20 years!

We have been recently been reawarded Investor in People status as from 1 January 2011.

This is the second time that we have been reassessed and passed a review by an independent assessor.

Naturally we're all very pleased about this. We would not have gained this without active participation from all members of staff.

Particular thanks are due to our Publishing Manager, Lucy Harrier, who co-ordinated all internal activities and external arrangements with the Investors in People organisation in Scotland.