In general, the first thing to do is to contact me using email on this website. Tell me briefly what it is you want me to do and when you need it done by.

I will reply to you by email or telephone, as appropriate, and if we agree on a contract I will invite you to email your script to me as an attachment.

As I carry out my tasks I may contact you by email or telephone or text, particularly if the work involves editing. Consultations of this kind are part of my fee structure and may be charged for by time at my standard rate. (I don’t regard consultation as a licence to print money: and if you can help me to work more efficiently, then it is to your benefit.)

At the conclusion of my work, I will invoice you by email and provide you with my banking details. As soon as your invoice has been paid, I will return your script by email attachment.

Script format

I need digital files from a mainstream word processor. In summary, the plainest, non-proprietary format is best, especially if you intend to go on and post-process or send to a publisher.  Rich text format files are best for general use.

Please do not confuse word processing software with desktop publishing software .  WP feeds DTP (after the WP has produced the final copy) and not the other way around.

Commonly-used word processors like Microsoft Word do not produce standard, shareable files by default. Please read the following information and caveats regarding formats carefully.

Windows Word Processors:

I can work with [.doc] files produced by MS Word 97/2000/2003 and  [.docx] produced by MS Word 2007/2010/or later. All default Microsoft formats are proprietary, locked formats and don’t play nicely with other programmes and sometimes not even with each other: you may find sharing these files problematic if the recipient does not use the same word processing software.  But all is not lost…

The problem of proprietary file formats was addressed a long time ago and every modern word processor has a “save as” function which allows the use of [.rtf ] (rich text format) files. This is a format which is able to be read by at least one word processor programme on nearly every computer on the planet. If you are currently in an academic institution, you may find your IT department has already coralled you into using it. Blessings be upon them, for they have saved you and me much trouble. Seriously, rich text format is the most useful format to use for wordprocessor file sharing and I hope that you will consider using it all the time.

While I don’t usually expect to receive older file formats such as those produced by WordPerfect and MS Works running on Windows, I do have programs running on older computers which will allow me to read most of these files and convert them to a more modern format. See Document conversion and recovery for more information.

Linux

The most common Linux wordprocessors are OpenOffice or LibreOffice. They use a default [.odt] format which, while open sourced, isn’t readily shareable. My LibreOffice installation is set up to default to [.rtf] format, but if you want to retain the native format, it can be done. However, the same caveats apply as for MS Word’s native formats.

If you use VIM or Emacs or any of their cousins, then respect, Bro and Sis: you certainly have my attention. I expect a [.txt] file from you, but I won’t be working on it in one of your arcane text pushers. I’ll be using LibreOffice because the proofing tools are better. Fair warning.

There are other standard  WP programmes for Linux, like Abiword and even some innovative approaches to writing like Bibtex. They should all save as [.rtf] and that is what I need.

Apple Mac

… and here are the trail goes cold, Kimo Sabe. The ancient proprietry WP wars left a wasteland.

Somewhat modern Mac word processing programmes are not a problem, in that they will have a format that can be exchanged with other programmes: once again, [.rtf] files are the gold standard. In fact, rich text format was a Mac invention designed to avoid exactly the problem we are discussing and many early Mac WP programmes featured it.

If you have a computer still running something like AppleWorks or ClarisWorks, then before the machine dies you should open every file you have and save it as text or, once again, the lovely rich text format if it’s available. Otherwise, you stand to lose every piece of writing you have. (Well, that’s not quite true. Early versions of OpenOffice did have basic converters built in, but it was all  a bit hit-and-miss and is no longer supported.)

Macs running MS Word 2007 and above will default to [.docx] unless you tell Word to [save as] a more common format, like… wait for it… [.rtf].

If you use an iPod or iPad (or other generic tablets and phones) to write, the same file format caveats apply: the [save as] function is your friend.

A plea from the heart:

I’ve worked in several large places where lots of important information came in by email in odd digital forms and from many sources. In one institution, much of it arrived in what the office staff regarded as “funny files” which they could not open because the IT manager tried to lock their computers into a stripped-down, centrally maintained and outdated Word 2003 installation as a security measure. Part of what I did was to work off-network (and possibly sub rosa)  to translate these funny files/this information into Word 2003 format and then pass it back to the office staff. It turned out that I was the only one on site who could do this, which was just a little worrying given the importance of the timely delivery of some of it…

The point is that when you merrily send a file off into the ether  who-knows-to-whom, you have no way of knowing what will, or might have to, happen to it at the other end before someone is able to read it. A simple [save as .rtf] can avoid many unnecessary problems.