How to act during summer internship?

I responded to a PM with something I want say publicly:

My paper is too cheap to put Microsoft Office on newsroom computers, so I have some crappy free document software for old Macs. I don't have Quark or InDesign at my workstation, either. If I manage to open your Windows-made .doc or .docx file and it looks somewhat mangled, I have no idea if the problem is my crappy software or your lack of document formatting skills.

I'd prefer to see your work as you intended for me to see it. A PDF file guarantees that. Even my crappy computer can open a PDF file.

 

Agreed. Any computer from the past 10 years should be able to open a PDF, which is a pretty stable format. This isn't always the case with Word / Works and OpenOffice and other document types.

 

F*** .docx. That is all.

 

So basically the clips should look somewhat like the old-style way of cutting out stories from the paper and tastefully pasting them to poster board? (at least that was the impression I got of the way it used to be done)

It doesn't seem like it would show where it was on the page, which some people like. Is there any consensus on what formats look good?

 

Fair enough. I will never again give a newsroom the benefit of the doubt when it comes to basic computer functions or lack of cheapness. Call it a mistake of youth.

(Out of curiosity what do you use to read PDFs? Acrobat seems standard, but in my experience it has a hell of a time on older machines)

 

Headline size, photo use and the page it was on would indicate the play the story received in most cases. You should also be sure to include the page the story was on if it doesn't jump. Another suggestion I've seen work for some is to have a small (maybe 3 inches or so) image of the page the story ran alongside the text, with the story highlighted on the page. I'm not crazy about this way, personally.

In terms of PDFs, Adobe Reader (PC) and Preview (Mac) are free and generally the defaults. They're very low-tech software, which I mean in a good way. Both show PDFs very plainly with no options for editing (beyond cropping, at least in Preview).

 

I would tell you not to be discouraged by these things. Not to slam anyone here, but do you really want to go someplace that can't figure out how to open conventional file attachments? I guarantee you'll encounter obstacles every day at a place like that.

Seriously, there are this many problems with .doc files? I know places that will accept nothing other than those.

I'd say the problem is not with the prospective employees.

 

Then don't apply.

No one has asked you to apply. Most hiring editors have too many resumes to sort through as is.

But if you're looking for a job, I highly recommend you just do what's asked of you on the application.

 

I'm saying if the employer has that many problems, then yes, think hard about not applying. Because there will be other, similar issues.

Not being able to translate a .doc file to a Mac, which I assume is the problem, is a sign of a bush-league operation. I've seen it first-hand, and it was not pretty. Lots of screaming at readers.

 

Screaming at readers? Can you elaborate?

 

Sure. People would send in Word attachments, and then the editors would scream at those people because the computers could not open the attachments.

That would happen 4-5 times a week.

 

I think what you're failing to consider is that an editor might just not care enough to have to deal with printing out Word documents where one clip can take up three-four pages of paper.

That, and use .doc files doesn't present itself as neatly or cleanly.

It's all a matter of presenting yourself well. It's not a matter of whether the editor can open the file, it's a matter of what the file looks like when opened. A Word document doesn't look like a published article.