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The 46-inch nightmare

Discussion in 'Journalism topics only' started by ballcoach, Feb 13, 2008.

  1. shotglass

    shotglass Guest

    You know, after thinking about it, if your tech guy does Word macros for agate, there's no reason a macro can't be set up to convert golf agate to that format. It's pretty much a matter of search-and-replaces.

    At the least, they would be able to get you to this point:

    278 (10-under), $248,365
    Jack Nicklaus...................70-69-71-68
    278 (10-under), $248,365
    Arnold Palmer.........73-66-70-69
    278 (10-under), $248,365
    Lee Trevino............69-72-64-73

    And then, you might just need to go through and remove the extraneous score/money lines.
     
  2. FileNotFound

    FileNotFound Well-Known Member

    Hear, hear. Very well-put.
     
  3. fishwrapper

    fishwrapper Active Member

    It's a four-step, search/replace macro. Not too complicated, according to MacroMan here.
     
  4. fishwrapper

    fishwrapper Active Member

    I disagree. And, I'm probably going to take it here.
    In the days of pagination, macros, front-end formatting it's not the same job it was 20 years ago. The agate person no longer spends two hours of his/her night on the composing room floor. We expect our agate people to actively participate in other aspects of the desk operation. And, frankly, that's how they grow as an employee.
     
  5. shotglass

    shotglass Guest

    I'm not going to give it to you; you make a good point.

    I think, though, my point is that more time should be put into the presentation of the agate pages. And you know what pagination has brought? On agate pages, it will often bring stupid things like headlines at the bottom of columns if the agate editor doesn't treat it like a designed page.

    I'm not adverse to the agate man getting, say, another page to do, like a "Page 2" or something. But he should have time to have everything well-edited and placed prior to the late-night rush.
     
  6. wickedwritah

    wickedwritah Guest

    We're still on a 48-inch web, but we use 8 legs of 8p0.75 to make it work. And it does work. Thankfully, we have an awesome dude who has written scripts for pretty much every possible piece of agate that we get on a given night, including a utilitarian one that works on boilerplate stuff (transactions, TV sked, etc.).
     
  7. shotglass

    shotglass Guest

    Boy, 8-pica columns has to mean a LOT of abbreviation in tabbed material. How do you ever get a set of NHL standings to fit in there?
     
  8. wickedwritah

    wickedwritah Guest

    We run the expanded glance and run it over two columns. We get a full broadsheet page almost every night. Many nights, we can throw NBA and NHL agate on another page, along with the local pro team stories. Yeah, we're blessed with space (though I'm sure that will change soon).

    And Mr. Script Hero has made life much, much easier for us.
     
  9. Steak Snabler

    Steak Snabler Well-Known Member

    I thought this thread was going to be about Danny DeVito ...
     
  10. fishwrapper

    fishwrapper Active Member

    I agree -- for the most part.
    Although, the problems and obstacles are not greater than the days of USER KEYS and hand-coding.
     
  11. shotglass

    shotglass Guest

    I loved user-definable keys (UDKs) on agate. Hell, I'd have a personal key for Scottish Fourth Division soccer standings. :)
     
  12. fishwrapper

    fishwrapper Active Member

    UDKs and SDKs. Jesus, that was an old system. I don't even remember what it was called.

    I've shared this before. My first job was typing in obits and death notices. Then, in the evening, I would code and sling horse agate. Eventually, I could do any agate.
    Man, that was a long time ago.
     
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