On 12 Nov 2008, at 14:00, Carla wrote:
Thanks for the grammar lesson
It’s a pleasure. Not getting at you Carla. I’ve even seen things like
‘TV’s’ and ‘CD’s’ and ‘Photo’s’ on the BBC web site.
best wishes,
Paul Bradforth
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I understand Paul… I cut many corners building websites and writing emails and that one just passed me by. I did not realize I had written it that way.
Thanks
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On 12 Nov 2008, at 14:10, Carla wrote:
I understand Paul… I cut many corners building websites and writing
emails and that one just passed me by. I did not realize I had
written it that way.
All’s well then 
Again, I’m not getting at you Carla, when I say: a few years ago, if
something was to be published, either in print or on the web, it would
be checked from here to kingdom come, and there would be no
possibility of a mistake. These days, thanks to the Internet, we’re
all used to seeing it done wrong, because nobody cares any more, or
because someone has looked at what someone else has done and assumed
it was correct. We see TV’s, CD’s, photo’s and phrases like ‘as a pose
to’ instead of ‘as opposed to’.
TV aerial installers have stories about whole streets of houses which
all have their aerials pointing in the wrong direction because
installers have not bothered to check alignment with a signal strength
meter, they’ve just aligned their aerial with all the others, and the
FIRST one has been aligned wrongly. They think: ‘Well, these aerials
can’t ALL be wrong’ …
When I first started out on the Web, I used to bang on about this a
lot more than I do now. Often, when I banged on about it on lists,
people would reply with things like: ‘What does it matter, you still
knew what he meant didn’t you?’, which works, as long as you don’t
look forward twenty years or so. I don’t do it any more because it
seems to upset people, but still sometimes I can’t resist. Sad, eh?
Although I think it’s sadder that it seems to upset people …
everyone seems to agonise over pixel-perfect designs, worry about
getting their sites exactly to their liking, go to enormous lengths to
‘do it properly’, then go and put in a menu item called ‘Photo’s’. Pah!
best wishes,
Paul Bradforth
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Ha! Point well taken… by the way I was not upset… I am used to being corrected by now…
Best
Carla
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On Nov 12, 2008, at 10:01 AM, Paul Bradforth wrote:
When I first started out on the Web, I used to bang on about this a
lot more than I do now. Often, when I banged on about it on lists,
people would reply with things like: ‘What does it matter, you
still knew what he meant didn’t you?’, which works, as long as you
don’t look forward twenty years or so. I don’t do it any more
because it seems to upset people, but still sometimes I can’t
resist. Sad, eh?
Not at all. My family will attest to the amount of yelling I do at
the TV – “Typo! In a million-dollar ad buy!”
I came up in the advertising world under some serious old-school
creative directors, and was taught the gentle art of punctuation by
an amazing proofreader. I say taught, it was more like ablation, as
all of my bad habits were worn down by the Chinese water torture of
being handed corrections to the same piece over and over and …over.
Don’t give up the good fight. Do not go gently into that dark night
of “typewriter” quote marks and primes masquerading as apostrophes.
Give a copy of “The Mac is not a Typewriter” to anyone who works for
you. Hang your punctuation. Use real ellipses.
I could go on, but they’re leading me away for my medication now…
Walter
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TV aerial installers have stories about whole streets of houses which all have their aerials pointing in the wrong direction…
I heard of a whole country with their aerials pointing in the wrong direction until a week ago 
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On 12 Nov 2008, at 17:50, JimS wrote:
I heard of a whole country with their aerials pointing in the wrong
direction until a week ago
Good point. Although I’m not thinking of turning my aerial to point
their way anytime soon …
best wishes,
Paul Bradforth
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On 12 Nov 2008, at 15:28, Walter Lee Davis wrote:
Don’t give up the good fight. Do not go gently into that dark night
of “typewriter” quote marks and primes masquerading as apostrophes.
Give a copy of “The Mac is not a Typewriter” to anyone who works for
you. Hang your punctuation. Use real ellipses.
Blimey, that’s good to hear Walter And a Dylan Thomas paraphrase
to boot. When you say ‘use real ellipses’ do you mean Option-Semi
colon? I’ve heard that makes it easier for screen readers to understand?
best wishes,
Paul Bradforth
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Yes, Option-semicolon gives you a real ellipsis. Freeway will properly convert it to its numeric entity if necessary. And yes, I will continue to “rage against the dying of” hundreds of years of convention in making text that disappears, allowing the reader to absorb the meaning therefrom without much work.
Walter
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