Preparing the Midland Chemist
Overview
Introduction / The function of The Midland Chemistis to inform members and other subscribers of local meetings, seminars, elections, work of local committees, Councilor activities, and other items concerning chemists, the chemical profession, chemistry education, and the local Section. The publication can also act as a sounding board for member opinions about the ACS and scientific affairs.The Midland Chemist is a serial publication having both volume and number designations. One volume is published each calendar year, comprising twelve numbered issues.The Midland Chemist is published online on the Section website, (URL: Hardcopies are printed and mailed only to members who do not have e-mails. Members with e-mails are notified of publication by e-mail via the website.
In this section / Following is a list of topics in this section:
Topic / See Page
Layout Using the Midland Chemist Template / 2
Article Editing / 3
Final Preparation for Upload to Web / 4
Layout Using the Midland Chemist Template
Introduction / This section includes instructions for preparing The Midland Chemist using the Midland Chemist Template.Article layout / Below is a suggested process for placing articles in the template and formatting.
Step / Action
1 / Open the file Midland Chemist Template.docx.
2 / Fill in the month, year, volume, and number. (Ex: December, 2012, Vol. 49, No. 7).
3 / Select Heading 1.
4 / Copy the first article heading.
5 / Paste over Heading 1 using Paste Special|Unformatted Text. The text should assume the Heading 1 style.
6 / Select Author.
7 / Copy the first article author.
8 / Paste over Author using Paste Special|Unformatted Text. The text should assume the Heading 2 style.
9 / Select Article One text.
10 / Copy the first article text.
11 / Paste over Article One text using Paste Special|Unformatted Text. The text should assume the Normal style.
12 / Continue with remaining articles. Note: You can also simply paste all of the articles into the template, then apply the styles mentioned above.
Updating table of contents / Below is a suggested process for updating the table of contents. Items in the table of contents are linked to their respective articles.
Step / Action
1 / Right-click on top of the table of contents.
2 / Click Update Field.
Continued on next page
Article Editing
Introduction / This section includes tips for article editing and conventions currently used in the Chemist.Special note / The Midland Chemist is not a formal publication. Although it covers serious topics, it also covers human interest and lighter topics. The publication, however, does strive to be professional. A couple of tips:
- All articles should have potential interest for members, either professionally or as members of the Society.
- Minimize the use of exclamation points.
- Minimize the use of clip art unless the clip art is event logos from National.
Reference / A good reference for general writing is The Chicago Manual of Style.
Nonprinting characters / Show nonprinting characters by clicking on the button in your Standard toolbar. These marks make format problems more obvious.
Sentence structure / Keep sentences short and active. If you can’t say a sentence in one breath, it’s too long.
Paragraph structure / Keep paragraphs short. No need to indent paragraphs before layout.
Punctuation etc. / Below are tips on punctuation.
Punctuation / Comments
Quotes and apostrophes / “Curvy” quotes and apostrophes should be used instead of "straight" versions.
Serial comma / The MC has historically used the serial comma (comma after “and” in a series of three or more).
Punctuation placement with quotes / Punctuation should be placed within quotes. Ex: the “document,” which was
Em and en dashes / A hyphen (-) is used with compound modifiers and compound words.
An en dash (–) is used to mean “to”. Ex: April 5–6
An em dash (—) is used within a sentence to indicate a break in continuity, a defining element, and for other reasons. Do not overuse. Often commas or a semicolon are better. Ex: the document—although extremely long—was
Exclamation points / Minimize use of exclamation points
Underlining / Do not use underline for emphasis; use italics instead.
Final Preparation for Upload to Web
Introduction / Below are steps for finalizing the issue, creating the pdf, and uploading it to the web.Step / Action
1 / Complete a spelling and grammar check.
2 / Update the table of contents.
3 / Render to pdf, naming the file “yyyyMmmMC.pdf.” (Ex: 2012DecMC.pdf)
4 / Do a quick review of the pdf to ensure there are no problems.
5 / If you are satisfied, make a copy of the pdf and rename the copy “CurrentIssue.pdf”.
6 / Send both pdfs to the webmaster and to the person responsible for hardcopy mailing. In the e-mail, provide a list of article titles. This can be easily done by copying the table of contents and pasting it into the e-mail using Paste Special|Unformatted Text, then removing the page numbers.
January 11, 2013 / Page 1