Trick to Avoid Last-Minute Catastrophes

788 Views 10 Replies 7 Participants Last post by geronl, Jun 13, 2015

TromboneAl

Discussion Starter · Jun 6, 2015

Consider this situation:

My book is ready to upload and publish, but in a last proofreading run, I find one typo, and correct it.

I worry that in making that one fix, I might have introduced a problem elsewhere in the book. For example:

Cat walks on keyboard while I'm taking a break
I forget a step when doing my compile
Software glitch in editing software deletes a chapter

I realize this worry comes, in part, from my years as a programmer, where any small change could introduce an important bug.

I woke at 3 a.m. with the solution:

1. Every time I create a version of the book, I save a copy as an RTF file.
2. When I make a small change, I compare the new RTF with the old RTF using a utility such as WinDiff.

That way I can be confident that I didn't make any unintended changes.

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TromboneAl

Discussion Starter · #2 · Jun 12, 2015

UPDATE: I've downloaded a great app called Diffdoc, which is better at comparing RTF or DOC files. It's much easier to see exactly what's changed.

http://www.softinterface.com/MD%5CDocument-Comparison-Software.htm

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Maria Romana

· #3 · Jun 12, 2015

I've been a programmer, too, and I share your fears. A few months ago, I made one of those teeny, tiny changes, and got a notification from Amazon the next day that the book had been taken off sale, because....I uploaded the entirely wrong file when I went to apply the change! So, yeah, it can happen, and unfortunately, in that situation, even a compare program wouldn't have helped, but that is a good idea for every other goof.

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TromboneAl

Discussion Starter · #4 · Jun 12, 2015

A P.S. concerning DiffDoc. I thought it was free, but what I'd downloaded was a demo only. The real version costs $400. I'll look for a different utility.

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TromboneAl

Discussion Starter · #5 · Jun 12, 2015

Maria Romana said:
I've been a programmer, too, and I share your fears. A few months ago, I made one of those teeny, tiny changes, and got a notification from Amazon the next day that the book had been taken off sale, because....I uploaded the entirely wrong file when I went to apply the change! So, yeah, it can happen, and unfortunately, in that situation, even a compare program wouldn't have helped, but that is a good idea for every other goof.

Like they say, "To err is human. To really screw up, you need a computer."

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Ronn Munsterman

· #6 · Jun 12, 2015

This is a great tip.

If you are using Word, it has a built in compare feature.

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Alan Petersen

· #7 · Jun 12, 2015

Scrivener ($45) has a snapshot feature which allows you to compare documents. You could import the copy RTF into Scrivener take a snapshot and make your edits. Pretty nifty.