gosh i love a merry-go-round...         :+(

***

here's a few notes, repeated too many times already,
but whatchagonnado?

if this doesn't make sense to you, that's probably
because it wasn't intended for you, so pay no mind.

***

any heavy bracket markup like [i]italics[/i] is obtrusive,
and that's why proofers complain about it, justifiably...

use light markup, like _italics_, and they won't complain.

better yet, have them do the proofing with an .html field
-- using a text-area field only when editing is required --
and you can use _real_ italics (and highlight it with color).
you can also use _color_ to flag your questionable words,
which makes the flagging a whole lot harder to "miss"...

***

spacey double-quotes are _easy_ to solve if you pay heed
to the _paragraphs_.  ergo... pay heed to the paragraphs!

yes, paragraphs cross page-boundaries...  but so what?

you start with the first file, and keep track of paragraphs
while you proceed to the second, and the third, and so on.

there's a ton of redundancy in the quotes -- open, close,
open, close, open, close.  make use of that redundancy...

it's not rocket-science; it's not even difficult programming.

get over the mind-blockage you have on this topic.

***

and once you _do_ get over that mind-blockage, you just
might see that books that use _single-quotes_ for dialog
aren't really all that different.  "but", you are sputtering,
"yes they are, because contractions cause big difficulties!"

poppycock.

here's a file with a list of contractions (among other stuff):
>   http://z-m-l.com/customdictionary.txt

that file's been up since june of 2007.

use that list intelligently to control those contractions...

possessives also use the single-quote, but they're easy
to deal with as well; just do a little thinking about them.

don't give up so easily.  _try._

you'll find it's not as hard as you thought.

and if you actually honestly _try_, and hit a wall anyway,
show me your actual honest efforts, and i will help you...

***

"probable markup on this page"?

are you purposely trying to be vague?

how about listing the italicized words, _specifically_?

geez!

-bowerbird