What a day!

I had hoped to spend this morning doing some additional QC on the 400-pager that was due just after lunch, but it turns out that when my translation memory software "reassembled" the Word file for delivery, it apparently did not restore the position of over 3,000 small graphics that peppered 50,000-word the text.

Those graphics represented mathematical expressions ranging from the very simple to rather complex. And since they also included graphics of Latin characters (such as 'M' and 'Q'), I have to assume that whatever OCR software was used to create the original file was not configured to recognize multiple languages at the same time (something that FineReader handles quite well). In addition, the original file also used the graphics for superscripts.

What makes the source file really extraordinary (and makes me feel sorry for whoever put the file together), is that each graphic has been individually "tweaked" to sit several points below where it normally would were it allowed to simply sit on a line with the text around it. This was done to align the content of the graphic more or less with the surrounding text.

In any event, in the end, the only way to get the job done was to create a Word macro that dropped whatever was selected by 1.5 points (most of the graphics would require two iterations to property align the graphic, some three, a few only one, and about 200 of them (display equations) required 8 or so). Word's ability to assign a key chord to macro execution came in handy, too.

The code looks like this:

Sub Lowerby1dot5pt()
'
' Lowerby1dot5pt Macro
' Reposition the selection 1.5 points below its current
' position with respect to surrounding text
'
  With Selection.Font
    .Name = "Times New Roman"
    .Size = 12
    .Spacing = 0
    .Scaling = 100
    .Position = .Position - 1.5
    .StylisticSet = wdStylisticSetDefault
    .ContextualAlternates = 0
  End With
End Sub

Of course, creating a macro was me just "sharpening the saw" for the big push. I then basically went through the whole file and turned into an automaton that clicked on graphics and then chorded my keyboard as many times as was necessary to align the graphic. There were times, during the process, that I thought I'd not finish in time, and my mental response to myself was to say that I'd deliver what I had when the time came, whereupon I did my best to put it out of my mind. In the end, I managed to get through the file, but it took a lot out of me.

I'm not tremendously worried about the QC (he said, with fingers crossed) because I took particular care to make sure things were as right as possible before exporting the final candidate document.

I didn't do very much at all the rest of the day. I tried to take a nap, and I think I did drift off, briefly, but I was too wound up to really relax. I wanted to go out to eat to celebrate, but as I drove off in the car, I really didn't feel hungry, so I eventually got back home with a steak that I had picked up, which I plan to cook tomorrow, and did a little tai chi. I found it hard to let go of the events of the day, however. Better luck next time.

Cheers...