what is it?
When something is called automatic, we think it is easy. Nothing needs to be done – it just happens. Well that is what Automatic Publishing seems to be. Something just appears when the button is pushed.
However, Publishing is neither easy nor automatic in itself. On the contrary, the work before the publishing process is extensive on the part of two entities to make it appear so easy.
- The computer program has to be structured and prepared to accept the text.
- The producers of the text must prepare it to certain standards relative to what the computer program requires.
This was more important in previous decades at the beginning of the publishing revolution, when the computer took over the tedious jobs of typesetting, but now there has been a surge in the power of computers and their programs. There is a great deal of “native intelligence” in modern publishing programs.
Normally, the writers of articles are given either a particular word processing program with particular templates and guidelines for use, or they produce particular pre-arranged codes within the text. In both ways of producing text for this process, the publishing program takes the text and runs various algorithms to produce text acceptable for the final output. The final output is what appears so “easy” – it just appears in its final form.
Automatic publishing output runs the gamut from printed paper to different types of electronic files now freely and easily available.