Published: March 23, 1996
Last Updated: March 23, 1997
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Pagination generates fear, loathing, enthusiasm and even love. Whether copy editors see it as a black hole or a glowing opportunity, without question it is changing their working lives.

"The single biggest problem facing copy editors in community newspapers today is pagination, because of what it does to time," said Doug Toney, editor and publisher, New Braunfels (Texas) Herald-Zeitung.

Many say the transition is the hard part.

"You're gonna love it, but first you're gonna hate it," said Tony Brown, a copy editor at the Charleston (S.C.) Post and Courier. "In the end, you'll never want to go back."

Participants offered the following advice for surviving a transition to pagination and thriving with it:

• Introduce pagination everywhere at once, to get through the transition quickly.

• Introduce pagination gradually, using experienced staff members to train new users.

• Involve copy editors in the design of formats: They use them.

• Audit editorial space. Many pages don't need great design.

• Design several templates for pages. Give editors choices without asking them to build every page from scratch.

• Provide adequate training, especially later. Don't leave new staff unsupported.

• Grow an internal expert in the computer systems, or hire one from outside.

• Build personal libraries on each PC as well as on the server.

• Develop a custom training program. Write a pagination manual that deals only with necessary functions.

• Beef up line editing and back up deadlines at originating desks.

• Hire part-time proofreaders during the transition.

• Avoid the "editing ghetto." Some of the best word people may learn pagination quickly; make sure their skills aren't consumed by page design.