[Mirrored from: http://www.gca.org/epsig/iso12083.htm]
Use of ISO 12083, the new international standard for electronic manuscript preparation and markup, speeds computerized text from author to publisher to typesetter without retyping and instantly transforms the document into a searchable database. New tutorials, publications, and a quarterly newsletter offered by the Electronic Publishing Special Interest Group bring advances in the electronic manuscript standard to users worldwide.
Authors, as they write, tag elements, structural components, and special characters using the keyboard symbols of the international standard for electronic manuscript preparation and markup. By using this universally-readable electronic language, the author's document can be produced and read on any computer. The Standard helps authors organize content, reduces proofreading time, and enables portions of the manuscript to be reused in articles or other publications.
Publishers save time and increase publishing options when they receive a document prepared with the international standard for electronic preparation and markup. On the simplest level, the document can be easily loaded into in-house computers for editorial review; then sent to the typesetter without rekeying, as all content components, special characters, and tabular material are already represented by embedded keyboard symbols. Because hundreds of content and structural items - author, conference names, table of contents, publication year - may be tagged, the document is also a searchable database, easily updated for a subsequent edition or transformed into other media, such as CD-ROM, online applications, or other print products.
Libraries offer the ideal setting to disseminate the new advances in the international standard for electronic manuscript preparation and markup. Patrons interested in electronic publishing, authors and technology developers creating user interface, word processing, SGML parsing, and publishing software using the Standard, will turn to libraries as a primary referencing source.