PREFACE xi PREFACE When Steve Bayes approached me about taking over The Avid Handbook , I don't think I fully realized what a huge responsibility he had handed me. Now in its fifth edition, this book has been an essential tool and reference for thousands of editors around the world. Taking over a book from another author is always fraught with peril. Because I wasn't going to completely rewrite the book, the result is a merger of our two voices and styles. Fortunately, I discovered that Steve and I have very similar writing voices, so the merger went well. The world of editing has evolved in a number of ways since the publication of the last edition, most notably with the expectation that editors will be comfortable working in both standard and high definition, which wasn't really on the radar when the last edition came out. Fortunately, much of the existing information in the book was still relevant and I was able to focus my attention