RE: Reviewing pdfs?

["Martinek, Carla" <CMartinek -at- zebra -dot- com>]

Chiming in as an editor, I do all my reviews in PDF format, using Acro 7.  I highly recommend online editing, and I will not willingly go back to editing on paper copies. :-)

I've found that editing online speeds up the review process immensely.  I can do a global search for errors such as incorrectly formatted product names, etc. -- types of things I could never do in hard copy.  

I have the full version of Acro7. Although I haven't used the Reader commenting, I know what tools are available, and I could easily adjust my commenting style to the tool set available.

Adjustments are necessary in electronic editing, since you don't have the same reviewers marks available that you do when editing on hard copy.  I tend to use the pencil tool, rectangle, arrow tool, and highlighter for most of my edits.  Since I'm the only one editing, I can do it however I want, but if you're doing peer edits, you might want to set some standards that apply to everyone.  (For x type of comment, use the highlighter tool.  For y type of comment, use the arrow tool, etc.)

I also can provide better comments in the files because I have unlimited space to write inside of electronic notes.  I can ask a question, refer them to another guide, or even provide a complete rewrite of a step or steps.

As an example of how quickly I can process documents, below is an example of my day on Wednesday.  We had four documents that we were trying to get released, and they all needed last-minute high-level reviews (high speed review, checking incorporated edits, page layouts, numbering, etc.)

Guide 1 - 150 pages - two passes.

Guide 2 - 150 pages - two passes.

Guide 3 - 350 pages - four passes.

Guide 4 - 150 pages - two passes.

Total review - in one day - was about 2300 pages.  I could never have done this on paper copies in the same amount of time.  (Let alone the waste of paper!)

Obviously, when I'm reading for content, it takes much, much longer.  The 350 page guide takes about 3-5 days for one thorough editing pass.

Oh -- one problem.  I go back to Acro 6 to do my summary of comments file when I'm done.  For some reason, in Acro 7, it puts EVERY page in the summary file, even if it doesn't have any edits.  In Acro 6, it gives you ONLY the pages with comments.  I'm waiting for Adobe to "unfix" this feature...

-Carla
************************* 
Carla Martinek, Translation Coordinator/Editor 
Zebra Technologies Corporation 
333 Corporate Woods Parkway, Vernon Hills, IL 60061 
tel: 847.793.5616   fax: 847.821.1795 
cmartinek -at- zebra -dot- com
 
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