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RE: Has anyone reviewed or edited using PDF marked up by Acrobat tools?
Subject:RE: Has anyone reviewed or edited using PDF marked up by Acrobat tools? From:"HALL Bill" <bill -dot- hall -at- tenix -dot- com> To:"TECHWR-L" <techwr-l -at- lists -dot- raycomm -dot- com> Date:Thu, 3 Jul 2003 16:44:57 +1000 (EST)
Jean,
Chris Despopoulos has given some good advice on how to use Acrobat
markup effectively . My major personal use of Acrobat editing tools has
been to markup page proofs, or as a peer reviewer, where the publisher
only sends out the PDF file for review or editing.
In that environment the process works quite well and is greatly
preferable to hand markup on paper and sending the paper copy back to
the publisher. The only downside is that you have to own Acrobat - which
isn't exactly cheap (I'm too cheap to install it on my computer at
home!)
We are also considering using this methodology internally for the review
and signoff of documents. By sending out only PDF files we maintain
strict version and configuration control over the master file, but give
reviewers the capability to annotate electronically. The system also
allows authors to annotate documents with contextual and link
information we do not wish to publish. However, the licensing cost to
give all our potential reviewers access to the Acrobat tools is a
distinct disincentive. (My preferred approach is to do this kind of
annotation in an SGML/XML content management environment - but we also
have a long way to go to implement this across the whole company.)
Also check out Weborganic Systems' Pageseeder
(http://www.weborganic.com/), where the document owner can set up a
complete markup and annotation capability comparable to Acrobat that
allows review documents to be distributed and marked up over the Web
without the requirements for any end-user applications other than the
browser. We haven't gotten as far as testing it internally, but it is
certainly an Aussie product that deserves wider attention.
Regards,
Bill Hall
Documentation Systems Analyst
Strategy and Development
Tenix Defense
Williamstown, Vic. 3016
Phone: 03 9244 4820
Email:bill -dot- hall -at- tenix -dot- com
URL: http://www.tenix.com
Honorary Research Fellow
Knowledge Management Lab
School of Information Management & Systems
Monash University
Caulfield East, Vic. 3145
Phone: 03 9903 1883
Email: william -dot- hall -at- infotech -dot- monash -dot- edu -dot- au
URL: http://www.sims.monash.edu.au/research/km/
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