Re: Making online reading/editing easier (was Online vs paper-based editing)

["Jim Morgan" <Jim -dot- Morgan -at- jdsu -dot- com>]

Although I appreciate the suggestions from both Geoff and Carla, I was
aware of the methods they note, and I think those methods miss the
point.

I think there is something in the gestalt of seeing a page in the
context, background, and medium in which hard-copy readers use it that
helps me find things I do not pick up onscreen regardless of the display
settings. I tried for a couple of years to go all-electronic, but when
users brought me printouts for various issues, I kept finding minor
mistakes. Perhaps if I had one of those fancy monitors that swivel to
vertical and are large enough to show a page in true size I would have
better luck. Then again, maybe my brain responds well to the tactile
experience of paper and pen that I grew up with. Or maybe this is an
issue of how one's optical system is hard-wired, such that some people
will never be as good as others at catching everything onscreen.

All I know is, after considerable experimentation over years, I have
determined that I still need a final pass on paper to pick up the last
10% of detail errors.

Regards,
Jim


-----Original Message-----
From: techwr-l-bounces+cmartinek=zebra -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
[mailto:techwr-l-bounces+cmartinek=zebra -dot- com -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com] On
Behalf Of Jim Morgan
Sent: Tuesday, June 19, 2007 6:06 PM
To: techwr-l -at- lists -dot- techwr-l -dot- com
Subject: Re: Online vs paper-based editing 

Maybe it's just my astigmatic eyes, but I always catch details on paper
that I seem unable to spot onscreen, hard as I have tried over the years
to eliminate the paper-wasting. My compromise is to only do the final
proofreading pass on paper.

Regards,
Jim
 

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