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

[<neilson -at- windstream -dot- net>]

I use both methods. The on-line document is amenable to searching for
particular bad constructions and misspellings that won't show up in
MS-Wrod's checking software. But the dead tree has not died in vain--
badness that was invisible for weeks on the screen leaps from the
printed copy. Also, I can hand a printed copy to a boss who never
bothers with on-line stuff (he has people to deal with computers, so
he doesn't have to), and he just might read for content. Or perhaps
he'll make himself marginally useful and catch a "to" where "too" was
intended. 

Jim Morgan correctly commented:
> 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.


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