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I am required to do the same thing for a European medical device manufacturer that operates globally. I donât even try to automate it.
In the structured FrameMaker I have a dedicated comment element (think of it as a paragraph format if you arenât familiar with the structured FrameMaker). While I implement revisions, I systematically describe in prose what I have changed. The comments are automatically preceded by my initials and the current date.
For example:
tk, 2017-08-12: Added: The following complete paragraph.
or
tk, 2017-08-12: Changed the following line in the table below âEnvironment conditions | Air pressureâ:
from: "900 hPa to 1050 hPAâ
to: â950 hPA to 1050 hPAâ
The more trivial the change is, the larger is the relative effort to create the comment.
> On 12. Aug 2017, at 18:09, Chris Morton <salt -dot- morton -at- gmail -dot- com> wrote:
>
> Now thinking out loud, what about using Acrobat's Compare Files option?
>
> One could then run Compare Files against the 1st-gen PDF (exported from
> INDD) and the 2nd-gen PDF. Has anyone tried this? I would need Compare
> Files to generate a suitable markup.
>
> Thanks
>
> Chris Morton
>
> â Substantive Editing â Technical Writing â Proofreading
> â B2B/B2C â Marketing Expertise â Mentoring
> Click to
> <https://www.linkedin.com/pub/chris-morton/2/166/6ba>
>
>
>
> On Sat, Aug 12, 2017 at 12:05 PM, Chris Morton <salt -dot- morton -at- gmail -dot- com>
> wrote:
>
>> I should mention that InDesign is the tool used to create the IFUs, and no
>> one at the client's site has it. Using InDesign's track changes feature,
>> likely wouldn't cut it.
>>
>> Chris Morton
>>
>> â Substantive Editing â Technical Writing â Proofreading
>> â B2B/B2C â Marketing Expertise â Mentoring
>> Click to
>> <https://www.linkedin.com/pub/chris-morton/2/166/6ba>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Sat, Aug 12, 2017 at 11:47 AM, Chris Morton <salt -dot- morton -at- gmail -dot- com>
>> wrote:
>>
>>> For each iteration of any given IFU (user manual), my client insists on a
>>> having redline denoting each change from the previous work. They have had
>>> me create these in Acrobat.
>>>
>>> That is ostensibly OK. but Acrobat DC Prp has its problems with large
>>> docs. It crashes most every time I switch between Edit and Comment modes.
>>>
>>> Not only that, marking these things is absurdly tedious. There is no
>>> global change mechanism, such as being able to mark each change in a
>>> product name. So it's one.at.a.time.at.a.tiime.one.time.at.a.one.time.
>>> It takes *far* more time than does affecting the actual changes in
>>> InDesign on the way to a clean, release-ready IFU in PDF format.
>>>
>>> Who among you has a better process?
>>>
>>> Chris Morton
>>>
>>> â Substantive Editing â Technical Writing â Proofreading
>>> â B2B/B2C â Marketing Expertise â Mentoring
>>> Click to
>>> <https://www.linkedin.com/pub/chris-morton/2/166/6ba>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>
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