I never see paper anymore. Manuscripts are developed in Word, much to my chagrin. When the book goes to layout, I get page proofs in PDF form. The mark-up I do is in Adobe Acrobat, which I love. I have a stylus, which I love. And my computer has a big-ass screen, search, and undo. Actual-size paper just cannot compete with that.
Sample fictional PDF mark-up using stylus and stamps in Adobe Acrobat Pro9.
First, learn the traditional proofreader’s marks, especially if you work in publishing. The industry is not yet ready to leave those behind. Even the “text edits” tools in Acrobat largely mimic these marks.
Next, make the “Comment & Markup” and “Properties” toolbars visible. As you work more with mark-up, keep customizing your toolbars with the features you use most often. (Right-click a grey area of the toolbar, and select “more tools” to open a list of all the options. Checkmark tools you want shown.)
Two Tools
One of the difficulties in marking up PDFs is making traditional proofreader’s (or copy editor’s) marks with a regular old mouse. It can be done; even done well. Or, you can try one of these two solutions:
- A tablet. Meaning, a stylus that lets you e-write naturally. These run between $70 and $400. I have one made for artists — the $400 end of the spectrum. I love it even though it is seriously underused. But, if you use option number two, you may not need a stylus.
- Stamps. Acrobat has a stamp tool that you can use to place ready-made proofreader’s marks on your document. These include the insert and delete marks, as well as a slew of standard marginal annotations. You can make your own marks for stamps, or download sets from sources such as the international copyediting-L (a.k.a., the celery). (Go to the “Resources” tab, then look under the Miscellaneous heading for Diana Stirling’s zip of editing marks in red and black.)
You can also use the dynamic stamps that are built-in to Acrobat to mark pages as approved, revised, and such. These are nice big stamps that won’t be mistaken for page elements. They are especially useful in the final stages, to show that you checked a page and did or did not make any easy-to-miss niggly little changes.
[Update: Sept. 2011 A new video on how to create stamps.]
As I searched for existing tutorials to illustrate these tips, I realized that what we line editors do is not the most common application of Acrobat. The program is capable of so much more! So, because the tips got rather long, and I find there is more to explain, I’ve turned this post into a series. In the next instalment, we will explore key mark-up techniques.
Footnote
Let it be known, Acrobat is capable of actually changing the text in a PDF, so it would be possible to just fix the typos and do other tweaks – even to make major-ish changes. However, most clients provide line editors with a PDF to protect their original production file, and/or because the editor doesn’t have access to Quark, InDesign, SMART Notebook, or whatever program the designers used. What the client expects of a line editor is that she will mark up the alts so that the production department can make the changes to the original file. The tips in this series will not actually edit a PDF, but mark changes onto a PDF.
If PDF is the final file format, you can do entirely more amazing things. Check the Adobe learning centre for tutorials.
CREDITS
The sample mark-up nonsense has been done on a spread from Indie Travel Podcast Magazine, made possible through a CC license. Beautiful looking magazine, interesting reads, and inspiring places.
_____________
PDF editing mark-up in Adobe Acrobat series:
Basic PDF Mark-up for Copy Editors and Proofreaders
Key Mark-up Techniques for Proofreading PDFs
Edit Tools for Marking up PDFs
Create a Checklist of Your PDF Mark-up in 2 Clicks
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Awesome, Adrienne. Looking forward to refining my Acrobat markup techniques. Thank you for writing and posting this series.
Awesome! I look forward to your next post!
I’ll read all your posts about Adobe Acrobat Professional as long as you keep writing them. Please keep me informed of each new post, and keep up the great work!
Thanks, Franklin! Aw, shucks.
It sounds like you have a couple things to teach me. But I wonder, what would you like Acrobat to do? What should we look into?
The sample provided is an excellent example of the best use of Acrobat for mark-up, as it avoids two of the most irritating Acrobat tools – the Notes tool and the Edit Mark-up tools (particularly the Insert Text tool), which are both a nightmare for whoever is implementing the corrections.
The former requires either opening every note (which usually then obscures the text to be changed), or, as stated in the follow-up article, using the Comments list. Although this list is far better in Acrobat X (in previous versions, even the simplest of changes produced several comments, because each action required a separate comment), it’s still more difficult to follow than a marked-up proof because the comments don’t necessarily follow the order of the paper – in layouts with more than one column, it’s not unusual to find that it skips back and forth between columns, for instance.
As for the latter, apart from the problems with crashing alluded to in the third page, they are far less flexible than using the pencil tool. The lines drawn by the underline and strikethrough tools are quite thin and there is no option to make them thicker, unlike those drawn by the pencil, and in the case of proofs with a darker background, this can make them difficult to see. The insertion tool simply adds a Note (with the same disadvantages outlined above), with the addition of the stated tiny caret mark, which is very easy to overlook.
Although these may be superficially attractive because they’re easier to use at the beginning, using the pencil & text box really does result in a proof that’s far easier to follow, and they’re also less likely to result in RSI, as the movements required aren’t so repetitive.
Excellent, Tina. Thank you so much for the comments. People, read what she said.
Excellent resource and very well explained. I’ve been editing onscreen in Word for more years than I care to think about, but have been meaning to get more mileage out of Acrobat for doing markups. This is one of the most useful resources I’ve found. Thanks for sharing your know-how!
Sandra
Adrienne, thank you so much for these tips. I find Adobe to be so unhelpful in teaching new users how to get even the basics out of its products, but your tips have helped me save tons of time and effort in the editing process.
Thank you so much for this series! It’s really going to help me expand on my editing skills, and your instructions are so easy to follow.