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Reviewing Collaborative Documents

When collaborators work at a distance from one another, it’s difficult—and very slow—to exchange comments on paper drafts. But the programs we use to compose text have begun offering functions that allow us to provide feedback electronically, so that we can e-mail comments instantly to collaborators. Feedback is ordinarily provided in one of two ways:

Annotations

Adobe Acrobat, Corel WordPerfect, Microsoft Word, and similar text-production software packages offer users the ability to create "annotations"—short commentaries anchored near the corresponding text—in documents. For example, see the figure below, which is an Acrobat file marked up with two annotations. In the document itself, you can see the places in the text that have been annotated; double-clicking on the icons brings up the text of the annotations. You can also simultaneously view all annotations in the left-hand column of the software window.

To create annotations in Acrobat (note that creating annotations requires the complete version of Acrobat, not the free Acrobat Reader), do the following:

  1. Click the "down" arrow next to the Note Tool button on the tool bar (see figure below). Then, select the tool most appropriate for your purposes: The Note Tool creates a pop-up text annotation as in the previous figure, the Free Text Tool pastes your notes across the page like a sticky note, the Sound Attachment Tool allows you to attach a sound recording, the Stamp Tool stamps notes such as "approved" or "confidential," and the File Attachment Tool allows you to link another file at the annotation point.
  2. Click the cursor on the page precisely where you wish to make a comment.
  3. Enter (or record) your comment(s).
  4. Save the file, which is now ready to be e-mailed or networked to your collaborator.

Creating annotations in Word is a similar process, albeit with slightly fewer options. The following guidelines for creating annotations are based on Microsoft Word for Windows 2000, but similar text-production software packages, such as WordPerfect, Acrobat, Word for Macintosh, and other versions of Word provide similar options. Review the Help menu of these packages for instructions on how to create annotations.

  1. Select Insert à Comment.
  2. Type your comment into the dialog box that appears (see figure below).
  3. Save your file, which is ready to be e-mailed or networked to your collaborator.

In-Text Revisions

Some software packages allow you the option of typing your comments directly into a document instead of attaching a separate annotation. For example, in Word for Windows 2000, you can use the "track changes" function to indicate changes. See the figure below, in which a reviewer has used the function to cross out an unwanted word and add some additional text.

To use this function, do the following:

  1. Select Tools à Track Changes. From this point on, any deletions you make will be shown in a balloon in the margin, and any additions you make will be shown in a different color.
  2. Enter changes and revisions.
  3. Save your file, which is now ready to be e-mailed or networked to your collaborator.

To review your suggestions, your collaborator will open the file; he or she can accept or reject the suggested change by right-clicking on each balloon.