[Hidden-tech] Editorial Production - Seeking suggestions for a better process

[Terran Birrell]

It doesn't help on the art end of things, but on the editing end you could
use google docs so you're at least always working on the same document. I
think you can even work on it at the same time. You art director would still
need to be taking you changes into whatever he uses for design.

Seems to me that if you want to be able to edit the final product you need
whatever program your art director uses to produce them, and he/she needs to
save them in whatever "in process" file format that program uses for all of
you to access.

-- 
Terran Birrell
www.Terran.Birrell.us-I Design + Develop + Support WordPress Websites
(413) 219-6866
Terran at Birrell.us

On Tue, Aug 23, 2011 at 1:53 PM, <eddygold at aol.com> wrote:

>   ** Be sure to fill out the survey/skills inventory in the member's area.
>   ** If you did, we all thank you.
>
>
>
>  Hi H-T ers,
>
>  I'm an editor for a couple of trade magazines. I'm looking for a better
> way to make corrections during editorial production. We have a small company
> (about 20 people), with 2 editors and one art director/designer. Here's how
> we do it:
>
>  1) I post final editorial pages in MS Word files on an ftp site.
>
>  2) Our art director "grabs" the files, does his magic (design, layout,
> etc.), and posts them in PDF form.
>
>  3) The other editor and I download the PDFs, print them out (and/or read
> them on-screen), proofread them, tweak the headlines, cut articles to fit,
> etc.
>
>  So far, so good. Here's where I'd like a better system.
>
>  4) The other editor sends me his corrections in a Word doc. I combine
> them with mine and type up all of them in a new Word doc, specifying page
> number, column, graf, and line, followed by the actual correction. Example:
> Page 7, col 2, graf 3, line 7 -- essential  --> essentials
>
>  5) I send the Word doc with all the corrections back to our art director,
> who makes the corrections, then posts a new PDF for the editors to check.
>
>  6) Rinse and repeat until all the corrections are made and approved, then
> send the files to the printer.
>
>  I'd like to be able to make the text corrections myself -- save typing up
> the corrections, save our art director from making them, and have more
> control over the final stages of the editing/proofing process.
>
>  I've been asking around and people have suggested the following:
>
>  1) Using Stickies in Adobe Reader (not jazzed by this one)
>
>  2) InDesign/InCopy -- which can be pricey to supply for a relatively
> small company.
>
>  Here are some additional facts & factors:
>
>  Location: We're all in different places: Editors in Amherst & Fort Worth,
> art director in San Francisco.
>
>  Technology: Our art director has pretty much everything, but the editors
> only have Adobe Reader. We use Macs.
>
>  What's strange to me, as I puzzle through all this, is that 20 years ago,
> using PageMaker, I was able to make changes to text to cut lines, add lines,
> fix mistakes, etc. But we were in the same office, so I'd just walk over to
> our art director's terminal and do that.
>
>  In the age of the cloud, hosted apps, SaaS, remote everything, there must
> be a better solution I haven't come across.
>
>  Suggestions? This system works fine, but... Is there a better way?
>
>  And any thoughts on the ROI in terms of cost for new software vs. time
> saved (and minor quality improvements)?
>
>  Thanks for any ideas, pointers, etc.
>
>  Eddy Goldberg
>
>  eddygold at aol.com
>
>
>
> _______________________________________________
> Hidden-discuss mailing list - home page: http://www.hidden-tech.net
> Hidden-discuss at lists.hidden-tech.net
>
> You are receiving this because you are on the Hidden-Tech Discussion list.
> If you would like to change your list preferences, Go to the Members
> page on the Hidden Tech Web site.
> http://www.hidden-tech.net/members
>



--
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://lists.hidden-tech.net/pipermail/hidden-discuss/attachments/20110823/d23c0f54/attachment.html