Often a writer will want to ask for clarification, ask for approval for a change the writer has initiated, or add a comment about a missing item for future reference. However, SMEs and reviewers do not always notice/respond to such notes -- which of course leads to additional iterations and frustrations. This webinar demonstrates how to create a dedicated paragraph format in FrameMaker, to be used to insert questions and comments. The style has a unique design intended to make the TW question/comment stand out. You can include automatic numbering to help identify a specific item. In addition, you can create a list of all TW comments as a generated file. Yet even with all of these techniques, writer's comments tend to be overlooked. The solution is to have these comments automatically appear as comments in the PDF, raising visibility and helping the SME/reviewer to jump from one comment to the next in the PDF. Optional: a message indicating the number/location of open TW notes can be displayed when the PDF is closed (through the DocWillClose action) Tools used: FrameMaker, Acrobat (no add-ons necessary)

1. TW notes that
cannot be overlooked!
Shlomo Perets microtype.com

2. 1
Issues with traditional reviews
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Original source files should not be
damaged/affected by the review process
Inconvenience of comments in e-mail
correspondence, external files
Difficult to archive comments, replies
and status
Waste of time for both reviewers & TW

3. 2
Free Adobe Reader XI
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Supports the full set of Acrobat commenting
tools, without having to first enable PDF
files for commenting in Acrobat
The commented (or form-filled) PDF
can be saved in Reader XI
Need for user education

4. 3
Often a writer needs to …
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Ask for clarification
Ask for approval for a change the
writer has initiated
Add a comment about a missing item
for future reference
Draw attention to an issue
(e.g. conflicting data, discrepancies)

5. 4
Such notes are best embedded
Seen in context – on page, with adjacent
text/graphics

6. 5
Special pgf tag: TWnote
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Dedicated for “Writer/Reviewer”
questions/comments
Stand out using
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Color/font
Line above/below (reference page)
Optionally autonumbered
Can be used to produce list of
paragraphs (LOP)

7. 6
Condition tag applied to note
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When a conditional tag (e.g. Comment)
is consistently applied to the note, it is
possible to easily hide all notes when
a “clean” copy has to be produced
Background color (FM10 or later) can be
used as the condition indicator

8. 7
TW notes still overlooked?
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Even with all of the above… SMEs and
reviewers do not notice all TW notes
and fail to respond
You can make your notes automatically
turn into Comments in the PDF
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Even higher visibility, particularly when
reviewers focus only on some pages
Reviewers can simply click in the comment
and type their feedback
Jump from one comment to next in the PDF

9. 8
Recipe for PDF auto comments
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Add a text frame in the Ref Frame Above
(reference page)
Font, size, color of text are insignificant
Define a variable with PS code such as:
[ /Name /RightArrow /Open true /Color [1 0 1]
/Title (Please reply) /Rect [0 0 20 20] /Contents ()
/ANN pdfmark
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Insert the variable in the text frame
Mark text frame as “PostScript Code”
* When using FrameMaker-to-Acrobat TimeSavers, ending should be: /ANN pdf

10. 9
Optional: “WillClose” JS action
When the PDF file is closed, a note reports
number & location of pending TW notes
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Manually: in Acrobat, Javascript panel >
Set Document Actions, and set the
“Document Will Close” action
Can be automated with TimeSavers
(hypertext marker inserted once in FM
or in the configuration file)