Re: red-lining

[Chuck Banks <chuck -at- ASL -dot- DL -dot- NEC -dot- COM>]

My experience has been somewhat similar to your own.

Reviewers prefer marginal change bars indicating what sentences
we have changed except when moves are involved.  When we move a
paragraph, table, or figure, our reviewers prefer true redlining
to indicate where the moved object originally resided and where
it resides now.

We discovered these preferences by trial and error with two
software packages.  Our initial package, Xerox ViewPoint, provides
struck through text for deletions and underlined text for additions.
This works well for moves, but not for changes.  Unfortunately,
Xerox ViewPoint does not generate marginal change bars.

Our second package, FrameMaker, provides marginal change bars, but
does not provide automatic redlining.

Since there is currently no filter between ViewPoint and FrameMaker,
we can't move a document from one to the other to take advantage of
the abilities of both.  We have, therefore, petitioned Xerox to
provide marginal change bars, and Frame Technology to provide
automatic redlining.

While we wait for software upgrades, our reviewers remain
dissatisfied.

I can recommend Xerox ViewPoint (called GlobalView for Sun and PC
platforms) for its automatic redlining.  I can't recommend it for
price as it is expensive.  ViewPoint/GlobalView also has a limited
set of filters for converting between itself and other software
packages.  Xerox has a new product, called DocuBuild, that seems
to fix some of the shortcomings of ViewPoint/GlobalView, but, again,
DocuBuild is expensive.

Chuck Banks
NEC America, Inc.
chuck -at- asl -dot- dl -dot- nec -dot- com