Proofreading PDFs, LaTeX Files, and Large Files
Proofreading PDFs, LaTeX Files, and Large Files
The Portable Document Format, or PDF, was developed by Adobe as a way to display a document consistently regardless of the platform. PDF files typically cannot be "edited" or "proofread" unless they are opened in Adobe Acrobat or another PDF editor, and even then there are limitations to the changes that can be made. However, they can be marked up and annotated. There are several programs that can be used to mark up a PDF file, including PDF-XChange Viewer. With PDF-XChange Viewer, you can highlight text, insert sticky notes, and underline or circle various parts of a document. This training will focus on the use of PDF-XChange Viewer.
PDF-XChange Viewer's annotation tools can be accessed from the Tools menu under Comment and Markup Tools. Once in the menu, the user can choose from numerous tools.
Sticky Note: This is the PDF-XChange Viewer's version of a comment box. Sticky notes are better for general comments about the document overall. For notes on specific parts of the text, the next tool on our list is more effective.
Highlight: Once a specific part of the text is highlighted with this tool, simply double-click the highlighted portion and a comment box appears. This way, comments about specific issues can be addressed to the author of the text.
Cross-out Text: If a portion of the text needs to be deleted, use this tool to draw a red line through the text. Then double-click the red line and insert a comment explaining the change.
Underline Text: While the other tools should be sufficient, text can be underlined. Double-click the green underline PDF-XChange viewer applies to the text to insert a comment.
LaTeX is a markup language similar to HTML, but it is used to generate documents for publication rather than for the Internet. It is used primarily in scientific or mathematical documents. LaTeX is very stable and guarantees that a document will look the same no matter where it is opened. LaTeX files are most often used to generate PDFs.
You can also edit LaTeX files in Notepad, although upon opening the file, it will look a lot like an HTML file as it will have a lot of markup in it. It will be necessary to edit around the markup and not accidentally delete any of it while proofreading.
If it can be avoided, don't open a LaTeX file in MS Word. Word will impose its own formatting over the LaTeX formatting.
Often, clients will decide to compress large files or groups of files to make the transfer of these files easier. Usually, these compressed files have a *.zip extension. To extract a file, right-click the file and select Extract All from the menu that appears.
When you finish proofreading whatever files are contained in the .zip folder, you will need to recompress them. To compress files, do the following:
Find the file(s) and folder(s) you want to compress.
Select all the files with your mouse. You can do this by holding down the CTRL button as you click the files.
Right-click the selection.
Click Send To.
Click Compressed File. A zip file will appear in the same directory as the file you are compressing.
Move the zip file to the desired folder.
Only return a compressed file if that is what you received in the first place.
Transferring large files via email is difficult, and in some cases it is not possible at all. Some email programs do not allow files larger than a few megabytes to be attached to messages. One way to solve this problem is to use a file transfer protocol (FTP) server. There are two ways to use FTP: through your browser and through an FTP client.
To use your browser, follow these steps:
Open your browser.
In the address bar, enter the user name and domain name. (ftp://username@domainname.com)
On the log-in page, you will be prompted to enter a password.
Note that you may not have access to every folder on the server. Once logged on, you will see a list of folders and files that you have access to.
To download files, you can either drag and drop files from the FTP into your local directory, or you can copy from the domain's directory and paste them into a local directory.
To upload files, you can either drag and drop files from your local directory onto the FTP, or you can copy them from the local directory and paste them into the FTP directory.
If you are using an FTP client, follow these steps:
Open the FTP program.
Enter the following information in the connection bar:
The address of your website. You may have to enter http://, but some programs may enter this for you.
Your username.
Your password.
The port. The default port for most FTP portals is 21 unless you're working with highly secure and sensitive material. Most FTP programs will enter this information for you.
At this point, you should be connected to the FTP site and there will be two directories listed side-by-side. You can now upload/download files by dragging and dropping files from one to the other.
You can also use a third-party file transfer or file sharing service, but for security purposes, you should always ask your client whether this is an acceptable way to send files.
PDFs and LaTeX files are fairly common. While it's not as easy to manipulate PDFs as it is to manipulate Word documents or other types of text files, commenting is easy. LaTeX files allow you to make changes directly to the text, but you'll want to make sure you're not changing the formatting as you do so. Large files aren't any harder to proofread than small files; they are just more time consuming. Following the instructions outlined in this lesson will make it easy for you to send and receive these kinds of files.
Last Updated: 09/09/2022