Faster editing

[Island Girl]

I'm in a new legal department in which stacks of documents (some small, some
quite large) with heavy edits are expected to be finished in short order;
e.g., 20 documents in 4 hours. Most of the wonderful things you've taught me
over the years will not be called upon--just move 'em in, move 'em out!

In my previous position, there was a lot of original input and formatting.
Since I type 120, more or less, that was easy, and the present department
probably thought I'd be just as fast at making corrections and edits. But
that turns out not to be true, because when I proof these documents I find
that I've missed edits---and that's my problem.

My question is: do some of you out there have a "system" for the most time
effective way of proofing a heavily edited/corrected document? Proof as you
go? Print out and proof? Relax my standards? Get more sleep?

Thanks again for all you do!

 

[Herb Tyson [MVP]]

How are the edits indicated? By hand or using Word's tracking/markup
feature?

If by hand, then my guess is that you're pretty well stuck. Either convince
them that their expectations are out of whack or look for a different
position. If they're using paper, they're wasting a lot of trees needlessly.

If they're tracked using Word, and then it's up to you to integrate or
otherwise deal with the changes, the quickest way is "Accept all", <smile>.
But seriously, if they're tracked and there are too many to do, I simply
start at the beginning and triage them either by inserting comments as
reminders to myself, ranking them in order of importance. Then I go through
an do the #1s first, then the #2s, etc.

The same system can work for paper edits, but paper cuts are a real hazard.
But, it sounds like the bottom line is that their expectations might be too
high. Maybe ask a supervisor to demonstrate a technique for dealing with the
volume.

 

[Island Girl]

Herb, thanks so much for your thoughtful insight into and suggestions
regarding my editing woes.

The edits are indicated by hand rather than tracking, and there are
paragraphs which contain umpteen instances of, for example, inserting the
same word or phrase. I've discovered that the best way for me to handle that
is to start from the bottom of a paragraph and edit my way to the top of the
paragraph. That way, of course, the text above my edits is not displaced, so
the remaining edits are more easily spotted.

It has been getting a little easier but I do intend to speak to someone
about the unreasonablness of the alloted time to do such a load of documents.


Thanks again, Herb. That was so very nice of you.

 

[Herb Tyson [MVP]]

Feed their pens and pencils into the shredder and insist that the make all
their changes in tracking mode using Word. ;-)

Good luck. It sounds like a pretty intense environment (I used to do
litigation economics... so I know how it can get.)

--
Herb Tyson MS MVP
Author of the Word 2007 Bible
Blog: http://word2007bible.herbtyson.com
Web: http://www.herbtyson.com