On-line editing

[sand...@tbosch.dnet.ge.com]

Hi All,

With all this discussion of red-lining flinging around, I was wondering if
anyone has had any experience in implementing/using an on-line editing system,
particularly where it involves a group of people working on a several documents
at once, with editorial comment, etc. Other than these red-lining programs
everyone is talking about, are there any serious, dedicated applications which
can allow a writing/development group to perform the entire writing process,
including editorial review, entirely on-line?

I'm particularly interested in multi-user environments (i.e. big systems), but
anything will do.

Personally, I've seen precious little in the way of features that would support
this activity. Besides the red-out features everyone has talked to death, I've
only personally seen and used one program that has a editing-online-type
feature: ProPage 4.0 for the Amiga. Believe or not. It has what I like to
refer to as The Sticky Note Feature. Users can put non-printing, yellow comment
boxes on top of the document just like actual sticky notes. Tremendously useful,
even if your editor is yourself.

Thanks for a great and informative mailing list, even if we do tend to fall
into blithering diatribe now and again. (Sort of like an electronic cocktail
party, huh?)

Get out there and mingle...

-John Sanders-
-GE/Schenectady-

[Ed Costello]

In <930602202...@thomas.ge.com> sand...@tbosch.dnet.ge.com writes:
>I'm particularly interested in multi-user environments (i.e. big systems), but
>anything will do.

I use Bookmanager/Read* to conduct reviews of drafts. My reviewers can review
the draft on a variety of platforms (os/2, dos, mvs, vm, aix) and send me their
comments via email. I then use the MVS version to incorporate the comments
into a common online version so that all the reviewers can see the comments.
The biggest problem with this approach is that Bookmanager wasn't designed
as a reviewing tool, we're basically abusing it's note facility when we use
it to conduct reviews. However, this approach lets customers review early
drafts without needing special access to an IBM system.

Before I came to IBM I worked with a team at CMU that was developing
an editor that allowed visual types of comments (draw circle around a word
or paragraph to indicate you want to move it) as well as notes (popup
"sticky" notes or notes in a separate column). The editor was called "Prep"
and ran on Apple Macs. I believe it's still being developed at CMU but
don't know who the official contact is.

-ed costello
Case Tools & Information Dev. * Mid-Hudson Valley Programming Lab * IBM E.S.
bitnet: costello@vnet internet: cost...@vnet.ibm.com

*=BookManager is an IBM product. I have nothing to do with it except that
I use it on a daily basis.

[Macey B. Taylor]

Another Amiga (and now also Mac) program that can do something similar
to Post-its (but also with graphics and sound "notes") is Thinker from
Poor Person Software. It's a hypertext/hypermedia tool but built on a
word processor base 9metaphor) instead of the more typical slide show
metaphor, and since it multitasks nicely you can launch any application
from within it. I run Notepad along with it and make Post-its of various
sorts, both connected with the "document" and reminders to go get my
watch fixed, etc. It's a heap cheaper than Pro-Page and needs less RAM,
of course.
Macey Taylor mace...@ccit.arizona.edu

[gkus...@jade.tufts.edu]

> From: "M. T. Anslin" <m...@CYBERSPACE.ORG>

> It seems to me that back when I used Microsoft's Word for Windows and
> Word for Presentation Manager, thatad an Editors feature--allowing
> multiple editors to make unprinted notes in different colours. We
> used it fairly often to make suggested changes to shared docs.

I don't use PM Word anymore since it was YABMP (Yet Another Buggy Microsoft
Product) that has a tendency to not spell check words on pages beyond
page 20.

However, if you're looking for a good OS/2 word processor, DeScribe 4.0
also has this notes feature. I use it all the time for when I want to
make note of points that need checking/for future revision. I don't
know if Wordperfect 5.2 or 6.0 do this. I haven't seen Ami Pro for
Presentation Manager yet either.

BTW - does anyone have a recommendation for one of the following?

- Freelance Graphics for OS/2
- CorelDraw 2.5 for OS/2

I was looking at Freelance, but now Corel is available for $199.

Cheers,

--gk

Greg Kushmerek "They [Australians] don't spell 'beer'
Sr. Researcher/Development with four X's out of ignorance. . .And
Tufts University light beer is a creation of the Prince
Medford, MA of Darkness."
gkus...@jade.tufts.edu -Morse, Thames Valley C.I.D.-