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I am looking for good proofreading methods for latex. I am just writing a thesis and my supervisor is not familiar with latex. So at the moment I am giving her either a PDF or printed document to use adobe commenting function etc.

Are there any better ways comparable to the MS word "review/track changes" functions?

Would maybe Lyx be an option?

Hendrik
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    If he is not familiar with LaTeX, I think a PDF edit is best. For one who knows LaTeX, I like using some nice form of diff utility on the source, to compare the before/after edit. – Steven B. Segletes Oct 16 '14 at 01:41
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    I enjoy to use TODO notes for those tasks, but she needs to understand a little bit of LaTeX, get the original source files and to know how to use the package. As @StevenB.Segletes I think the best option in this case are the notes over the PDF. My suggestion about is to change the name of the pdf with notes for avoid loose those notes in a future compilation. – Aradnix Oct 16 '14 at 01:58
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    Have a look at the latexdiff command. – Uwe Ziegenhagen Oct 16 '14 at 02:03
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    I used PDF for the same situation and continue to send PDF to people who comment on my work with the exception of co-authored papers, where we use something else (Word in the end) and cases where editors will only accept Word (when I convert from .tex). – cfr Oct 16 '14 at 02:55
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    I think Lyx is a good option for her to read and add comments. Lyx can also track changes, as far as I know. Not sure how easy you can export Lyx back to Latex without messing up the format, but worst come to worst, you just implement the changes manually to your doc. – altabq Oct 16 '14 at 08:27
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    I wouldn't give a supervisor a word document either. A supervisor is not a co-worker. Comments on paper or a pdf which you then can either insert in the original document or ignore are imho a much cleaner way to ensure that the thesis is your work. – Ulrike Fischer Oct 16 '14 at 10:16
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    @UlrikeFischer: Don't get me wrong, a supervisor is not a co-worker in terms of the thesis, I totally agree :-) . But when it comes to publishing something together he/she certainly is. I only mentioned MS Word as it has a good reviewing funktion. – Hendrik Oct 17 '14 at 00:35
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    If the supervisor is mentioned as (co-)author on your titlepage then is is naturally ok to look for tools to make the joint work easier but as long as it is your thesis and your grading you should be careful to have clear boundary between your and her work. Beside this I agree with Karl: The best proofreading is made on paper. And it is much easier to handle changes if only person has access to the source file of the paper. – Ulrike Fischer Oct 17 '14 at 07:32

1 Answers1

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There is a big difference in reading a document on screen or on paper.

There are some studies telling that people can only see ca. 30 % of errors on screen, but mutch more on paper (nearly 100 %).

So if you want the best possible proofreading, check first the document by your own (you will not be able to find all errors, of course), print the resulting document, give it to the proofreader with a list of special proofreader marks (for example in the german Duden) and ask hin to mark errors with the listed proofreader marks.

This method does not depend on LaTeX or Word or any other program.

Mensch
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    The “nearly 100%” bit is not true: everybody knows that the number of misprints in a document is a decreasing function of time, but that, in spite of assuming values in a discrete set, never takes the value 0. ;-) – egreg Oct 16 '14 at 14:37