----- Original Message -----
From: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: <[email protected]>
Sent: Tuesday, August 02, 2005 11:43 AM
Subject: Re: Annotating documents
On Tue, 2 Aug 2005, Stephen Harris wrote:
> Stephen> I found a couple of free softwares for Linux, but none for
> Stephen> Windows for adding comments to ps and pdf docs. That has
> Stephen> changed and flpsed is available for Windows/Cygwin. Since
> Stephen>LyX can save as .ps, flspsed seems a higher fidelity approach.
>
> Why couldn't people use the .lyx file directly and add comments to
> that?
>
> JMarc
>
The originator of the document will be using LyX and has an
easy option of exporting to postscript which I think retains the
formatting better than going through html and Word. Another
associate contributor to the document only needs ghostscript
(in the Path) and fl_ps_ed.exe which is 500k for Win XP.
This is what I said:
Stephen> Hello, I have seen posts asking how to convert LyX into MS
Stephen> Word with tex4ht often recommended as a solution. Adobe
Stephen> Acrobat Writer Pro with Acrobat Reader is another
Stephen> collaborative type software, also proprietary. [... and added]
Stephen> I found a couple of free softwares for Linux, but none for
Stephen> Windows for adding comments to ps and pdf docs.
Chr: Sorry if I've totally missed the issue here... IIRC, you said that
the
free version of acroread allowed adding comments. If that's the case, why
can't the main author export his document as PDF, and let the reviewers
add their comments using acroread (or an alternative tool if one exists).
I said that a $469 piece of software, Adobe Writer Pro, not to be
confused with its cheap help $200 Adobe Writer, can produce docs
that turn on erasable comments when the doc is viewed by free Reader.
Until recently there was no free software to do this for Windows. There
are free Linux apps, ghostview-markup and I think pdftk can do this, but
(*nix) xpdf for instance, by itself cannot create such a document.
From that, I assume you'd like a tool that can *impor* the comments back >
from the PDF into the LyX file? (Or am I missing something here?)
I had in mind some academic or professional typesetting a nicely justified
document in LyX. He saves that doc to postscript/gs which LyX uses.
A colleague or friend could proofread and suggest changes in color and
equations are preserved for easy readibility. It already works in Linux
that the comments by themselves can be exported separately. Or the
creator of the original document with LyX can use splitscreen to put
the ps doc and the original Lyx document together for comparison and
make changes to the original document as he sees fit from the ps copy.
I did not have in mind requiring reviewers of the content of your original
LyX doc to have LyX and make permanent changes that you might have
to remove or change anyway when the edited document returns to you.
Primarily, I don't understand why you're aiming for PS instead of PDF, (in
my experience professors aren't too keen on installing programs, not even
ghostscript).
I mentioned in another post that Linux flpsed can import pdf but that
this capability has not been implemented in the Windows port. Adobe
charges about $1000 for the Adobe LiveCycle suite which contains
Adobe Writer Professional which is used for document tracking.
Have you seen the recent good lucking change tracking software for
LyX 1.4, it is free. I thought having such a capability would be a big
plus for using LyX for Windows users.
cheers
/Christian
PS. Maybe this discussion belongs to the user's list? It'll definitely get
a wider audience there, and lots of people must encounter this problem
all the time there.
I think it was you who asked for help checking for discrepancies
from the upgrade of Wiki versions? So I joined this list and found
pdfview.cmd which I reported already. That the file has been deleted
from the Wiki is why I see a need for limiting comments to Lyx
generated docs to an erasable method owned and largely controlled by
the creator of the LyX document; which gives restricting the reading of
the file and making erasable comments in postscript/gs some advantages.
Anyway I was tuned into the doc mailing list. And although flpsed
and change tracking are germane to documentaion at a more abstract
level, I understand preserving this list for documentation about how
to use LyX and not getting into the more nebulous regions of LyX's
ultimate purpose in life as it trods the upgrade path to enlightenment. :-)
I was worried that none of the developer's had applied that change
tracking upgrade to Windows and that Windows would get left behind.
I should have realized that what seemed like a problem to me was not
a problem to the much more qualified developers and not looked for a
functional replacement to use on Windows to keep it on part with Linux
capabilities. So I think my post would have been more appropriate to
the developer list. I didn't realize it was already handled.
So I will let this thread conclude shortly after replying briefly to JP.
Thanks for your interest,
Stephen
--
Christian Ridderström, +46-8-768 39 44
http://www.md.kth.se/~chr
