Author/Editor PC->Mac->PC Comparison Experiences Wanted

[Jay Smith <jay@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Greetings,

We use FM556 on Win95.

One of our ongoing authors uses a Mac and he is NOT highly computer
literate. He gets by, but we regularly have small issues to resolve
(partly because of Mac/PC compatibility).

Our editorial process on this loonnng series of books consists many
back-and-forth proofs, changes, proofs, changes....

Up to this point I have sent him either hard copies of PDFs which he
(prints out and) marks up for corrections and additions.

However, this is really getting tedious and is driving me nuts.  At the
same time, he is like "most authors" and a) does not understand the
electronic publishing process and b) likes to fiddle with things not his
concern.  [He is a really super person, he just does not "get it" in
this particular context.]  I am dealing with a highly-trained
professional (in his field of expertise) who is essentially voluntarily
providing content for a long series of books. I can't just get another
author -- he is the "only" one "crazy enough" to do this.

Also, these books are books are very highly formatted, consisting of 90%
tables.  There is a lot that one could "fiddle" with.

Furthermore, he is on a Mac and we are on PCs.  

We use fonts that we have created specifically for this series of books;
fonts which include different characters (glyphs) in certain positions. 
The fonts are PS, but I have never tried to use the PC->Mac font
conversion software, thus don't know how well this would work.  (And I
don't have a Mac available -- and don't want to get one -- to do
testing.)

SO.......

a) Is it worthwhile to buy him a copy of FM for his Mac?  Is all this
worthwhile, or is it likely to be easier to do it the old-fashioned way?

b) What is the best way to prevent him from "fiddling" with the content
(changing fonts, sizes, table column widths, etc.)?  Will comparison
find such changes (i.e. width of a table column, etc.)?

c) I do want him to make fixes and changes -- which I presume I would
find by doing comparisons or use change bars, or something. Which is the
best approach?

d) Given my paranoia about "fiddling" or the effects of roundtripping
PC-Mac-PC, what is the best way to "extract" his proper and reasonable
changes into OUR copy of the document?  Or must we use his copy as our
new copy?

Experiences and suggestions are most welcome.

Jay

-- 
Jay Smith

e-mail: Jay@JaySmith.com

Jay Smith & Associates
P.O. Box 650
Snow Camp, NC  27349  USA

Phone: Int+US+336-376-9991
Toll-Free Phone in US & Canada:
	1-800-447-8267
Fax: Int+US+336-376-6750

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