Leaving editorial notes in Layout by Zaweba

Questions about a page usually live somewhere else: an email, a chat, a sticky note on a printed proof. By the time the designer gets to them, the context is gone. Notes in Layout by Zaweba keep those questions inside the document, either in the text itself or on the page, right where the problem is.

They are editorial notes, not part of the content. They are there for the people making the document, and they sit alongside the work rather than in it.

Two places a note can live

A note in the text belongs to a particular point in a story. It is the right choice for anything about the words: a fact that needs checking, a caption that is waiting for a credit, a quote that the writer should confirm. Because it is anchored in the text, it travels with the words when the story reflows onto another page or another frame. You don't lose the note when an earlier spread grows by a column.

A note on the page belongs to a spot in the layout. It suits comments about design rather than wording: a picture that needs replacing with a sharper one, a space being held for an advert, a reminder that a box on this spread must match one in the previous issue. The Note tool, in the Tools panel next to Type, Eyedropper and Measure, is the way to place one.

Bringing comments across from Word

Writers often deliver in Word, and their comments are part of the handover. When a .docx is imported into Layout, those Word comments can come in as notes. That means the writer's own queries ("is this the right spelling of her name?") arrive in the layout attached to the words they were about, instead of being lost when the text is placed.

This works well with the rest of the text import. Styles in the Word file can be mapped to the document's own styles, tables and pictures come in anchored, and the comments arrive as notes. One import gives you the text, its structure and the open questions together.

Using notes well across a job

Notes are most useful when everyone agrees what they are for. A simple rule helps: questions and instructions go in notes, while actual corrections to the wording are made in the text, ideally with track changes on. Mixing the two, such as typing a new sentence into a note and expecting the designer to copy it in, is how corrections go missing.

Keep notes short and specific. "Check this" is not much help a week later. "Confirm the date of the opening with the gallery" is. When a question is answered, resolve it by removing the note, so the file only holds what is still open. A spread with ten old notes on it hides the one that matters.

There is a Notes section in Preferences, which is where you set how notes behave for you. Have a look there early on, so notes display the way you want before a busy proof week.

What notes are not for

Notes are not a substitute for preflight. A missing font or a low resolution picture should be caught by Layout's live preflight, which checks the document as you work and counts problems in the status bar. Notes are for human questions that no automatic check can answer: is this the right photo, has the client approved this headline, should this price be checked again.

They are also not a way to hide text you might want later. Text you are not sure about belongs in conditional text or simply in a separate story on the pasteboard, where it can be seen and moved back in. A note is a conversation, not a store.

A quieter way to work through proofs

Used consistently, notes cut down the back and forth that eats up the end of a job. The writer's questions come in with the text, the editor adds more during the first proof, and the designer clears them as the answers arrive. When the last note is gone, the document is ready to go to preflight and then to the printer, and the whole conversation happened in the place where the work was being done.