familiar and easy to use as a text editing tool. Couple that easy-to-edit Word file with quick-to-read requests and the responses seem to rush in faster than expected. How Does This Tool Help Marketing Staff? Being able to click “relink” instead of copying and pasting text back and forth from emails or PDF documents is an absolute timesaver. (I have used the Adobe commenting tools, but found it often created very large documents, which became cumbersome to open and use.) I’ve also found I have fewer comments and questions, meaning I’ve spent less time in coordination. Formatting and styles are maintained much more consistently using WordsFlow as opposed to simply linking a Word file, even when I have not set up character or paragraph styles in Word. When Should It Be Used? I will hands down admit there are times or teams or situations where I would not recommend WordsFlow. Sometimes it only complicates things and I’m all about keeping things “doable.” But if your teams understand how it is being used and apply themselves to making it work, they can more easily and quickly submit their writing assignments or make edits. Places I highly recommend using WordsFlow: • Resumes: Bios, education, licenses, and project information are easily and quickly revised. • Project pages: Whenever there is a narrative on a project, WordsFlow can be a great tool to collect and modify that information. • Narrative: Anytime there is a great length of narrative to be modified, especially when being reviewed by more than one person, “Track Changes” can be used in Word. When there are several pages of text or more than one author, breaking the text into reasonable sections and exporting them as separate Word files has worked best for me. • One author reviews: If only one person is reviewing, WordsFlow can be an easy way for modifications to be made. I often provide a word count to (hopefully) make things easier. If more than one person will be reviewing and making edits, have them edit one after the other using the same document. Consider having them use the “Track Changes” feature, too. • Larger proposals requiring input and/or modifications from non-marketing staff: When you’re providing 20+ full-page resumes, among other information, and trying to hit color reviews, being able to send out Word documents for revisions makes things run smoother. Some Additional Thoughts: • Because images do not export with the text into the exported Word file, I would suggest providing a PDF of the InDesign layout when the exported Word document is sent out for revisions. • Simultaneous editing in the InDesign and Word documents can be cumbersome. If the Word document and InDesign file are simultaneously edited, note that WordsFlow automatically institutes InDesign’s Track Changes feature. This means you can open the Story View in InDesign to see which changes were made where. My advice is to export a Word document with any changes made in InDesign before edits are made in Word. • Though this isn’t the rule, some InDesign formatting may need to be applied or reapplied, so I highly recommend using character, paragraph, and object styles in InDesign to make the reformatting faster, easy, and consistent. WordsFlow has been a great tool that I have found very useful when working with technical staff to pull together a proposal, especially when working through color reviews, which often feels like the same proposal is being overhauled once a week for 3–4 weeks. Scan the QR code to take advantage of their free trial and see if it would work for you. http://emsoftware.com/products/ wordsflow/ 18 REFLEXION
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