The importance of reviewing draft publications before printing

It is very important to ensure that the final version of any of the various publications is error-free and contains the right level of information. Therefore, reviewing draft publications before printing and before releasing the final version will be built up over time. These draft versions can be reviewed at any stage to get as much input as possible when working on the final version.

It is excellent practice to do this and make sure you save the different versions. You can go back to any version and check the progress at different stages.

Determine what should be included in the final version of the document

The first thing to do when creating any document is to decide what to include. This refers to the text and image content, document structure, and format of how final versions are presented. Perhaps the easiest way to plan a document is to start with a table of contents that outlines what will be included. If you’re not going to include a table of contents, it’s still a good idea to plan out different sections of the document and decide on headings and basic structure. This can be included in the draft release or planned in a different document.

You will need to consider which images will be used in your prints and how they will be displayed. Depending on the type of document you are producing, you will have to think about which formal sections to include such as the introduction or executive summary at the beginning. You will need to consider how it is concluded and what the end result of the document is.

Other considerations are paragraph sizes, use of bulleted lists, formatting of headings and subheadings, document structure and layout such as number of columns or use of tables, etc.

You should also consider formatting techniques such as using a template and thinking about the font you will use for body text and headings. Review visual aspects of the document such as including the brand logo so that standard formatting is used throughout. The page layout and use of headers and footers should be planned as early as possible so that they are built into the structure and their final formatting can be reviewed and edited over time. You can see that planning can be considered the first step to reviewing draft documents.

Careful planning allows you to produce final versions and minimize changes later and will overcome the need to restructure the layout if early considerations are made of all aspects of what is required. It is necessary to take into account the target audience and the type of document so that it is presented in the correct format and using the correct language for this audience.

Techniques used for reviewing draft publications to produce final publications

After you have decided on the structure and content of the official document, you will need to start creating it using dedicated programs and adding content to it. Simply writing and producing content is not good enough, as this content needs to be reviewed and edited to work towards the final version. The review process can be done by the document creator and initial file versions must be saved on an ongoing basis. Draft copies of the document can be distributed to other parties for feedback to improve the document at various stages. Depending on the length and format of the final version of the document, the amount of revisions to drafts will vary. For short documents of five pages or less, only final review and editing is usually needed.

The following stages can be used when reviewing draft publications before producing and publishing the final version:

Review document structure:

As the document begins to take shape, it is important to review how it is structured and make changes to improve it based on stakeholder opinion. This can include page layout and considering whether certain sections would look better in landscape or portrait view. For example, if an extension contains charts and graphs, will they look best in landscape view to get the best results from the visuals? Other aspects will include how the document is organized in terms of headings and sections and how the overall flow of content fits into these sections. You will need to consider whether some sections require additional subheadings to explain things in more detail.

Table of contents:

Going back to the previous point about including headings and subheadings, it is important to review the table of content. You can decide whether it is better to structure your document within the text or from the table of contents and update your document accordingly. One useful feature of using an automatic table of contents updates is that they can be linked to the document and changes can be reflected in both places if you set up headings and subheadings to do so.

Content review:

Obviously, the most important aspect of the review stage is looking at the actual content itself. Anyone producing content should also try to get at least one other person to review it. This can be done yourself but another pair of eyes will always spot something you can’t see yourself. When reviewing content, you need to look at the level of detail included and whether or not your content flows well. You will need to check that the sections are complete and that there are no basic spelling or grammar errors.

Check reading:

As part of the content review, you will need to double-check all the material and make sure everything is understandable and in the right context. You can check the meanings of things using tools such as dictionaries and thesaurus. When using word processing software, you can also use the built-in automated spell checker that will highlight basic spelling and grammar errors. It’s great to have help from automated tools but using a professional proofreader is the best thing you can do to make sure your content is accurate and free of grammatical errors.

Test links:

You will need to ensure that you test any links to external online documents. URLs should be up to date and the latest versions of online content should be reviewed every time a new version of an official document is published. You should remove links that are no longer valid to ensure that you are providing accurate information. If the online content to which you link changes or is no longer valid for your document, you must also remove the link or update your document content based on the changes.

Permissions for any images used:

Another thing to check when reviewing various publications is to make sure that you have permission to use any images included in them. Images can be owned by you or the source can be referenced for educational materials as long as permissions are obtained. Alternatively, you can purchase the rights to use the appropriate images. Other images that can be included are those with a Creative Commons license, which can be used or edited for free with some conditions set by the original owner.

Refer to any sources of information:

It is important to reference any material you quote within the document and should review this regularly when putting the document together and working to create the final version. It’s really up to you what type of reference system you’ll use. It needs to use standard formatting throughout to look professional. It is also important to determine the format you will use for reference material before creating the document. So that it can be updated upon each revision of the document.

Copyrights:

For official business documents that you want to protect from anyone copying them, you’ll need to copyright them. This ensures that your material cannot be reproduced without prior permission. This will protect your work and is important for materials published in paper and web format.