Review Workflow

If you are using a full registered mode of Contributor, you can review and edit documents sent to you by others.

If you are using the free review mode, you can review documents sent to you by others and add annotations (comments). However, you cannot edit the documents.

Reviewing Documents—Full Registered Mode

1. Open You can open the review package file from your email, or from a link sent to you by the author. The files in the review package are listed in the Review Packages window pane at the bottom. Double-click a row to review and edit a particular file.

   If the review package contains topics as well as snippet files, you can open the snippets too. You can open snippets by double-clicking them in the Review Packages window pane. Another approach is to right-click the snippet where it is inserted in a topic (or in another snippet) and from the context menu select Open Snippet File.

2. Edit You can edit the content in Contributor, and your changes are tracked automatically. Also, if the file you received already had tracked changes in it, you can accept or reject those changes. After you return the review package, the author can see your changes and accept or reject them.
3. (Optional) Insert Comments You can insert annotations (comments) that are associated with specific areas of text in the document. These annotations do not become part of the content within the document, but rather are intended for internal use between you and others. (Do not select more than one paragraph or click at the very end of paragraphs; otherwise, the "Insert Annotation" option will not be enabled.) See Inserting Annotations.
4. Return You can return the review package to the author in various ways. Work with the author to determine how he or she wants to be notified. If the author is using a built-in email feature, this might simply entail clicking Return to Sender in the Review Packages window pane. Otherwise, you might need to manually inform the author via another method (e.g., email, chat). See Returning Documents to Authors.

Reviewing Documents—Free Annotation-Only Mode

1. Open You can open the review package file (e.g., from your email or a link sent by the author). The files in the review package are listed in the Review Packages window pane. Double-click a row to review and edit a particular file.

   If the review package contains topics as well as snippet files, you can open the snippets too. You can open snippets by double-clicking them in the Review Packages window pane. Another approach is to right-click the snippet where it is inserted in a topic (or in another snippet) and from the context menu select Open Snippet File.

2. (Optional) Insert Comments You can insert annotations (comments) that are associated with specific areas of text in the document. These annotations do not become part of the content within the document, but rather are intended for internal use between you and others. (Do not select more than one paragraph or click at the very end of paragraphs; otherwise, the "Insert Annotation" option will not be enabled.) See Inserting Annotations.
3. Return You can return the review package to the author in various ways. Work with the author to determine how he or she wants to be notified. If the author is using a built-in email feature, this might simply entail clicking Return to Sender in the Review Packages window pane. Otherwise, you might need to manually inform the author via another method (e.g., email, chat). See Returning Documents to Authors.

Regular Document Files vs. Lingo Translation Files

For MadCap Lingo review package (LIREV) files, the XML Editor works a bit differently than it does for regular document files from products such as Flare or Word. That's because Lingo is a translation tool, so only text segments are important, and in particular, the target language segments. When you open a file from an LIREV package, the editor shows a table containing text segments from that file in the source and target languages. The status of each segment—which indicates how closely the target segment matches a translated segment in translation memory—is also shown.

You can make changes only to the target segment, as well as insert annotations. In addition, you can make certain formatting edits to the target segment (e.g., bold, underline, color), but many other features (e.g., insert image, hyperlink, table) are disabled for Lingo review files.

What’s Noteworthy?