Track changes, suggestions, and copyediting modes

PubPub
1

Over the years, we’ve had numerous requests for a track changes, suggestions, or copyediting mode feature that would in some way track changes made to versions of Pubs and present them as feedback for authors that they can accept or reject.

We are currently working on implementing a first version of part of this feature-set as part of a larger Pub infrastructure update. This first version would mainly be for reviewing and copyediting (as opposed to tracking/suggesting changes), and would look and function a bit like a diff. In other words, editors would be able to create a copy of a Pub, make changes, and then submit it back to the author. Unlike git, we would not attempt to auto-merge changes, since that causes issues with prose. Instead, authors would be able to see what changed between their current version and the submitted version and accept or reject all or part of those changes.

We’re experimenting with various interfaces and philosophies for the best way to do this now. We’d love to know:

  1. If you have any thoughts about how to best implement this feature.
  2. If you’d be interested in doing a wireframe walkthrough over video chat in the next few weeks.
2

What would be really helpful in terms of collaboration is a feature that tracks movement of text snippets.

At least that is the one complaint I hear the most from my colleagues. A couple of years back there was poetica.com - a somewhat stable multicursor editor - that visualized where it estimated that movement happened.

To have something similar in pubpub would be a killer feature for the platform.

3

Great suggestion. It’s something we aspire to do, though of course it’s a tough challenge.

Saving some links that describe/contain Poetica screenshots, since it appears to have been taken down. Wish we could get access to the interface somehow.

https://edshelf.com/tool/poetica/