I finally just realized today how to fix a problem that some people can’t see my comments in the margins for my critiques because of platform problems or not having Word: I will start saving my crititques with the Track Changes and comments as PDFs! Why didn’t I think of this earlier?

So if you don’t have Word and are either waiting on an edit from me or will be asking me for a critique in the future, make sure to tell me to save your manuscript as a PDF when I return it. You’ll be able to see the comments (and print them out if you like) and not have to worry about trying to get to see it on a computer with Word or have me try to copy and paste all the comments into a separate file, which is time-consuming and confusing (the nice thing about Track Changes in Word is that when you add a comment, it references the place you’re referring to).

It’s a simple solution to a complicated problem. I love it when it finally comes together, but I do wish I could go back and fix some critiques from the past months. Speaking of which, if you got a critique from me in the past and don’t have Word, you likely didn’t get my full comments (and I didn’t even realize this was a problem until someone recently spoke up about it). I have a file of everything I’ve ever critiqued (I don’t delete the files once I send them to authors, in case something comes up later that I’ll want to reference), so if you’d like me to send you a PDF so you can be sure to get the full value of the critique, I’d be glad to send it along.