Proof-reading errors while looking at CRT.
Proof-reading errors while looking at CRT.
(OP)
I have trouble proof-reading a document when it is displayed on a computer monitor. It seems that no matter how hard I look it over on the screen I will find errors when I print it out.
Need to know if this problem is just with me or if others experience the same thing? Is it an age thing? I’m 50 yrs. old and have been using computers for a long time (20+ years).
Need to know if this problem is just with me or if others experience the same thing? Is it an age thing? I’m 50 yrs. old and have been using computers for a long time (20+ years).





RE: Proof-reading errors while looking at CRT.
You are not alone.
I finally gave up and just print-out any document that requires my approval.
RE: Proof-reading errors while looking at CRT.
That method does not work very well for me(I am 37) and I prefer to check things and work them out roughly on paper first.
We end up finding a lot of things later when we print things out for review.
RE: Proof-reading errors while looking at CRT.
Wes C.
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Light travels faster than sound. That's why some people appear bright until you hear them speak.
RE: Proof-reading errors while looking at CRT.
RE: Proof-reading errors while looking at CRT.
There is some weird human response thing going on here with how we "see" things on a screen, be it CRT or LCD.
RE: Proof-reading errors while looking at CRT.
RE: Proof-reading errors while looking at CRT.
No, just joking, it's a very common problem. Just make sure your printer cable is perfectly straightened out, otherwise your text gets messed up and you will inevitably have errors in the printout that were not there on the screen.
I am waiting for the first IT-tech / physicist / ophthalmologist / psychologist / who know what who can explain it. Meanwhile we'll just keep wasting trees...
RE: Proof-reading errors while looking at CRT.
RE: Proof-reading errors while looking at CRT.
What's CADD? An error of proof reading perhaps?
RE: Proof-reading errors while looking at CRT.
RE: Proof-reading errors while looking at CRT.
Fact: You can scan over a paper document faster laying on your desk than on-screen (uh, the document is laying on your desk, not you) and see more of it better.
Fact: You can switch between or compare two or more paper documents faster and better than on-screen.
At my last job I checked drafting work fairly often and told the young, very computer savvy guys with good eyesight over and over "BEFORE you bring this back to me, print it out and LOOK AT IT." It didn't take, and and we spent lots of time chasing smaller and smaller errors.
Paper: There is NO substitute.
Regards,
Mike
RE: Proof-reading errors while looking at CRT.
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RE: Proof-reading errors while looking at CRT.
RE: Proof-reading errors while looking at CRT.
RE: Proof-reading errors while looking at CRT.
"Do not worry about your problems with mathematics, I assure you mine are far greater."
Albert Einstein
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RE: Proof-reading errors while looking at CRT.
the good old days...
RE: Proof-reading errors while looking at CRT.
RE: Proof-reading errors while looking at CRT.
RE: Proof-reading errors while looking at CRT.
I can't proof on the screen and have to print out. Flat screen helps some but I still miss a lot so for anything important print it out.
This is one of the things that gets me about paperless office or Model Based Definition, is it possible for most people to check/proof read drawings/documents this way?
RE: Proof-reading errors while looking at CRT.
Just joking, I have the same problem also... :(
RE: Proof-reading errors while looking at CRT.
RE: Proof-reading errors while looking at CRT.
RE: Proof-reading errors while looking at CRT.
It gets worse when you are composing in a second or 3rd language. The eye just can't see the errors on the screen.
Cut down a tree and print the document.
rmw
PS: then send it to a landfill to sequester the carbon.
(Don't take the thread there)
RE: Proof-reading errors while looking at CRT.
RE: Proof-reading errors while looking at CRT.
I tried this once. I can't do it. My eyes strain and I feel a terrible sense of irritation.
RE: Proof-reading errors while looking at CRT.
RE: Proof-reading errors while looking at CRT.
RE: Proof-reading errors while looking at CRT.
Now I work and don't have to pay for my own paper, I tend to print out documents for proof reading, especially if I am checking somebody else's work. There was one young engineer who's work I checked. I started off by checking it on screen with tracked changes, but found he always made the same mistakes. When I printed out the documents and wrote on them when things need changing, he stopped making the mistakes because he had to put in work to correct them.
RE: Proof-reading errors while looking at CRT.
You know to look at changes you made, but sometimes the big picture isn't there. You know, the flag notes on sheet 1 you haddn't considered, the BOM qtys that are out of sight etc.
A ream of paper costs $1.50 a mistake costs?
RE: Proof-reading errors while looking at CRT.
You also might try looking at the MicroSoft website. They have some free software that makes the letters appear more clearly and thus easier to read. Somehow it makes the letters crisper and sharper and easier to identify.
RE: Proof-reading errors while looking at CRT.
Solidworks 2006/DBWorks 2006 user
RE: Proof-reading errors while looking at CRT.
In my CAD system you can change background colours of the drawing. I don't like the really dark colours (which is how the modelling environment is set up and is fine there) but changing to light grey can help reduce the strain a little.
I still like to print hard copies though, even if not full size.
RE: Proof-reading errors while looking at CRT.
RE: Proof-reading errors while looking at CRT.
TTFN
RE: Proof-reading errors while looking at CRT.
Someone, somewhere claimed that the best editing device ever created was a red pen. Red pens do not work on my computer monitor, at least, not after the first edit. :)
I am 51. I like to hand E-size drawing prints on my wall.
I can make a mess red-lining a printout, and then be organized as hell when I bring up the computer file and work on it. They won't buy me a 60" monitor with .12mm pitch. Drat!
JHG
RE: Proof-reading errors while looking at CRT.
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"It's the questions that drive us"
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RE: Proof-reading errors while looking at CRT.
Definitely there with the red pen comments.
The worst of it is when you need to find some info a 200+ page pdf, can't really justify printing it all off so just have to squint and bear it!
RE: Proof-reading errors while looking at CRT.
I'm one who really prefers proof-reading on the computer. Lately, I have been dealing with documents that are 1000+ pages in length. When you're looking at 60 or 70 times where someone has spelled the word "alignment" as "alinement", it is so great to just use a "find and replace" and not have to worry if you really caught every example. It's also great when the lawyers have all of a sudden taken objection to the words "reasonable assurance" or some other stock phrase.
I can also use the "find and replace" option to get rid of unwanted fonts and font size changes.
I can also easily check to see if accronyms were spelled out the first time -- or if it's the 50th time its been defined (cut and paste at its worst!). I can verify reasonable consistency between sections, especially helpful when dealing with multiple "authors."
I can make comments in the text that automatically show in a different color. I can add comment boxes, I can highlight. And, at the end, I can produce a "redline/ strikeout" version to show all the changes made.
The only times I long for hard copy is when I'm trying to compare two or three tables at the same time (i.e., did the audit team members correctly translate the information from the application and did the applicant correctly translate it from the standard.) But even then I seldom print things out; I just slog through it.
Though I confess, I often print out drawings. But I'm looking forward to the day where Adobe will recognize printing on an image so I can search for a valve number and it will take me right to it.
Patricia Lougheed
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RE: Proof-reading errors while looking at CRT.
You are talking about correcting, not proof reading. If I proof read a computer generated document and observe that they wrote "desinger" everywhere, I can write a note requiring a search and replace.
JHG
RE: Proof-reading errors while looking at CRT.
Errors only began to re-appear when we lost the typists and had to do our own documents.
I do have the problem of proof reading on the screen.
So for me, its a two stage process, first pass on screen second pass on paper then apply the correction on screen again.
The trouble with this is that I can end up re-editing.
JAE :
Is this a "measure twice cut once" thing? When you learn the hard way that errors are a pain to correct, as typists do, you learn not to make errors; hence the "measure twice..." rule but because errors are so easy to correct in a computer, it doesn't require a much trouble to get it right first time.
So in fact, it isn't necessarily harder to proof read on screen but easier to make errors and just a problem with catching them all.
JMW
www.ViscoAnalyser.com
RE: Proof-reading errors while looking at CRT.
I'm not so sure I agree with that, jmw. Over the last 12 years or so I've beat my head against the wall trying to "catch" errors that appear in CADD on the screen. I agree 100% in your "measure twice" concept, but you have to agree that even with that there are numerous coordination issues that crop up when overlaying, say, structural plans on the architectural plans and avoiding the column in the door type stuff. This goes on all the time with every project, no matter what the discipline and is a normal task of any engineer - to coordinate and check the plans.
But I've instructed CADD operators over the years to twice check their drawings before giving them back to the engineer and yet, over and over again, there are just plain blatant errors that show up despite their checks....and these are long-time experienced structural technicians. I look at the screens myself - "looks good to me" I say, then plot it out and there's some of the most "obvious" errors that appear on the paper.
I tell you -there's something to this about the human response ot lines or words on a screen.