After the PDF Comments: A Practical InDesign Revision Checklist

You’ve worked through the comments, updated the InDesign file, and exported a new PDF. Before sending it back, there’s one more question: did the changes produce the result the reviewers asked for?

A replacement sentence might be correct but push a caption onto the next page. A corrected figure might still appear in the summary. A comment marked as complete might have been applied to the wrong occurrence of a phrase.

Checking a revision means checking both the instructions and the document they produced. Here’s a practical way to do that.

1. Start with the right PDF and source file

Check that the annotated PDF belongs to the InDesign version you’re editing. If someone has already changed the source file since that proof was exported, page numbers and text selections may no longer line up.

Keep the reviewed PDF available as a reference. Save the revised source file as a clearly named version so the team can identify which file produced the next proof.

This is also the time to confirm which feedback is final. If two reviewers have supplied separate PDFs, bring their instructions together before treating either set as complete.

2. Give every comment a clear outcome

An edit list is useful only if it shows what happened to each item.

Use simple outcomes such as applied, needs clarification, or not applied, with a reason where needed. A question about shortening a paragraph should remain open until someone decides what the new wording should be.

For each applied change, check three things:

- The edit was made in the intended location.
- The wording or value matches the agreed instruction.
- The requested scope was covered, whether that means one occurrence or several.

Avoid marking an unclear comment as complete just because a plausible change has been made. The uncertainty still needs an answer.

3. Check what the text change did to the layout

A longer heading or an extra sentence can affect more than the frame where you made the edit.

Check edited areas for overset text, awkward line breaks, unexpected spacing, and changes to page flow. Look at the following page as well when text has moved.

Pay particular attention to captions, tables, footnotes, and text close to the bottom of a page. Small changes in these areas can be easy to miss when your attention is on the wording.

InDesign’s preflight checks can help identify issues such as overset text. Use them alongside a visual review of the revised document.

4. Look for related content that also needs updating

Some corrections have consequences elsewhere in the document.

If a reviewer changes a figure in a table, check whether the same figure appears in the introduction or a chart caption. If a section heading changes, check related references and the table of contents. If pagination changes, check references that include page numbers.

Search can help locate repeated wording, but read each result in context before changing it. The same phrase may appear in places where a different instruction applies.

5. Review the exported PDF

Open the PDF you’re actually going to send. Check the revised passages there, including the surrounding layout.

Compare it with the reviewed proof where useful. You’re checking that the requested changes are visible and that the revision hasn’t introduced an unexpected change elsewhere.

Make sure the file name identifies the new version. Keep unresolved items visible in the handoff rather than leaving the reviewer to discover them in the next round.

Make the next round easier to follow

A clear handoff can be brief: identify the new proof, explain which changes were applied, and list the items still waiting for a decision.

That gives the reviewer a useful starting point and gives the production team a record of what remains open.

In our first article, we explained why we’re building FormatStack around the handoff from PDF feedback to source-file changes. Our current workflow extracts PDF comments and organizes them into structured edit instructions for review. We’re building toward applying reviewed changes in InDesign with less manual work.

If your team regularly works through annotated PDFs, we’d like to understand how you check the results. Get in touch with FormatStack to discuss trying the current workflow on one of your revision rounds.