From PDF Comments to InDesign Changes: Why We’re Building FormatStack

The reviewed PDF lands in your inbox. There are a few wording changes, a new paragraph, some corrections to a table, and comments from two people who disagree about the headline.

The feedback is collected. Now someone has to turn it into an updated InDesign file.

That means moving between the PDF and the source document, locating the right content, interpreting each instruction, making the change, and checking the result. A short comment can involve several steps. Across a long document or multiple review rounds, those steps add up.

This is the part of the workflow we’re working on at FormatStack.

The work between a comment and a change

PDFs are a convenient way to share a document for review. People can see the layout and leave feedback without opening the source file.

But collecting feedback and applying it are different tasks.

A comment such as “Replace ‘Contact us’ with ‘Book a demo’” provides a clear instruction. Others require more judgment:

• “Make this consistent with the previous section.”
• “Use the updated numbers.”
• “Can we make this shorter?”

Before making a change, the person updating the document needs to understand what the reviewer intended. They may need to ask a question, find another file, or check whether a later comment overrides an earlier one.

Even clear feedback needs context. Which occurrence of a phrase should change? Does the instruction apply to a single paragraph or the whole document? Will a longer replacement push text onto another page?

The task involves reading, interpretation, editing, and quality checks—not just copying text.

Why this handoff deserves attention

When people discuss improving document production, they often focus on creating the first draft or collecting approvals. The work after the review can receive less attention.

Yet this is where the feedback has to become a finished document.

A missed comment can lead to another review round. An unclear instruction can interrupt production while someone waits for a reply. Two conflicting requests can leave the person making the edits to decide which one takes priority.

A useful workflow should make these decisions visible. It should help the team understand what needs changing, what needs clarification, and what still needs checking.

What we’re building

FormatStack is being built to help teams move from annotated PDF feedback to changes in their source files. We’re starting with Adobe InDesign.

Our current starting point is extracting PDF comments and organizing them into structured edit instructions for review. This gives the team a clearer set of changes to work through before updating the document.

We’re building toward applying reviewed changes in InDesign with less manual work.

The distinction matters: organizing feedback is available in our current workflow; fully automated source-file editing is still in development.

Our aim is to reduce repetitive work while keeping the decisions that require judgment with the people responsible for the document.

Clearer feedback helps today

You don’t need a new tool to improve the next review round. A few commenting habits can make the handoff easier:

Select the exact text. Anchor the comment to the words that need changing whenever possible.

Provide the replacement. Instead of “Change this wording,” write: Replace “Contact us for more information” with “Book a demo.”

State the scope. Say whether a correction applies once or everywhere in the document.

Separate questions from instructions. “Could we shorten this?” needs a decision. “Delete the second sentence” is ready to apply.

Resolve conflicting requests. If two reviewers want different changes to the same passage, agree on the instruction before sending the file to production.

These habits reduce the amount of interpretation needed. The updated document still needs a visual check: a text change can affect line breaks, spacing, and page flow even when the wording is correct.

Help us shape the workflow

We’re looking to work with people who regularly receive annotated PDFs and update InDesign documents—whether that means reports, brochures, publications, or other documents with repeated review rounds.

We want to understand where the work slows down, which comments are hardest to act on, and what your team needs to trust a more automated process.

If that sounds like your workflow, visit FormatStack and get in touch about testing it with your team.