5 Useful Tools for Publishers and Editors

The work of an editor or publisher is not easy – it is a constant pursuit of materials that will gain popularity among readers, working with the written word and people employed in the editorial or publishing house. We have created a list of practical tools that will help in the daily performance of the duties of a person responsible for editing and publishing content.

Creating an article, interview, press release or novel is a multi-step process that can look different depending on the type of publication the author is working on. There are many interesting tools for editors dealing with digital and traditional publications that can save your employees time.

• SwifDoo PDF

SwifDoo PDF offers its users both free and paid tools. The free version is browser-based and allows you to perform the simplest of conversion tasks. When using the tool in the browser, the entire process takes place in the integrated SwifDoo PDF online website, there is no dedicated space to access and share stored files, and your file is 100% secure without being stored.

This SwifDoo PDF online converter does not offer any text editing tools. And in this case, you’ll need to install the SwifDoo PDF desktop program. One thing editors may find useful is the compression feature, which allows large image-based PDF files to be reduced to a fraction of their original size without significantly compromising the quality of the final file.

The best editorial experience is guaranteed by tools for publishers created with the individual requirements of a given editorial office in mind. 

What exactly can the SwifDoo PDF editor help with? By using the services of a SwifDoo PDF pro version, you can choose useful modules and integration tools to build a PDF that will respond to the problems that your editors and you – the publisher, face on a daily basis. 

• Evernote

Evernote is an app that helps authors jot down useful things, capture inspiration, and organize materials. You can use the free version or choose one of the paid plans. The more expensive solution you choose, the more functionality you will get.

The most basic — free — access allows you to organize your tasks and notes with the help of templates and to-do lists. The web scissors tool allows you to cut and save entire pages and text fragments, as well as attach relevant PDF files to your notes. Evernote is also able to scan your handwriting for information.

• Ulysses

Applications for publishers and editors are usually multifunctional tools whose appearance can be personalized to some extent in order to increase the comfort of work. They have different styles to use when formatting texts and the ability to define new ones. 

Extensive formatting and styling capabilities are provided by Ulysses – an application for users of Apple devices, for which styles can be created or downloaded from the Ulysses Style Exchange. Ulysses is designed to make it easier for the author or editor to work with the text on a daily basis, using only the keyboard (navigation does not require a mouse).

• Manuscript

Some applications allow you to group tools necessary for a specific type of project, e.g. to work on documents or literary fiction. Manuskript allows the user to define and use different modes of operation. This software will certainly be of interest to publishers working on many types of publications, popular science articles or belles-lettres. It is convenient when working with long texts, as it allows you to quickly organize parts of the text into chapters and add notes . The creators of Manuskript also try to minimize the likelihood of an author being distracted by providing full-screen typing.

Writing and editing tools usually allow you to export files in various formats, manage your work on text and projects by grouping them into folders, adding labels or describing them with key phrases or other useful information about a given project. Many of them (like the aforementioned Apple application) allow users to create a list of goals for the day in the program and save the deadlines for completing a given project. Automatic changes and backups are also standard.

• Grammarly

Grammarly is one of the most recognizable text correction tools on the market in terms of grammar, punctuation and spelling. It comes in the form of paid software and a free extension for Chrome.

Currently, Grammarly is only used to edit texts in English, but it is worth noting that it has been adapted to work with different varieties of this language (American, British, Canadian and Australian). Enabling the tool while working, e.g. in Google Docs in a different language, may cause Google to stop automatically showing us errors. Therefore, for other languages, it is worth looking for an equivalent of this tool on the local market or one that supports many languages, e.g. Language Tool.

What exactly can the mentioned services such as SwifDoo PDF help with? As you may already know, Microsoft Word, Excel and PowerPoint have a Save as PDF feature that makes it easy to convert DOC, XLS and PPT files to PDF. PDF editing is done by modifying the texts and images in the original file and saving them later as PDF. The only downside is that you cannot convert files from PDF with any of these programs. For this, you can rely on such an useful PDF editing software.

In closing

The visibility of the published content in the browser is one thing, but the visual appeal of the article should also not be forgotten. Texts on the web most often appear accompanied by graphics that attract the reader’s attention and motivate them to read the content. It is worth choosing an easy-to-use but functional tool.