Who IMC is for
For teams that receive commented PDFs and have to correct another document
Insert My Comments is designed for editorial, technical and documentation teams where the review arrives as a PDF but the real change has to be made in the editable source document.
IMC is relevant if this work shows up in your team
Publishers and production vendors
When the review arrives as a PDF but the change must go into the master document: Word, InDesign, XML, HTML or another production file.
Layout professionals and technical proofreaders
When the job isn't "correcting the PDF" but locating each comment, finding the exact spot in the source and applying the intervention without breaking the document.
Documentation departments
When there are long documents, versions, repeated flows, accumulated revisions and the need to keep track of what was applied, what remained doubtful and what wasn't to be touched.
Teams with XML and markup languages
When the reviewed PDF comes from a structured system and the corrections must go back to XML —including vocabularies such as DocBook, TEI or DITA— or to HTML and XHTML.
When it really pays off
IMC isn't designed for a lone PDF with two simple changes. It makes sense when the work repeats and the cost lies in the mechanical part:
- There are many corrections and volume turns every minute per comment into hours.
- The manual work consists of searching, switching windows, copying, checking and repeating.
- There is a real risk of applying a correction in the wrong place, especially with repeated text.
- The flow doesn't fit well into a closed native route, or that route broke along the way.
- You need to review and keep a record before applying, not apply blindly.
Comments don't arrive as they would in a laboratory
Some ecosystems have their own routes to return comments from a PDF to the document that generated it, and they work best when everything is born, exported, commented and returned within the same circuit. In editorial practice, PDFs arrive generated by third parties, reviewed by several people, with notes, highlights, long instructions, doubts and noise, and not always with text ready to insert.
IMC is designed for that terrain: commented PDFs that already exist, human comments that aren't always clean, sources that may not be Word, the need to review before applying, and doubtful cases best seen flagged.
Which source documents it works with
In the tool you choose the source document type, and from there come the journeys available for your case:
- InDesign, both through its local import route and through the editorial workspace.
- Word and FrameMaker, as sources with their own import route.
- XML / HTML / LaTeX, including XML vocabularies such as DocBook, TEI or DITA, and XHTML.
- Plain text, when the source has no structure to respect.
Not every journey exists for every source. The tool only offers the ones available for the case you've declared, and marks as planned what can't be run yet.
What the team gains
Less manual searching
The work of copying, switching windows, searching, checking, pasting and repeating comment after comment is reduced.
More reliable location
IMC doesn't settle for the first match: it contrasts the marked text with its context to reduce the risk of applying a correction where it doesn't belong.
More control before applying
When the journey includes review, you see the proposal, the source fragment and the context before touching anything.
A trace of what happened
Applicable, doubtful and non-applicable cases are kept apart, and each job leaves its report.
Who it is not for
- It's not a PDF editor. The commented PDF is the review's reference, not the goal of the work.
- It's not for applying everything without looking. IMC speeds up, orders and warns; the editorial judgement remains human.
- It doesn't rebuild documents. The goal is returning corrections to a source that already exists, not making one from scratch.
Quick questions
Does IMC edit the PDF?
Only when the journey calls for it: some operations prepare or repair the commented PDF itself. But the final goal isn't touching up the PDF — it's returning those decisions to the editable source document.
Is it only useful for Word?
No. Word can be the destination, but IMC is especially useful when the source is XML, DocBook, TEI, DITA, HTML, XHTML, LaTeX or an InDesign document.
What if the PDF and the source don't match exactly?
IMC helps locate and review, but the further apart the reviewed PDF and the source document drift, the more cases require human checking. The tool doesn't hide that uncertainty: it flags it.
Does it replace the layout professional or the proofreader?
No. It reduces mechanical work, locates, proposes and separates risks; the editorial decision remains with whoever knows the document.
Do I have to sign up?
No. You start a process without creating any account. When there is a real run, IMC gives you a link to come back to the process later.
Who is behind it
Insert My Comments was created by Ernest Vidal, out of years of work with layout, galley proofs, source documents, editorial review and the automation of documentation processes. The tool comes from that craft: it's built on the problems that appear when the reviewed PDF and the editable document are two different things.
Try it with your files
You'll see the journey, the files needed and the price before running anything.