Chris Morton is a marcom/technical editor, author, proofreader, layout artist, and publisher who has been engaged in the general B2B/B2C, IT, infosec, and medical device realms for over 25 years.
InnovatiVE document review process
The NYMMIS document review process was a framework for approving business and technical documents in a structured, process-driven manner. As a document was initially submitted to the publications team, it was to be routed to several others for approval prior to general distribution.
The publications team was responsible for tracking and routing each document as it made its way—via an aged Microsoft SharePoint system—through the approval process. We were charged with knowing where any document was located in SharePoint at any time.
My inventive process used a Document Acceptance Review (DAR) form—a MS Word cover sheet I had named—to carry a given document from point to point. It used object linking and embedding (OLE), a feature that has been included in Microsoft Office since the late ‘80s (and that few realize exists).
To start the process, a document author downloaded a blank DAR form from SharePoint. They completed a few informational fields, then embedded (Insert > Object > Microsoft Word Document) their document in the form as an icon.
The publications team then uploaded the completed DAR to SharePoint and helped usher it through the review cycle. As each reviewer signed off and passed along the DAR, the next reviewer simply double-clicked the embedded icon to open the document for review.