Five things I do before I start proofreading

Other proofreaders will approach jobs differently but there are some things I know will save me time and confusion in the long run.

I generally work on Word documents and there are five things I check before I even begin the proofreading:

This sounds obvious, but can I open and save the document? If I can’t, I need to let the author know as soon as possible, especially if we’re in very different time zones and the time frame for the proofreading is short.
Has the author selected an appropriate page size for the document? This is usually A4, but some US-based journals prefer the Letter format. Knowing this at the start of the process helps reduce formatting issues later on. Nobody wants to be re-sizing all of their tables part way through the submission process!
Has the author formatted the headings in the document? If the author has formatted the different heading levels, I can use the navigation panel in Word to help me move around the document. This is extremely helpful if I’m working through a PhD thesis or a complex research article.
Has the author used citation management software, such as Word’s own system or an external one (e.g., EndNote or Zotero)? Where there are multiple authors, each one might have used a different system for adding and/or formatting citations, and I will need to ensure consistency.
What proportion of the total word count is the body of the text, and how much of the document is devoted to other elements, such as references, tables or appendices? This is not a foolproof approach but this gives me a rough idea of how much time the various sections should take me to proofread.

Then the proofreading begins…