Would you prefer to be pointed out your typo or just let it go? I am reading a draft. I se a few typos. No serious mistake but it could be returned for a correction because of typos. Shall I tell the author about the typos or shall I wait for him to catch on his own? If he doesn’t catch, it would mean a few days of delay. I have already corrected a few of his mistakes. I had a feeling he didn’t welcome last time.
Ask. Probably I would point them out. but if he seemed not to want that I’d stay out of it. Why are you being asked to review the draft?
Is it something you have been asked to review for substance? If so, I would quietly correct typos etc. in “track changes” in addition to making substantive changes/suggestions.
Depends on relationship, what is ultimately going to be one of this document, timelines, and how suggestions are framed and received.
BB, I can’t quietly change it. I don’t have the software. Yes, I need to approve it.
Experiencing this right now with a broken link on the website. I’m planning to quietly inform the person responsible - I figure that’s a better outcome (me looking like an anal-retentive jerk, which probably is what people think anyway) than users of the site being upset that it doesn’t work.
As someone who used to write for a living – and who constantly makes typos (fingers too fast and/or brain too slow) I would appreciate the tiny/minor ones corrected – but being told if there’s more than one or two.
I would correct it in writing and leave on his desk, no actual telling in person. Can you do that?
Not really. We are remote collaborating. just emails.
I’ve been in this position. I’ve always said something like (and this is true): hey, I’m a much better editor than I am a writer. Writing is hard. So I’m happy to talk about my edits because I don’t want you to see this as criticism.
Could you say something like that?
Print the document. Make edits/correct typos. Scan. Send as attachments and ask to make the changes accordingly. The end.
I edit all the time. A nice way to do it is : Hi. I have reviewed this and it looks great. I suggested very minor edits for typos and is good to go once those have been made.
“Not really. We are remote collaborating. just emails.”
I suggest you copy and paste it into a shared google doc. That way, he/she will see your changes (and hopefully learn from them 
), even in realtime. It’s easy. I use this all the time for nonprofit committee and board work.
Because OP says can’t do track changes, I assume the OP only gets to see this in a PDF. Would be hard to make edits unless one has a full Adobe program to convert it back to a word processable file.
Yes, only PDF.
@maya54 I already used that last time. I thought I sensed tiny bit of resentment.
You should be able to copy and paste out of a pdf, though, right?
What’s your relationship to the writer? Peer, subordinate, other? What is the draft being used for?
The person might get miffed but if you are responsible for looking this over and your name is attached to it, you surely don’t want it to go out with easily fixable typos. The author needs to get over their ego. There is a reason why you ask someone else to proofread your work.
If it’s important enough to need you to sign off on it, that means others will see it and it needs to be accurate. If it was me, I’d tell the sender that there are corrections to be made and he should resend in an editable format.
I would still stick with the maya54 suggestions, unless these are the kind of typos that we don’t all agree are typos. The Oxford comma, for example, or just commas in general that are used more sparingly by some writers than others. I can’t imagine not pointing out incorrectly spelled words.
I would hate to have my name attached to something with typos. I would want to know if I was the author and also if I was only tied to the work as a contributor, I would have to point them out.
The answer to your first question regarding if I’d want my typos to be pointed out: Yes
I could give him another day to see if he catches himself. It would mean a bit of delay but we will survive.