Changing Track Changes defaults

[Wallace]

In her track changes FAQ Shauna Kelly says "By default, Word shows my text
using the "Final Showing Markup" setting."

Is it possible to change this setting, and have Track Changes open in, say,
"Final" rather than "Final Showing Markup."

 

[Beth Melton]

May I ask why you want to change the default? It is a security setting
and by changing it you are only changing it for your computer - not
the document. So if you send a document to someone else that contains
tracked changes then they will see them.

Although it may save two clicks to change the view from Final Showing
Markup, modifying this security option can also prevent you from
realizing there are Tracked Changes in documents and you could
inadvertently email or publish a document containing tracked changes.
Not to mention you could miss out on documents others send you that
contain tracked changes - some of them can be pretty interesting. ;-)

Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for
assistance by email can not be acknowledged.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP

Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word
TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/
MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/

 

[Dawn Crosier]

Yes. You can add an AutoOpen macro which will change the document to
Final form as it opens.

Sub AutoOpen()

'Change Tracked Changes to Final View
With ActiveWindow.View
.ShowRevisionsAndComments = False
.RevisionsView = wdRevisionsViewFinal
End With

End Sub

If you want this to happen with all documents, then add the AutoOpen
macro to your Normal.dot template. If you want it to happen to only
this particular document, then you will need to add it to the This
Document module.

If you have your security levels set to high, then you will need to
adjust your security setting down to medium so you can choose to
enable your macro or not. (This will not be necessary if you save the
macro to your Normal.dot template.)

Hope that helps.

--
Dawn Crosier
Microsoft MVP
"Education Lasts a Lifetime"

This message is posted to a newsgroup. Please post replies and
questions to the newsgroup so that others can learn as well.

 

[Wallace]

Dawn:

I'm almost there --- I have added your macro to my Normal.dot template. But
when I open a new doc "Final Showing Markup" still appears. When I run the
macro the Display for Review window changes to "Final," so the macro is
working, but I seem to be missing that one step that will get the mnacro to
trigger automatically when the active window opens. Any thoughts? Thanks.

Wallace

 

[Dawn Crosier]

Wallace -

AutoOpen runs when you open an existing document which is based on the
template containing the template. So, if you got to Tools, Templates
and Add-in's, is the document template "Normal" listed? If not, then
you will need to add the AutoOpen to whichever template the document
is based on, so that it can connect the references.

--
Dawn Crosier
Microsoft MVP
"Education Lasts a Lifetime"

This message is posted to a newsgroup. Please post replies and
questions to the newsgroup so that others can learn as well.

 

[Beth Melton]

No, if the AutoOpen macro is stored in Normal.dot then it will apply
to any document regardless of the attached document template. Now, if
the AutoOpen macro is stored in the document template then it will
only apply to documents that are attached to the template. Perhaps you
are thinking of Document_Open?

If you want more information on this I believe there is an article
Word MVP FAQ site that covers auto macros and document event macros.


Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for
assistance by email can not be acknowledged.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP

Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word
TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/
MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/

 

[Beth Melton]

Also, Wallace, if you are intent on changing the default behavior then
I recommend turning off the security option found under
Tools/Options/Security: "Make hidden markup visible when opening"
rather than use a macro to control the view since the security option
is actually safer than the macro method Dawn provided.

Using a macro will force all documents into the Final view. So if
someone sends you a document with tracked changes turned on you may
not realize it and this is something you should *always* be aware of.
Granted, it the document was saved in Final view you will not see
tracked changes but given the two choices changing the option is the
least risk. In either situation your only visual clue will be a bold
"TRK" in the status bar. There's also a possibility that a document
may no longer be in the track changes mode but have tracked changes
stored in the document. Again, something you should know about
documents you are editing/utilizing.

By changing the security option the documents will open in the same
view in which they were saved. So if it is saved in the Final view it
will open in the Final view. If the document was saved in the Final
showing markup view it will open in Final showing markup view.

Please post all follow-up questions to the newsgroup. Requests for
assistance by email can not be acknowledged.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Beth Melton
Microsoft Office MVP

Word FAQ: http://mvps.org/word
TechTrax eZine: http://mousetrax.com/techtrax/
MVP FAQ site: http://mvps.org/