Commenting About Comments

[deepMacsonar]

I always thought Word, since version 4 could do just about anything in at least
two ways. I haven't worked with it for quite a while, but I'd like to respond to
the (professional editor) client who sent me this criticism.


Here is what she wrote on the difficulties of using the Comment function in Word
2004. Is it a valid difficulty and if so, is there work arounds?

______________________________
"In Word X, which showed tracked insertions and deletions in line rather than in
balloons in the margin, when you inserted a comment, the text on which you
commented became highlighted in yellow and a comment reference -- your initials
and a comment number in square brackets -- appeared directly after that text.
Using Format-Style, you could alter the style of the comment reference to make
it stand out. I made comment references bold and fuchsia. In Word 2004, you have
the option to show insertions and deletions in line (as in Word X) rather than
in balloons, but the comments are marked only by faint parentheses that are
almost unnoticeable. I tried to change the style of the comment reference
(parentheses), but the 2004 version of Word seems to override the style change
and stet the faint style. Useless.

"In Word X, you could view each comment in a pop-up window or view all
comments in the Reviewing pane, which listed ONLY your comments (not every
tracked change, which Word 2004 lists interspersed with your comments). You
could print out the numbered list of comments so that you could check them (and
refer to them by number in subsequent comments, which was handy) before sending
the file to the client (I sometimes have 10 or more pages of comments, so
reading them to check for errors is essential). In Word 2004, as far as I can
tell, printing the Reviewing pane results in a list containing every insertion
and deletion, as well as your comments. Useless that.
___________________________



Thanks
Rod

 

[John McGhie]

Hi Rod:

Yeah, well I am afraid they rather pooched this whole function in Word 2004.
It's 100 per cent compatible with 2003 (i.e. It doesn't work well in either
place...)

However, if she goes into Tracked Changes mode in Word 2004, she gets an
additional toolbar. The extreme left drop-down menu enables her to select
from various combinations of showing insertions and deletions.

Immediately to the right of that is a "Show" drop-down. If she checks off
everything but Comments in there, comments are all she will see/print.

If she uses File/Print, the third unlabelled drop-down that appears has a
"Microsoft Word" section. If she selects that, she can reach the "Print
what" drop-down that will enable her to print only mark-up.

If she drops into Normal view, the old Reviewing pane is still available.
She can control what appears there with the Show drop-down on the Reviewing
toolbar.

It's pretty messed-up, but she can get the job done! I do wish they would
ask us before they change professional-level tools like this...

Hope this helps

I always thought Word, since version 4 could do just about anything in at
least
two ways. I haven't worked with it for quite a while, but I'd like to respond
to
the (professional editor) client who sent me this criticism.


Here is what she wrote on the difficulties of using the Comment function in
Word
2004. Is it a valid difficulty and if so, is there work arounds?

______________________________
"In Word X, which showed tracked insertions and deletions in line rather than
in
balloons in the margin, when you inserted a comment, the text on which you
commented became highlighted in yellow and a comment reference -- your
initials
and a comment number in square brackets -- appeared directly after that text.
Using Format-Style, you could alter the style of the comment reference to make
it stand out. I made comment references bold and fuchsia. In Word 2004, you
have
the option to show insertions and deletions in line (as in Word X) rather than
in balloons, but the comments are marked only by faint parentheses that are
almost unnoticeable. I tried to change the style of the comment reference
(parentheses), but the 2004 version of Word seems to override the style change
and stet the faint style. Useless.

"In Word X, you could view each comment in a pop-up window or view all
comments in the Reviewing pane, which listed ONLY your comments (not every
tracked change, which Word 2004 lists interspersed with your comments). You
could print out the numbered list of comments so that you could check them
(and
refer to them by number in subsequent comments, which was handy) before
sending
the file to the client (I sometimes have 10 or more pages of comments, so
reading them to check for errors is essential). In Word 2004, as far as I can
tell, printing the Reviewing pane results in a list containing every insertion
and deletion, as well as your comments. Useless that.
___________________________



Thanks
Rod

--
Don't wait for your answer, click here: http://www.word.mvps.org/

Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie, Consultant Technical Writer
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
http://jgmcghie.fastmail.com.au/
Nhulunbuy, Northern Territory, Australia
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]

 

[Clive Huggan]

Rod,

I don't use Word's Comments feature, although I do a large amount of
commenting in my work. You may be interested in an article titled "Comment
feature, a simple substitute for" on page 127 of some notes on the way I use
Word for the Mac, titled "Bend Word to Your Will", which are available as a
free download from the Word MVPs' website
(http://word.mvps.org/Mac/Bend/BendWordToYourWill.html).

[Note: "Bend Word to your will" is designed to be used electronically and
most subjects are self-contained dictionary-style entries. If you decide to
read more widely than the item I've referred to, it's important to read the
front end of the document -- especially pages 3 and 5 -- so you can select
some Word settings that will allow you to use the document effectively.]

Cheers,

Clive Huggan
=============