How do I change the colors for "by author" redlining?

[susan]

I would like to set the colors to use when doing "by author" redlining (more
than one reviewer is making changes). Word seems to randomly generate colors
for this, and sometimes they are difficult to read. Does anyone know how to
select and lock the colord for this feature?

 

[Herb Tyson [MVP]]

What version of Word are you using?

 

[susan]

Microsoft Office Word 2003

What version of Word are you using?

 

[Herb Tyson [MVP]]

The short answer is... you can't. You can choose *a* color for all authors,
or you can let Word assign different colors for each author. You can't tell
Word to use red for Geoge, blue for John, yellow for Ross, etc. If you want
a different color for each author, you're stuck with Word's assignments.

See Tools - Options - Track Changes for what can & can't be done.

 

[susan]

Well, Microsoft should change that. I'm a professional, and would like my
multi-revision documents to display in red and blue - and maybe green for a
3rd reviewer. I don't like sending out a document showing changes in
chartreuse, magenta, and pink - doesn't look professional, and can be
difficult to read and distinguish when viewed on screen.

 

[Herb Tyson [MVP]]

I agree completely. To paraphrase a high U.S. government official, however,
we have to use the features we have, rather than the features we wish we
had. ;-)

Tracking colors are a "local" option, by the way. Even if you set your
colors a specific way, there's no guarantee that those with whom you share
your document will see what you see. So, you can't say "See that red
deletion?" The other user will see what Word shows them -- most likely, the
default.