How to automate this process?

[Pahonix]

Version: 2008
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)
Processor: Power PC

I have maybe a hundred or so documents with Track Changes active that I need to do this process to:

1. Select All, Set to Double Spaced
2. Ensure View -> Comments, Insertions/Deletions, Formatting are all set to On.
3. Print
4. Turn off View-> Insertions/Deletions, Formatting
5. Print list of markup.

The idea is to get a printout with all the changes viewable and then get a list of any comments on subsequent page.

How do I automate this process, if possible?

 

[John McGhie]

In Word 2008, you need to write an AppleScript to do that.

Or you need to find a version of Word that supports VBA (Word 2004 or any PC
version of Word) and write a Macro to do this.

In VBA, you could Record most of the actions, but you would still need to
write part of the macro.
For only 100 documents, I think it will be quickest to do it by hand (in
fact: unless you are strong at writing AppleScript or VBA, I am SURE it will
be faster to do it by hand...)

Cheers

Version: 2008
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)
Processor: Power PC

I have maybe a hundred or so documents with Track Changes active that I need
to do this process to:

1. Select All, Set to Double Spaced
2. Ensure View -> Comments, Insertions/Deletions, Formatting are all set to
On.
3. Print
4. Turn off View-> Insertions/Deletions, Formatting
5. Print list of markup.

The idea is to get a printout with all the changes viewable and then get a
list of any comments on subsequent page.

How do I automate this process, if possible?

--
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, Microsoft MVP, Word and Word:Mac
Sydney, Australia. mailto:[email protected]

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

But oh so tedious to do it by hand.....

Actually, even as a novice scripter I could probably come up with the
Word syntax for steps 1-5 to help--those steps shouldn't be that
complicated. You'll have to let Word open each one while it runs. And I
think set the script up as a droplet and maybe drop the 100 files on it
at once? Maybe in batches?

Do you know scripting at all? Are you willing to play with it?

But the detail you gave isn't enough. Do you want the
Comments/Insertions/Deletions shown in Balloons? You might run into the
problem that not all the text fits in the balloons. And you are
printing the list of markup, so I guess you don't want balloons. But
View Insertions, etc is not a simple On/Off switch. You should state
EXACTLY what you would do manually, including things like what View you
are using, etc.

 

[Pahonix]

Ah, more detail, no problem. I'm getting files from our editor with track changes enabled. The idea is to get a double-spaced printout on our color printer of the changes being made to the document by the one or two people that have touched the document before we receive it. I have bubbles off because as you've mentioned, it cuts off if there's been a lot of changes on a particular page. However, without bubbles, I could find no way to see the comments on a printout. Hence, I print it first with the changes shown without bubbles and then hide the insertions/deletions and formatting changes and print the markup. If there's comments on the document, they show on the markup list. If there's no comments on the document, the markup list is empty. The only downside to this is that I then need to associate the comments with their insertion points on the printed document with the changes shown (i just number each comment by hand and write the numbers on the document at the proper places).

The view for each document is Draft mode for most of the documents, but one or two have opened in Print Layout view. But changing the view mode doesn't have any affect on how the document prints, so I don't change it.

So a more detailed process would be:

1. Open document
2. On Reviewing toolbar, select Show -> Comments, Show -> Insertions and Deletions, Show -> Formatting (sometimes these are already on, sometimes, I only have to turn on the Insertions/Deletions, it's never the same)
3. Select all, set to Double Spaced
4. Deselect all.
5. Click the Print button on toolbar (bypasses dialog box for quick printout)
6. On Reviewing toolbar, deselect Show -> Insertions and Deletions, deselect Show -> Formatting.
7. File -> Print, change menu from Copes & Pages to Microsoft Word, then under Print What: choose List of Markup. Click Print.
8. File -> Close, don't save.

I should say I have no experience with AppleScript.

Does this help?

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Well. I played around with a bit and got nowhere, because AppleScript
sucks. Sorry.

I bounced it to a friend who may or may not have time to offer something
helpful--if you've got a few days to wait.

Daiya

 

[Pahonix]

I appreciate you taking the time and I have no problem waiting it out. I'm working on them manually in the mean time. The documents keep flowing in, so there's not going to be a shortage of them in the near future that need this done.