Track changes and headers

[Jan Martel]

I have several documents in which I use a header format that has a reference
to text on the page that is a specific style (usually it's a heading style;
used to get a reference to the section that's on the page). This works
great, *except* when I've made a bunch of changes to the document using
"track changes" and then try to accept the changes. No matter how many times
I click on "accept all" or go through the document trying to accept changes
to the headers, I can't seem to get rid of the line in the left margin that
indicates a change. If I click on the header that has the line to its left
and then click on the checkmark in the reviewing toolbar that accepts the
change, a red deleted box pops up in the right margin with whatever the
header reference was (and still is) in it. If I then click on the check mark
box in the deleted box, the box goes away, but the line to the left of the
header stays. I guess I could live with it - most people reading the
document won't even notice it, but it bothers me, so I wondered if there was
some way to get rid of that line? Actually, is there some way to explain to
Track Changes that I'd just as soon not have it track that sort of change
(one that arises because of page numbers changing - it also does it in the
Table of Contents, where I get tired of seeing a row of red page numbers
every time a section gets shorter or longer).

 

[John McGhie [MVP - Word and Word Macintosh]]

Hi Jan:

In a header or footer, try Select All, then Accept. No guarantees...

There is no way to make Track Changes selective: I wish there were ...

Cheers

I have several documents in which I use a header format that has a reference
to text on the page that is a specific style (usually it's a heading style;
used to get a reference to the section that's on the page). This works
great, *except* when I've made a bunch of changes to the document using
"track changes" and then try to accept the changes. No matter how many times
I click on "accept all" or go through the document trying to accept changes
to the headers, I can't seem to get rid of the line in the left margin that
indicates a change. If I click on the header that has the line to its left
and then click on the checkmark in the reviewing toolbar that accepts the
change, a red deleted box pops up in the right margin with whatever the
header reference was (and still is) in it. If I then click on the check mark
box in the deleted box, the box goes away, but the line to the left of the
header stays. I guess I could live with it - most people reading the
document won't even notice it, but it bothers me, so I wondered if there was
some way to get rid of that line? Actually, is there some way to explain to
Track Changes that I'd just as soon not have it track that sort of change
(one that arises because of page numbers changing - it also does it in the
Table of Contents, where I get tired of seeing a row of red page numbers
every time a section gets shorter or longer).

--

Please reply to the newsgroup to maintain the thread. Please do not email
me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie <[email protected]>
Microsoft MVP, Word and Word for Macintosh. Consultant Technical Writer
Sydney, Australia +61 4 1209 1410

 

[Jan Martel]

In a header or footer, try Select All, then Accept. No guarantees...

No, didn't work. I finally just went out of Track Changes, deleted the field
in the header and replaced it. That worked (of course probably only until
the next time I do something that changes the pagination).

There is no way to make Track Changes selective: I wish there were ...

It would be nice, especially for things that are links.

 

[Clive Huggan]

Hello Jan (nice to hear from you again),

You have probably thought about this, but just in case ...

Because of problems like this (and because of the increased chances of
corruption if the document is important), I avoid Track Changes within a
document wherever possible. I achieve the same thing by doing a document
comparison (Tools menu -> Track changes -> Compare documents) on a Saved As
copy of the document. What I do after that depends on the content; I
discuss the options in 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/MacWordNew/Bend/BendWord.htm).

Cheers,

Clive Huggan
Canberra, Australia
(My time zone is at least 5 hours different from the US and Europe, so my
follow-on responses to those regions can be delayed)
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