Track Changes not staying off in Tools, Options

[Training Goddess]

I don't want Track Changes balloons to display in my Word documents as a
default. When I turn the feature off in Word 2003, then close and re-open the
document. The balloons reappear on the right. How can I turn this feature off
permanently.

Thanks in advance!
Training Goddess

 

[Jen]

If there are tracked changes in your document, there's no way to have them
not show up - it's a security feature so that you're aware there are tracked
changes (which can sometimes be embarrassing) before you send the document to
someone else.

If you're happy with the document as it is, you can accept all the changes
and they will go away. Make sure your Reviewing toolbar is showing, then do
Ctrl+A to select your entire document (this step isn't technically necessary,
I don't think, but I've had some changes missed when I skip it), then click
on the down arrow next to the checkmark and choose "Accept All Changes".
Then, make sure Track Changes is turned off (you should see the toggle button
on the toolbar - make sure it's not highlighted). This will prevent the
problem from arising again in the future.

Hope this helps.

 

[Training Goddess]

Let me clarify. We don't mind that the tracking is displayed, we just don't
need the balloons, so in Tools, Options we choose the option 'Never' for the
balloon feature. We still get the colours, lines etc, but we don't have the
large gap on the right that is difficult to read if printed. When we save the
document, we assume that this document (and others?) will no longer use the
balloons, just the lines and colour to show tracking. That's not the case.
When we re-open the ballloons are back. We don't want to accept all changes.
We don't want to hide the tracked changes. We simply don't want the balloons.

Please help.

Thanks in advance.
Training Goddess
Microsoft Office 2003 Certified Master Instructor

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

It sounds as if your settings are not being saved. This could be because the
Word Data key in the Registry is corrupt; to rebuild it, see the
instructions in
http://word.mvps.org/FAQs/AppErrors/MissingMenusEtc.htm. That is the "easy"
solution.

The other two possibilities are more problematic:

1. You have an add-in installed that is changing those settings on startup.
It may require considerable trial and error to figure out which add-in is
causing the problem, and then you have to decide whether you can live
without it or not. And that is the choice because even an AutoExec macro to
make the desired Track Changes settings will not help since the add-ins are
loaded *after* Normal.dot.

2. If you're on a network, there may be a login script that resets all your
settings to a corporate default. There's not much way around this, either,
except to persuade the network admin to change the settings globally.

 

[Training Goddess]

Option 2 seems more likely to be the problem. This is a large corporate
environment which definitely has some standardization applied to the Office
2003 environment. It would not suprise me that this could be the issue.

This is excellent as I hadn't thought of that and now I can pursue it
further. I could win some serious 'brownie points' if I resolve this for
everyone that's experiencing this issue.

THANKS! :-D
Training Goddess

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Good luck with the Network Nazis! <g>