Track changes over the Internet by more than one reviewer

[Barry]

Hi all

I have a document that needs to be reviewed by ten people. In the past, I
have e-mailed this document to the ten people, they all amend it using track
changes, and then e-mail the document with their amends back to me. However,
this means that I receive ten different versions of the document with ten
different set of amends in my inbox. Putting them all together is a
logistical nightmare - especially because the ten reviewers want to see and
approve the changes made by all the other people.

I would like all ten reviewers to collborate on the one version of the
document, and add all their amends to the one document. If all ten users were
on my corporate LAN this would be no problem - I would just put the document
on our shared drive, and they could load it up individually, add their
changes, then save it back in the same location. Then the next person to load
the document would be able to see the previous persons changes, which is what
I would like.

The problem is, all ten people are clients, and hence external. So they
would have to access the document over the Internet.

Is there an easy way, that anyone knows of, that would allow me to host the
word document on a server that could be accessed via the internet, allowing
the reviewers to load the document remotely, edit it, and save it back in the
same place?

The only two solutions I know to this problem so far wouldn't work for me:
- e-mailing the first reviwer on the list, then sending the same document to
the second person, etc.... this would take to long
- asking people to re-upload the document to an FTP server... the reviewers
wouldn't have the time or technical knowledge.

If anyone has any solutions to this problem I would love to hear from you!

Thanks for your help
Barry

 

[Cooz]

Hi Barry,

A relatively simple solution to this is routing the document - it is built
in Word. See "Routing a document" in this article:
http://office.microsoft.com/en-us/assistance/HA010770801033.aspx?mode=print

Good luck,
Cooz

 

[Barry]

Hi Cooz
Thanks for this advice - I've read through that article and I think routing
could definitely help me. However, when I try that function in Word I get the
error "Your mail system does not support certain functions needed for
document routing". Could this be because we use Lotus Notes as our corporate
e-mail system, or do I just need to install additional components to Word?
Thanks again
Barry

 

[Cooz]

Hi Barry,

That's a pity. Lotus Notes may very well be the source of the error. I am
not 100% sure, but I feel that if you could test this on a machine with
Outlook instead of Lotus Notes, you are likely to use routing just fine.

You definitely do not have to install additional Word components.

Good luck,
Cooz

 

[Robert M. Franz (RMF)]

Hi Barry

Barry wrote:
[..]

Is there an easy way, that anyone knows of, that would allow me to host the
word document on a server that could be accessed via the internet, allowing
the reviewers to load the document remotely, edit it, and save it back in the
same place?

The only two solutions I know to this problem so far wouldn't work for me:
- e-mailing the first reviwer on the list, then sending the same document to
the second person, etc.... this would take to long
- asking people to re-upload the document to an FTP server... the reviewers
wouldn't have the time or technical knowledge.

Microsoft's answer to this task, nowadays, is probably: use a Sharepoint
site.

I've never set one up (IOW: I have no idea how complicated it is), and
am not sure how much it supports real-time concurrent access, but that's
the intended path I guess.

0.2cents
Robert

 

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

I am

Lotus Notes does not support this function (and most of the others you
really need...)

However, you do not "actually" need "Routing" to do this.

1) Decide whether you are going to mail to the reviewers one-by-one or
concurrently. If you email one by one, each can see the comments of the
previous reviewers, if you email concurrently, they can only see their own.

2) Look up Document Protection in the Help. You want to protect the
document for Tracked Changes (i.e. Turn Tracked changes ON, and prevent them
from turning it off )

3) Make sure that the reviewers know what to do after they have completed
their review: either send it to the next in the list, or send it back to
you.

4) If you emailed to them all concurrently, save your original. As each
person sends their document back, use Word's Compare and Merge feature (see
the Help) to merge the reviewer's changes into the original. If you emailed
them one by one, when the last one sends you back the document, all the
changes will be in it. Make SURE you kept a copy of the original, because
at least one of them will have FUBARed the document

Note: If the reviewer's copies of Word are set to "Remove Personally
identifiable information from this file on save" you will get the changes
back but you will have no idea who made which, so make sure that if you are
emailing them one by one that you tell them how to turn this off, and check
that they have done.

Whichever way you email them, you MUST teach them how to save the document
out of Notes to their hard drive before trying to enter changes. If they
edit the document in Notes, you may or may not get their changed version
back, depending on how they try to send it to you.

Hope this helps

Hi Barry,

That's a pity. Lotus Notes may very well be the source of the error. I am
not 100% sure, but I feel that if you could test this on a machine with
Outlook instead of Lotus Notes, you are likely to use routing just fine.

You definitely do not have to install additional Word components.

Good luck,
Cooz

--

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 (0) 4 1209 1410

 

[Barry]

John + Cooz
Thanks both for your help!
Will try using the merge feature right now and see if that solves the problem.
Thanks
Barry

I am

Lotus Notes does not support this function (and most of the others you
really need...)

However, you do not "actually" need "Routing" to do this.

1) Decide whether you are going to mail to the reviewers one-by-one or
concurrently. If you email one by one, each can see the comments of the
previous reviewers, if you email concurrently, they can only see their own.

2) Look up Document Protection in the Help. You want to protect the
document for Tracked Changes (i.e. Turn Tracked changes ON, and prevent them
from turning it off )

3) Make sure that the reviewers know what to do after they have completed
their review: either send it to the next in the list, or send it back to
you.

4) If you emailed to them all concurrently, save your original. As each
person sends their document back, use Word's Compare and Merge feature (see
the Help) to merge the reviewer's changes into the original. If you emailed
them one by one, when the last one sends you back the document, all the
changes will be in it. Make SURE you kept a copy of the original, because
at least one of them will have FUBARed the document

Note: If the reviewer's copies of Word are set to "Remove Personally
identifiable information from this file on save" you will get the changes
back but you will have no idea who made which, so make sure that if you are
emailing them one by one that you tell them how to turn this off, and check
that they have done.

Whichever way you email them, you MUST teach them how to save the document
out of Notes to their hard drive before trying to enter changes. If they
edit the document in Notes, you may or may not get their changed version
back, depending on how they try to send it to you.

Hope this helps

Hi Barry,

That's a pity. Lotus Notes may very well be the source of the error. I am
not 100% sure, but I feel that if you could test this on a machine with
Outlook instead of Lotus Notes, you are likely to use routing just fine.

You definitely do not have to install additional Word components.

Good luck,
Cooz

--

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 (0) 4 1209 1410

 

[rickielee]

what happens when someone deletes the routing instead of reviewing/changing
and the sending to next person on routing list? Can it be recovered or a
notice be sent that it was deleted?