Track Changes switches to Unknown user, changes color?

[Adam Engst]

Hey folks,

I've long had a problem in Word X that drives me up the wall, and I'm
curious if anyone has any suggested workarounds. Often, when I'm editing
with Track Changes turned on, Word will suddenly change the color of some of
the new text and will claim it was inserted by Unknown rather than by me. It
doesn't happen with all text, and it doesn't happen all the time, but it's a
common occurrence. I haven't seen any particular commonalities between the
files in which it happens, but I'd guess it happens mostly when the file has
gone back and forth among multiple people a few times.

Any thoughts? (Replies cc via email would be a help, thanks!)

cheers... -Adam Engst (e-mail address removed)

 

[Elliott Roper]

Hey folks,

I've long had a problem in Word X that drives me up the wall, and I'm
curious if anyone has any suggested workarounds. Often, when I'm editing
with Track Changes turned on, Word will suddenly change the color of some of
the new text and will claim it was inserted by Unknown rather than by me. It
doesn't happen with all text, and it doesn't happen all the time, but it's a
common occurrence. I haven't seen any particular commonalities between the
files in which it happens, but I'd guess it happens mostly when the file has
gone back and forth among multiple people a few times.

Any thoughts? (Replies cc via email would be a help, thanks!)

No help at all, but you are not alone, Can't even work out a way to
clean up. I'm hoping the next version might do a more honest attempt at
track changes.

 

[J.E. McGimpsey]

A brief update on this. The last time this started to happen to me, I
immediately saved the document, quit Word, and re-launched Word. That seemed
to prevent it from happening, whereas just closing and re-opening the
document did not.

In this case, I was the only person who had ever edited the document, so
multiple wouldn't seem to be necessary.

Just some random speculation, since I have *no* clue as to how track
changes is actually implemented...

I had thought that the User would be picked up by Word on opening
via the Office components (User information is kept in the registry
in WinOffice).

If some other application (e.g., Erage) tickled the user info, might
Word detect the change, whereby the "unknown user" would be
generated?

Closing and reopening a document wouldn't cause Word to resynch, but
closing and opening the app would, which corresponds to your
observation.

That would at least give something to test - Do you have multiple
users in Erage, and does it occur after changing users? I don't have
multiple users set up on this machine or I'd test it myself...

Again, that's pretty wild speculation.