Track Changes

[Montserrat]

Word 2001
OS9.2.2

Hi,

I received an email from my editor who made corrections to my work using
'track changes'. The changes were marked in red. I copy pasted the email
into word 2001. The same document pasted with the colored changes. I tried
to edit the document but things wouldn't change. She told me to copy paste
the word doc into another word document. I did and what I got was her edited
document, this time with all her colored editing removed, leaving the
corrected document. Nice. What I tried was protect document-track
changes-highlight changes---then there were three boxes to check, track
changes while editing (greyed out), highlight changes on screen (checked),
highlight changed in printed document (checked). Then I pressed ok. I have
tried to use this track changes for my own editing purposes (first of all,
can I do that? It might be a useful tool) and couldn't get it to work where
I could copy my edited text into another document and have the editing
removed or changed. What do I do?

Thanks, Rafael

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Here's a very good page, though written for WinWord. When it refers to
Tools | Options, read Preferences. Your Word 2001 is closest to the WinWord
2000 interface, so follow those instructions. I think everything else will
be comprehensible, just ask if it raises more questions.

 

[Montserrat]

Daiya

Where can I find the WinWord 2000 page you mention?

Thanks, Rafael

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

So sorry! I copied the URL and forgot to paste it in. I remember hitting
cmd-c, too.
http://shaunakelly.com/word/trackchanges/HowTrackChangesWorks.html

 

[Montserrat]

Hi,

I've studied the article sent to me by Daiya. I have gotten to the point
where the TRK text in the status bar at the bottom of the word screen is
black and my changes are highlighted in red as per the Track Changes folder
choices in Preferences>Track Changes.

What I can't figure out is how to take the document I've made changes on,
copy and paste it into a new document, and have that result in a document
with all changes made and all deletes deleted. When I do copy and paste, I
simply get a copy of the same text with revision marks the only difference
being that the revision marks are in black.

I re-opened the document my editor sent to me in track changes form -
changes highlighted in red - copied and pasted it into a new word document,
and again it came out as the completely corrected document, changed and
deleted with no change markings left, and no red highlighting. I had
originally copied that document from an email, to a word window, then to a
second window, which became an edited and completed document.

The article is good. what am I missing?

Thanks,

Rafael

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

http://shaunakelly.com/word/trackchanges/HowTrackChangesWorks.html

I've studied the article sent to me by Daiya. I have gotten to the point
where the TRK text in the status bar at the bottom of the word screen is
black and my changes are highlighted in red as per the Track Changes folder
choices in Preferences>Track Changes.

Sounds like you've only gotten through 2 or 3 of the 10 headings?

What I can't figure out is how to take the document I've made changes on,
copy and paste it into a new document, and have that result in a document
with all changes made and all deletes deleted. When I do copy and paste, I
simply get a copy of the same text with revision marks the only difference
being that the revision marks are in black.

See heading 9? As an alternative, see heading 5, "how do I remove tracked
changes?" Copy/paste is not necessary for what you are trying to get: "a
document with all changes made and all deletes deleted." The normal way to
achieve this would be to accept all changes. You may choose to do a Save As
first.

Daiya

 

[Montserrat]

Daiya,

Got it! Thanks.

Do you know of writers who find it convenient ‹ or not ‹ to write in 'track
changes'?

Best,

Rafael

 

[Daiya Mitchell]

Um, you absolutely do not want to *compose* in track changes, as if you pile
up too many edits over a long time, Word starts going a little crazy.
(There was a very tricky problem on this ng that we helped a Mack with, and
part of it was caused because he had accidentally turned on track changes
and then rewritten a 150-page novel, doing things like re-arranging
chapters).

It's really most useful for others editing your documents, I think. When I
sit down for a major editing session on my own work, I usually do a Save As
FileName #8 first, just in case--if I were just making small changes, I
wouldn't bother tracking changes because I wouldn't expect to ever want to
undo them.

Daiya

 

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

Me, for example?

Daiya,

Got it! Thanks.

Do you know of writers who find it convenient ‹ or not ‹ to write in 'track
changes'?

Best,

Rafael

--

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

 

[Montserrat]

Thanks for the heads up, Daiya. I had just started editing this morning
with my wonderful new track changes ability, looked at my document, and
wondered. "How to procede now?" So I checked into the ng. Good idea.
Previously I was editing my book in a chapter file, then when the file got
too cluttered, I would create a new file, Draft 2. Etc. Draft 3,4. I think
that's the same thing you describe that you do. Tried and true. I
periodically become enamoured of each new thing I discover that Word can do.

Rafael


thought to check into the ng before proceding

 

[Clive Huggan]

Rafael,

Further to Daiya's comments: I'm personally not keen on Track Changes most
of the time, because it tends to focus me (and colleagues working on the
document) on the minutiae of the changes, not the thrust of the document.
Also, I want to avoid the corruption that occurs after too many people track
their changes, and make changes to changes etc, in the one long document.
But that's more a reflection of the sort of work I do. However, sometimes I
have to be aware of the detail of changes (and for many lawyers, for
example, this is supremely important for many documents). And I mention this
because the "Save As ... Compare Documents" option, as follows, may be
useful to you.

In the above case, I do a Save As, and on the newly saved document I choose
Tools -> Track Changes -> Compare Documents. This results in a new document
looking the same as if Track Changes had been going continually.

What I do next depends on the number of changes. If there are only minor
changes, I will make them in the pristine original (usually I exercise the
discretion as to whether a change is made, and what the final wording is, so
I often need to modify it anyway); if many, I can Accept/Reject, with a
final test run with Accept All, just to be sure they have all gone. (If you
want more detail, do a "Find" for "track" in the 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). The latest (April 2005)
edition covers Word 2004 idiosyncrasies, whereas earlier editions did not).

But in all of this, I have the security of a clean document to go back to if
I want to.

Cheers,

Clive Huggan
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