Tracked Changes: manual color change

[stevewy]

I am using Word 2002 and am having some trouble with tracked changes.
A solictor has been using tracked changes (Word 2000) on a document,
and has sent it down to me to print out in color. However, on her
machine the amendments are in red and green, and on my machine they
are in blue and green. Note that I am not adding to the changes,
merely viewing them. She is not connected to a color printer, so
cannot print the document out herself. I am connected to a color
printer, but the tracked changes colors are wrong!

I notice that in Word 2002, I cannot manually dictate the colors that
each author's tracked changes show up in; is there a way round this by
"cheating" and changing my Author details in Options (I don't think
this would work as I am not making any changes myself), or fiddling
with the tracked changes options in some way, or (and this is why I
have also posted to the word.programming newsgroup), a macro that
would change the colors of all the blue text to red?

I wonder whether it is possible to get a Word macro to go through the
document removing the "tracked changes" attribute and actually making
the text into the colour the tracked change was, then changing the
font color from blue to red. I already have a macro that zips through
a document taking out auto-paragraph numbering and making it into
regular text, and this would be a similar thing. This would be okay
since once the document is printed I can just lose changes and the
original document would be unaffected.

Does anyone have any thoughts? Any pointers towards the objects that
control track changes attributes and colors?

Thanks for any advice.

Steve Wylie

 

[garfield-n-odie [MVP]]

When you choose "by author" for the track changes color, Word gets to
choose the color for each author, and the colors may be different from
one computer to another.

A workaround might be for your solictor (sic) to create a .pdf file on
her computer and send the .pdf to you to print on your color printer.
Adobe Acrobat is the original .pdf program, but now there are many
freeware and shareware programs that can create .pdf files.

 

[stevewy]

That would work, but such software installations are tightly
controlled where I work, so having PDF software on her machine is not
an option. But thanks for the thought.

Steve

 

[Summer]

Change your Track Change Strikeout to Red to same as her colours and print
it.

 

[stevewy]

Change your Track Change Strikeout to Red to same as her colours and print it.

Where is that option? It's not in the Word 2002 Track Changes
options...

Steve

 

[garfield-n-odie [MVP]]

I read your original post to mean that the red and green colors on your
solictor's computer indicate tracked changes by two different authors.
In retrospect, I suppose you could have meant that the red and green
colors indicate additions and deletions by a single author. Which is it?

 

[Summer]

Go to Tools
Options
Track Changes (tab)
Insertions Teal
Deletions Red
Then print.

 

[garfield-n-odie [MVP]]

"Deletions" is not available in the Word 2002 Track Changes tab,
although the option can be accessed and changed by a macro.

 

[Summer]

It must be - I used to use 97 2002 with track changes (must be somewhere),
2003 and 2007.

 

[Summer]

So bring forth this useful macro please - it sounds very handy for 2002.

 

[Summer]

It is on Reviewing Toolbar Show Options - is that available in 2002?

 

[stevewy]

I think the problem is, the same as garfield-n-odie has said - the
instructions Summer has given do not apply to Word 2002. With regard
to the question about authors, the red and green colors do indicate
different authors, but there is no problem with the green color. It's
just that on the originator's PC, their amendments show up as red and
on my PC, their same amendments show up as blue, and I need them to be
red!

Any thoughts on doing this using VBA, even by removing the tracked
changes and replacing them with regular colored text?

Steve

 

[Summer]

Here is a spiel

Changing How Changes are Noted in Word

If you use the Track Changes feature of Word, you know how your document
looks as you make changes. Added text is shown in some different color, and
deleted text is shown with a strikethrough. You may want to change how Word
shows your changed text. Fortunately, Word allows you great flexibility in
this area. To make your configuration changes, follow these steps:

1. Choose Options from the Tools menu. Word displays the Options dialog
box.

2. Select the Track Changes tab. (Click here to see a related figure.)

3. Using the controls in the dialog box, indicate how you want your changes
to appear when you have Track Changes turned on.

4. Click on OK.

In Word 97 and Word 2000, the Track Changes tab allows you to specify four
different ways in which changes can be tracked.

· Inserted Text. Any text you add in a document is normally shown in a
different color, and with an underline. You can cause Word to display the
text using bold, italic, or a double underline, if you rather.

· Deleted Text. Normally deleted text is shown with a line through it.
You can, instead, cause Word to use hidden text to mark deleted text. You
can also cause deleted text to be marked with a carat or a hash mark.

· Changed Formatting. Typically Word doesn't call attention to any
formatting changes in your text. If you want to keep track of this, then
change the settings to show how you want note the changes. Word can denote
these changes using bold, italic, underlined, or double-underlined text.
(The concept of using formatting to indicate formatting changes seems rather
circular, doesn't it?)

· Changed Lines. This setting is used to specify how any lines that
contain changes should be noted. Normally, Word adds a vertical bar to the
outside border of the line.

In Word 2002 and Word 2003, the options available on the Track Changes tab
are a bit different.

· Track Changes Options. Here you specify how you want text insertions
to appear in your document. They normally appear as underlined text in a
different color, but you can instruct Word to use different types of
formatting for the text you add to the document.

· Balloons. The controls in this area allow you to specify if Word
should use change balloons in your document. These balloons appear at the
right side of a document and indicate, precisely, the changes made at
different points in the document.

· Printing. Here you specify how you want Word to print your document
when there are change balloons present. You can choose Auto, which allows
Word to decide whether to print in portrait or landscape mode; you can chose
Preserve, which forces Word to keep the same orientation you specified for
your document; and you can choose Force Landscape which forces Word to use
landscape orientation whenever there are any change balloons.

· Changed Lines. This setting is used to specify how any lines that
contain changes should be noted. Normally, Word adds a vertical bar to the
outside border of the line.

 

[Summer]

Here is a better illustration in the author dropdown pick "Red" or "Teal or
the colour you need

http://addbalance.com/usersguide/track_changes.htm#Track_Changes

 

[garfield-n-odie [MVP]]

Have the originator make a copy of the document on her PC. On the copy,
run the macro listed at
http://groups.google.com/group/micr...agement/browse_thread/thread/df353bce905e7a03
to convert the tracked changes to formatted text, and see if the results
are satisfactory. I haven't tried it, so I don't know if the macro will
need tweaking to get the colors right. If the macro does need tweaking,
then don't ask me cuz I'm no VBA expert, but I'm sure one of the other
regulars here will jump in to help if you can tell us what (if anything)
is wrong with the results. If you don't know what to do with a macro,
then see http://www.gmayor.com/installing_macro.htm .

 

[stevewy]

Yeah, but you're missing the point here. I don't want to know how to
change the color of *my* track changes - I want to change the color of
another author's changes within the current document. Changing any of
the options - in 2000 or 2002 - would only affect the coloring of any
changes *I* made, not the changes already visible in the document from
other authors.

Can anyone shed some light on the objects/methods I would need to look
at, to write a macro to convert the colored changes text to a
different color? It is only text on the page, after all.

Steve

 

[garfield-n-odie [MVP]]

That illustration applies to Word 97-2000. The OP has Word 2002, which
is different.

 

[stevewy]

Ah, thanks "Garfield" - that seems to contain the sort of code I'm
looking for. I'm sure I can make that macro do what I want.

Thanks, Garfield and Summer, for all your input.

Steve Wylie