Word 2008 mixing up comments

[rdekleijn]

Version: 2008
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)
Processor: Intel

I usually review numerous Word files a day, and this other day a student came up to me and told me he could find comments I added to other students' files in his Word file if he opened it in TextEdit.

To replicate this problem, open (hypothetical) File1.doc, add comments (Reviewing toolbar), save file, close File1.doc. Then open File2.doc, add a comment, and save and close File2.doc. Now open File2.doc with TextEdit. You can see the comments inserted in File1.doc.

Very strange, and in some cases even a breach of privacy when working with multiple documents from different people. Has anyone noticed this problem before? And is Microsoft aware of this? Thanks!

P.S. I have all the latest updates installed

 

[John McGhie]

Yours is the first report I have seen of this issue.

Please create a sample, using two freshly-created and saved blank documents.

If you can get it to happen, please email the sample to me at the address
below. If you do that in the next two or three days, I will be in Microsoft
Redmond an I will personally show it to them.

Thanks

--

Don't wait for your answer, click here: http://www.word.mvps.org/

Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP, Word and Word:Mac
Nhulunbuy, NT, Australia. mailto:[email protected]

Version: 2008
Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard)
Processor: Intel

I usually review numerous Word files a day, and this other day a student came
up to me and told me he could find comments I added to other students' files
in his Word file if he opened it in TextEdit.

To replicate this problem, open (hypothetical) File1.doc, add comments
(Reviewing toolbar), save file, close File1.doc. Then open File2.doc, add a
comment, and save and close File2.doc. Now open File2.doc with TextEdit. You
can see the comments inserted in File1.doc.

Very strange, and in some cases even a breach of privacy when working with
multiple documents from different people. Has anyone noticed this problem
before? And is Microsoft aware of this? Thanks!

P.S. I have all the latest updates installed

--

Don't wait for your answer, click here: http://www.word.mvps.org/

Please reply in the group. Please do NOT email me unless I ask you to.

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP, Word and Word:Mac
Nhulunbuy, NT, Australia. mailto:[email protected]

 

[CyberTaz]

FWIW, I haven't been able to reproduce this here... Nor do I understand how
changes [of any kind] can be written to a *closed* file. If your findings
are accurate I'd be concerned about the condition of OS X on that system.

What do you see if you reopen the file in Word?

Regards |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

 

[rdekleijn]

Thanks for your replies. I don't think this is a case of writing to a closed file. I suspect Word remembers the comments I placed in the first file, and somehow doesn't delete it from memory and places it in the second file.

I will definitely reproduce this problem when I get home tonight (no Macs at work ;-)

Regards,
Roy