Word: Convert multiple tracked-changes "owners" into single name

[Karen]

Word 2003.

A single document is often reviewed by several members of our firm, with
tracked changes. When the document goes out to the client, we want all
comments and changes to show as belonging to a single author. It is
inconvenient for all of us to use the same "User Info" as that doesn't allow
us to track our comments on each other's work internally.

I suggest a function that will allow a user to convert all or some of the
tracked changes information in a document to show the same user info, e.g. by
selecting all the relevant author names from a drop-down list ("convert all
comment by Karen, Jim and George to show as comments by Lawyer") or by
selecting a date range ("show all comments entered between November 1st, 2007
and November 3, 2007 as comments by Lawyer").

I hope this will implemented - it will save a lot of time and frustration!

Karen.



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[Aeneas]

It's not exactly what you want but read the following from Shauna Kelly
(http://www.shaunakelly.com/word/trackchanges/HowTrackChangesWorks.html):

Q: I want to send my document outside the company. I want to leave tracked
changes in the document, but I don't want anyone to see who made the tracked
changes or when they were made. How do I do that?
Before Word 2003, you can't. The author (or reviewer) information and the
date information are permanently attached to the revision when the revision
was tracked. You can't change them, even in macro code.

In Word 2003, Tools > Options > Security. Tick the box "Remove personal
information from file properties on save." In spite of the name, this does
more than just remove information in the file properties. If this box is
ticked, Word removes the name of the author of a tracked change, and it
removes the date and time that the change was made when you save your
document. But it leaves the tracked change itself. All tracked changes and
comments will be now attributed to an anonymous "Author".

 

[Karen]

Thanks - it isn't what I'm looking for, but it might be an option in some
cases. I didn't know this was a possibility.

I still hope the folks at Microsoft will consider my idea...

Karen.

 

[Bob Buckland ?:-\)]

Hi Karen,

As Word 2003 has been discontinued and Word 2007 has its feature set in place (as the current Word version) the earliest version
would be the 'next' one to include product changes, but Word 2007 has features along this line included.

Have you tried using the legal blackline comparison feature in Word 2003? Word 2003's isn't as full featured it appears as the
2007 version and may need some 'assistance'

In Word 2007, if you compare the original document to the one with multiple reviewers and save as a new document you have there an
option to specify what to label all of the changes, including 'Comments by Lawyer'.
(Presumably this 'grouping' doesn't change the billing rates to one of a senior lawyer <g>). There is also an option named 'Combine
revisions from multiple authors'.

The name of the authors and date/time of edit are stored in the document until you apply the comparison or the removal of personal
information (in which case the 'default' label to be applied to all comments/changes is 'Author'. The labels can be edited through
the HTML/source version of the Word document and presumably can also be located and replaced using automation (a macro) in Word
2003. Perhaps one of the other folks here who delve more into that area can advise on that approach.

==============
Thanks - it isn't what I'm looking for, but it might be an option in some
cases. I didn't know this was a possibility.

I still hope the folks at Microsoft will consider my idea...

Karen. >>
--

Bob Buckland ?
MS Office System Products MVP

*Courtesy is not expensive and can pay big dividends*

 

[Karen]

Hi Bob,

Thanks - it looks like I'm going to want Word 2007... I tried your
suggestion and I think it's a good workaround (for until your friends at MS
can adopt my suggestion in the next version of Word 2007!). It doesn't let me
choose the name for the single reviewer but gives my name to all the
comments, which I suppose is better than sending out a document with several
reviewer's names in it. Don't worry about our billing rates

BTW, can you tell me how to default to the legal blackline option in the
compare and merge dialog box? We have this document database and the way it
works I can compare documents from the database but I don't actually see the
dialog box and it always defaults to merge (not a useful option for me),
unless I deliberately save a document on my own harddisk and "force" the
compare dialog box to open. Not fun. I think the legal blackline option used
to be my default but it isn't anymore.

Thanks again for your clear and detailed suggestion.

Karen.