Track Changes function thinks I'm two people

Anonymous
2014-10-26T16:00:11+00:00

I am a copyeditor, which means I use the track changes function all the time. Since I switched to Word 2013 I've had a problem with some documents whereby after I close the document and open it again, the track changes function treats me as a new user. The problem with this is that I often go over any given bit of text several times, potentially making new changes each time, and when the system treats me as a new user, any earlier additions that I later delete show up in the margin as deleted text (rather than simply disappearing).  This is confusing for my clients, who only want to see my final changes and not the history of my train of thought. Of course, I can resolve the problem by rejecting the change instead of deleting the added text, but (a) I don't always remember to do that, and (b) this is still awkward, especially where I rewrite a given bit of text several times, making new additions and deletions each time. Can anyone advise as to how I can alert the system that when I return to a document, it should treat previous tracked changes as still active? I know there must be a way to do this because the problem only arises with some documents. I suppose there is something about the settings in the original document as it is sent to me that affects this, but for the life of me I can't figure out what that is. Thanks to anyone who can help!

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  1. Anonymous
    2017-03-31T17:54:02+00:00

    I am also seeing the behavior using Word for Mac, v15.32.

    It does seem like when I open the document and pick up editing from where I left off, the color changes, however my user name on the right is identical.  I tried saving and going back into the document and the color goes back to the original color, however new changes entered after that are again in a different color.

    It's almost like it was a feature to allow you to view the changes you made today, versus the ones you made earlier.

    I'm reviewing a document someone else wrote, so the origin of the document (in terms of which version of Word was used to create it) is not known to me, but I suspect it is Word for Windows and an earlier version of Word as well.  One clue is that it is in .doc format, not docx.

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  2. Stefan Blom 352.4K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2017-02-05T00:38:12+00:00

    If I remember correctly, the problem has only been reported for Word 2013 (and possibly 2016).

    What do you see in the list of editors/reviewers at Review | Show Markup | Specific People? Is there one person listed or more?

    Are you saving to OneDrive (or some other cloud storage)? Note that Word 2010 has no option to only make use of the locally defined "User name" (in the Options dialog box).

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  3. Anonymous
    2017-02-04T10:28:59+00:00

    In Word 2010, editing a long document (that I periodically save, for safety, thereby creating new sessions) my edits in a later session of changes I had made in an earlier session appear as tracked changes of my own changes! (Treating me lime a new person) This shows my thought process, changes of mind etc.  when I share the document with others (not good). My only solution, once I have finished all editing, is to 'accept all' and make a document compare with the original (a waste of time). I have played with all the options in 'Show markup' and 'Final show markup' (also in 'Options' - 'Advanced Edits') but cannot resolve. This did not happen with Word 2007 which merged my changes between sessions (as long as I was on the same device). I see Stefan and others have had the same problem and I have read (flipped through) the 12 post strings, but cannot see that there was any straight forward fix for this. Can anyone help me?

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  4. Anonymous
    2016-08-17T11:58:50+00:00

    Hi Stefan, yes, I had selected "Always use these values regardless of sign in to Office".

    Also, my name appears twice under Review | Show Markup | Specific People only lists one name.

    If things persist, I will be forced to switch back to an older version I think.

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  5. Anonymous
    2016-08-12T08:18:08+00:00

    You wouldn't believe it, but I spoke too soon. Within an hour of posting yesterday I started a new project for a client I hadn't heard from in some time, and guess what - same problem again! Clearly she hasn't upgraded her software.  I am just dealing with it, as it's a short project. If it were book-length it would be another story.

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