This browser is no longer supported.
Upgrade to Microsoft Edge to take advantage of the latest features, security updates, and technical support.
![](data:image/svg+xml, %3Csvg xmlns='http://www.w3.org/2000/svg' height='64' class='font-weight-bold' style='font: 600 30.11764705882353px "SegoeUI", Arial' width='64'%3E%3Ccircle fill='hsl(128, 8%, 22%)' cx='32' cy='32' r='32' /%3E%3Ctext x='50%25' y='55%25' dominant-baseline='middle' text-anchor='middle' fill='%23FFF' %3EA%3C/text%3E%3C/svg%3E)
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!
A family of Microsoft word processing software products for creating web, email, and print documents.
Locked Question. This question was migrated from the Microsoft Support Community. You can vote on whether it's helpful, but you can't add comments or replies or follow the question.
Thanks, Jacques.
Thinking back, I've encountered this problem less and less over the past months. I guess more of my clients have been upgrading their software.
Anyway, I appreciate your putting your time into resolving this, simple though it was!
Meira
Hi Meira
As luck would have it, I received a student's file today that was still in the *.doc format, and tested this, and was able to replicate exactly your situation. So I feel more confident that your situation is attributable to the changes in the revision tools in Word 2013 not being compatible with the old Word document format. The simplest solution, then, is to work in the new format.
I am still giving attention to the other problem reported by Josh, and will probably be able to do more when he has answered the other questions I sent through.
Thanks, Jacques! I'll try this when the problem next arises. There may be cases where I can't, because changing the format may affect graphics in the document. But for me it's helpful even to know that for some documents there is no solution. I'm no geek but I'm not a technophobe either, and I have wasted many hours exploring the inner workings of Word (most of which I would never have reason to look at) because of this.
Meira
I pretty much think we've nailed down your problem (hope that's not premature).
I have upgraded many documents, and not run into problems yet.
I even saw a macro somewhere the other day that will scan your hard drive for files and upgrade all of them.
Having said that, you have a problem with clients still working with the old version of Word.
If only it were as simple as telling them they really need to upgrade! :-)
My memory of Word 2003 is getting a little sketchy, as you can imagine. I think I last worked on Word 2003 in about 2009 or 2010. Unless the feature has been included in a patch, I do not think that Word 2003 will be able to open the *.docx files. I seem to recall that when 2007 was released, Microsoft did release a tool that would allow 2003 to open but not edit *.docx files, but even my memory of that is scant (I never used the tool). I don't even know if it would be available for download any more--I wouldn't actually be surprised if it wasn't--we are now 12 years and three (almost four) versions on from Word 2003, after all!
I suppose the best option for you is to try this:
Hi Jacques,
I did as you suggested and saved the file to the 2013 format. That indeed solves the problem for new changes in this document (the system still treated old edits as fixed, just as before). It does seem an easy solution and hopefully I will be able to make use of it in future. The thing is, only some documents seem to allow me to save them in the new format. Whenever I receive a document from a client, I immediately save it to my computer under a new name. Usually, the system will say "this file will be upgraded to the newest system format", which is fine. But some files don't seem to give me the option, though I'm sure I can do it manually later... maybe those are the ones that I have this tracking problem with? The other things is that some files contain graphics and I get a message saying that upgrading to the new format will interfere with system functions, or something like that.... sorry, I can't recall at this moment exactly what it says.
Also, if I upgrade a file to Word 2013 and then send it back to my clients who created it as a Word 2003, what will they see? Will the document they open look exactly like the one I saw on my computer?
Meira