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
    2014-11-12T08:37:37+00:00

    The problem doesn't fix itself on save - only the color changes. So if the changes showed up in red the first time, they might show up in blue after I close and reopen the document - but then on 'save' the changes in blue turn red. Nonetheless, the system still treats my old tracked changes as if they came from another user (or more accurately, it's as if the system thinks I want to retain a record of my own changes).

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  2. Stefan Blom 352.4K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2014-10-26T20:06:34+00:00

    The option you have found should ensure that Word uses the user name in the Options dialog box (as opposed to looking at the Office account).

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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
    2015-05-05T15:27:03+00:00

    Hi Jacques,

    Thanks for tackling this. As you'll see if you read my earlier posts, my problem is not the same as Josh's. In my case, my changes appear to have been produced by one reviewer in that they show up in the same color and under my name after I save and close. But when I'm working on the document, it nonetheless treats each round of editing as though I were a different reviewer, in that if I make changes to text that I previously edited it tracks those changes, rather than simply deleting or changing the edited text. You can see this in my document by reading what I wrote after Round 2, Round 3, etc. The upshot is that unless I use 'reject change' instead of simply deleting or overwriting text, my clients end up with a confusing morass of edits instead of the final product. 

    Re your comment that my document is a Word 2003 doc - that's because this problem only happens in documents created from the older versions of Word. The problem began when I switched from Word 2010 to Word 2013. Before the switch I never had an issue. (NB

    • I am an editor, so I never work on documents that I create - only documents that are sent to me by my clients.)

    Thanks,

    Meira

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  5. Stefan Blom 352.4K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2014-10-26T22:35:19+00:00

    No restart should be necessary. Do note that selecting the option won't fix existing edits or comments, but it should work for future comments that you create (in any document).

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