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!

Microsoft 365 and Office | Word | For home | Windows

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  1. Stefan Blom 352.4K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2015-05-05T00:33:22+00:00

    I agree that "Store random number..." seems less likely than "Always use these values..." but it is worth trying.

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  2. Anonymous
    2015-05-04T19:26:40+00:00

    I've never heard of the "Store random numbers to improve combine accuracy" option. Looking it up, I don't really see how it will make a difference... but I'll try to keep it in mind and give it a try next time I encounter the problem. At the moment, my blood pressure goes up every every time I start a new project, until I close it and reopen and see whether it's going to be a normal file or not.

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  3. Stefan Blom 352.4K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2015-05-04T19:11:38+00:00

    A fellow MVP suggested that you could also experiment with the "Store random numbers to improve Combine accuracy" option at File | Options | Trust Center | Trust Center Settings | Privacy Options. I don't know if the suggestion has helped anyone, though.

    The first thing to try is selecting "Always use these values regardless of sign in to Office" at File | Options | General (but you've probably already tested that one).

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  4. Anonymous
    2015-05-04T16:03:14+00:00

    Has anyone had any luck with this issue? I just started editing a new document, and within the span of about 15 minutes track changes treated me as 3 different users. I've been having this problem in multiple documents regardless whether I work on the document for one day or multiple days. So frustrating!

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  5. Anonymous
    2015-02-06T21:27:45+00:00

    I certainly will MBen-Gad. Fingers crossed!

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