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Category 'Document Comparison'

Below is a matrix that shows how iRedline enhances the Microsoft Word 2007 comparison and collaboration process. I hope to make you a believer in the Word 2007- iRedline 7 combination.

Below is a matrix that shows how iRedline enhances the Microsoft Word 2007 comparison and collaboration process. I hope to make you a believer in the Word 2007- iRedline 7 combination.

Feature

Word 2007

iRedline 7 Added

Comparison Process is performed inside of Word

Yes

Yes

The result document from an original and revised document creates a Tracked Change document for further collaboration

Yes

Yes

The result document from an original and revised document creates static changes (non-tracked changes)

No

Yes – iRedline creates a result document with "iRedline changes"

Accept and reject tracked changes

Yes

Yes

Accept and reject iRedline and DeltaView changes

No

Yes

Convert tracked changes to iRedline changes

No

Yes

Convert iRedline and DeltaView changes to tracked changes

No

Yes

Navigate to tracked changes

Yes

Yes

Navigate to iRedline and DeltaView changes

No

Yes

Create different comparison schemes for tracked changes and iRedline changes

No

Yes

Browse system files for original and revised documents

Yes

Yes

Browse DMS for original and revised documents

No

Yes

Full DMS integration

No

Yes

Print pages with tracked changes

No

Yes

Print pages with iRedline changes

No

Yes

Create a three way view

Yes

Yes

Create a three way view at any time

No

Yes

Synchronize any two documents of a three way view

No

Yes

Email all three documents (original, revised, result) with one click

No

Yes

Create a composite document with original and revised zipped inside the result document

No

Yes

Add Change numbers to each revision

No

Yes

Tag text to be ignored during comparison

No

Yes

Create a statistical report for Word’s native comparison documents

No

Yes

Add a report after the fact (at any time)

No

Yes

Add Office 2003 animation to changes

No

Yes

Condition the original and revised document before comparison for more accurate results

No

Yes

Update TOC before comparison

No

Yes

Detailed footnote and endnote comparison

No

Yes

Unlink fields codes before comparison

No

Yes

Remove comments before comparison

No

Yes

Remove unnecessary bookmarks before comparison

No

Yes

Convert Auto numbering to text for more accurate comparison

No

Yes

Compare Moves

Yes

Yes

Compare Formatting

Yes

Yes

Compare Insertions and deletions

Yes

Yes

Compare only moves and NOT insertions and deletions

No

Yes

Compare only formats and NOT moves, insertions and deletions

No

Yes

Compare text at Word or Character level

Yes

Yes

Compare table cell changes

Yes

Yes

Add line numbers to result document

No

Yes

Customize both revision authors

No

Yes

Remove change date from revisions in result document

No

Yes

Create Hyperlinks for each change in a report

No

Yes

Remove hidden text before comparison

No

Yes

 

 

 

Tracked Changes and Tables – a Complex Issue

I often am asked, “How does iRedline handle tables during the comparison process?” I say, “Great, because iRedline leverages Word 2007’s comparison engine, and Word tracks revisions in tables accurately.” This question is asked because comparison products that compare tables (Word documents) outside of Microsoft Word use very different comparison algorithms and usually have a difficult time with Words tables, especially complex tables, and the resulting documents have messed up table.

Under the hood, Word tables are very complex, and in Word 2007, they have hit a completely new level. I believe this is one of the reason many OpenXML (Microsoft Office’s new file format) will make it difficult for many non-Microsoft document viewers to show Word’s tables with Tracked Changes accurately. I’m amazed at how well Word handles tables during the comparison and document revision (Track Changes turned on) process, because of this complexity.

Observe the simple table below. This table has two deletions, one insertion and three deleted cells (pink). Yet look at the underlying OpenXML code below (see Simple Table as OpenXML Code) is very complex. The OpenXML code lists 18 revision changes and many of them are nested inside other changes.
Tracked-Changes Simple Table

 

Simple Table as OpenXML Code

<w:tbl xmlns:w="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/
wordprocessingml/2006/main"
>

  <w:tblPr>

    <w:tblW w:w="0" w:type="auto" />

    <w:tblBorders>

      <w:top w:val="single" w:sz="12" w:space="0" w:color="auto" />

      <w:left w:val="single" w:sz="12" w:space="0" w:color="auto" />

      <w:bottom w:val="single" w:sz="12" w:space="0" w:color="auto" />

      <w:right w:val="single" w:sz="12" w:space="0" w:color="auto" />

    </w:tblBorders>

    <w:tblLayout w:type="fixed" />

    <w:tblCellMar>

      <w:left w:w="30" w:type="dxa" />

      <w:right w:w="30" w:type="dxa" />

    </w:tblCellMar>

    <w:tblLook w:val="0000" />

    <w:tblPrChange w:id="0" w:author="Randall Farrar">

      <w:tblPr>

        <w:tblW w:w="0" w:type="auto" />

        <w:tblBorders>

          <w:top w:val="single" w:sz="12" w:space="0" w:color="auto" />

          <w:left w:val="single" w:sz="12" w:space="0" w:color="auto" />

          <w:bottom w:val="single" w:sz="12" w:space="0" w:color="auto" />

          <w:right w:val="single" w:sz="12" w:space="0" w:color="auto" />

        </w:tblBorders>

        <w:tblLayout w:type="fixed" />

        <w:tblCellMar>

          <w:left w:w="30" w:type="dxa" />

          <w:right w:w="30" w:type="dxa" />

        </w:tblCellMar>

        <w:tblLook w:val="0000" />

      </w:tblPr>

    </w:tblPrChange>

  </w:tblPr>

  <w:tblGrid>

    <w:gridCol w:w="3240" />

    <w:gridCol w:w="180" />

    <w:gridCol w:w="840" />

    <w:gridCol w:w="1440" />

    <w:tblGridChange w:id="1">

      <w:tblGrid>

        <w:gridCol w:w="3240" />

        <w:gridCol w:w="90" />

        <w:gridCol w:w="90" />

        <w:gridCol w:w="1440" />

      </w:tblGrid>

    </w:tblGridChange>

  </w:tblGrid>

  <w:tr>

    <w:trPr>

      <w:trHeight w:val="310" />

      <w:trPrChange w:id="2" w:author="Randall Farrar">

        <w:trPr>

          <w:trHeight w:val="310" />

        </w:trPr>

      </w:trPrChange>

    </w:trPr>

    <w:tc>

      <w:tcPr>

        <w:tcW w:w="3240" w:type="dxa" />

        <w:shd w:val="clear" w:color="000000" w:fill="auto" />

        <w:tcPrChange w:id="3" w:author="Randall Farrar">

          <w:tcPr>

            <w:tcW w:w="3240" w:type="dxa" />

            <w:shd w:val="clear" w:color="000000" w:fill="auto" />

          </w:tcPr>

        </w:tcPrChange>

      </w:tcPr>

      <w:p>

        <w:pPr>

          <w:pStyle w:val="Heading1" />

          <w:numPr>

            <w:ilvl w:val="0" />

            <w:numId w:val="0" />

          </w:numPr>

          <w:rPr>

            <w:b />

            <w:i />

            <w:color w:val="000000" />

          </w:rPr>

        </w:pPr>

        <w:r>

          <w:rPr>

            <w:b />

            <w:color w:val="000000" />

          </w:rPr>

          <w:t>Chemical Composition</w:t>

        </w:r>

      </w:p>

    </w:tc>

    <w:tc>

      <w:tcPr>

        <w:tcW w:w="180" w:type="dxa" />

        <w:shd w:val="clear" w:color="000000" w:fill="auto" />

        <w:tcPrChange w:id="4" w:author="Randall Farrar">

          <w:tcPr>

            <w:tcW w:w="180" w:type="dxa" />

            <w:shd w:val="clear" w:color="000000" w:fill="auto" />

          </w:tcPr>

        </w:tcPrChange>

      </w:tcPr>

      <w:p>

        <w:pPr>

          <w:rPr>

            <w:b />

            <w:color w:val="000000" />

          </w:rPr>

        </w:pPr>

      </w:p>

    </w:tc>

    <w:tc>

      <w:tcPr>

        <w:tcW w:w="840" w:type="dxa" />

        <w:shd w:val="clear" w:color="000000" w:fill="auto" />

        <w:cellDel w:id="5" w:author="Randall Farrar" />

        <w:tcPrChange w:id="6" w:author="Randall Farrar">

          <w:tcPr>

            <w:tcW w:w="840" w:type="dxa" />

            <w:shd w:val="clear" w:color="000000" w:fill="auto" />

            <w:cellDel w:id="7" w:author="Randall Farrar" />

          </w:tcPr>

        </w:tcPrChange>

      </w:tcPr>

      <w:p>

        <w:pPr>

          <w:rPr>

            <w:color w:val="000000" />

          </w:rPr>

        </w:pPr>

      </w:p>

    </w:tc>

    <w:tc>

      <w:tcPr>

        <w:tcW w:w="1440" w:type="dxa" />

        <w:shd w:val="clear" w:color="000000" w:fill="auto" />

        <w:tcPrChange w:id="8" w:author="Randall Farrar">

          <w:tcPr>

            <w:tcW w:w="2400" w:type="dxa" />

            <w:shd w:val="clear" w:color="000000" w:fill="auto" />

          </w:tcPr>

        </w:tcPrChange>

      </w:tcPr>

      <w:p>

        <w:pPr>

          <w:rPr>

            <w:color w:val="000000" />

          </w:rPr>

        </w:pPr>

        <w:del w:id="9" w:author="Randall Farrar">

          <w:r>

            <w:rPr>

              <w:color w:val="000000" />

            </w:rPr>

            <w:delText>Typical</w:delText>

          </w:r>

        </w:del>

      </w:p>

    </w:tc>

  </w:tr>

  <w:tr>

    <w:trPr>

      <w:trHeight w:val="310" />

      <w:trPrChange w:id="10" w:author="Randall Farrar">

        <w:trPr>

          <w:trHeight w:val="310" />

        </w:trPr>

      </w:trPrChange>

    </w:trPr>

    <w:tc>

      <w:tcPr>

        <w:tcW w:w="3240" w:type="dxa" />

        <w:shd w:val="clear" w:color="000000" w:fill="auto" />

        <w:tcPrChange w:id="11" w:author="Randall Farrar">

          <w:tcPr>

            <w:tcW w:w="3240" w:type="dxa" />

            <w:shd w:val="clear" w:color="000000" w:fill="auto" />

          </w:tcPr>

        </w:tcPrChange>

      </w:tcPr>

      <w:p>

        <w:pPr>

          <w:rPr>

            <w:color w:val="000000" />

          </w:rPr>

        </w:pPr>

        <w:r>

          <w:rPr>

            <w:color w:val="000000" />

          </w:rPr>

          <w:t>Ca(OH)</w:t>

        </w:r>

        <w:r>

          <w:rPr>

            <w:color w:val="000000" />

            <w:vertAlign w:val="subscript" />

          </w:rPr>

          <w:t>2</w:t>

        </w:r>

        <w:r>

          <w:rPr>

            <w:color w:val="000000" />

          </w:rPr>

          <w:t xml:space="preserve"> </w:t>

        </w:r>

      </w:p>

    </w:tc>

    <w:tc>

      <w:tcPr>

        <w:tcW w:w="180" w:type="dxa" />

        <w:shd w:val="clear" w:color="000000" w:fill="auto" />

        <w:tcPrChange w:id="12" w:author="Randall Farrar">

          <w:tcPr>

            <w:tcW w:w="180" w:type="dxa" />

            <w:shd w:val="clear" w:color="000000" w:fill="auto" />

          </w:tcPr>

        </w:tcPrChange>

      </w:tcPr>

      <w:p>

        <w:pPr>

          <w:jc w:val="center" />

          <w:rPr>

            <w:color w:val="000000" />

          </w:rPr>

        </w:pPr>

      </w:p>

    </w:tc>

    <w:tc>

      <w:tcPr>

        <w:tcW w:w="840" w:type="dxa" />

        <w:shd w:val="clear" w:color="000000" w:fill="auto" />

        <w:cellDel w:id="13" w:author="Randall Farrar" />

        <w:tcPrChange w:id="14" w:author="Randall Farrar">

          <w:tcPr>

            <w:tcW w:w="840" w:type="dxa" />

            <w:shd w:val="clear" w:color="000000" w:fill="auto" />

            <w:cellDel w:id="15" w:author="Randall Farrar" />

          </w:tcPr>

        </w:tcPrChange>

      </w:tcPr>

      <w:p>

        <w:pPr>

          <w:jc w:val="center" />

          <w:rPr>

            <w:color w:val="000000" />

          </w:rPr>

        </w:pPr>

      </w:p>

    </w:tc>

    <w:tc>

      <w:tcPr>

        <w:tcW w:w="1440" w:type="dxa" />

        <w:shd w:val="clear" w:color="000000" w:fill="auto" />

        <w:tcPrChange w:id="16" w:author="Randall Farrar">

          <w:tcPr>

            <w:tcW w:w="2400" w:type="dxa" />

            <w:shd w:val="clear" w:color="000000" w:fill="auto" />

          </w:tcPr>

        </w:tcPrChange>

      </w:tcPr>

      <w:p>

        <w:pPr>

          <w:jc w:val="center" />

          <w:rPr>

            <w:color w:val="000000" />

          </w:rPr>

        </w:pPr>

        <w:r>

          <w:rPr>

            <w:color w:val="000000" />

          </w:rPr>

          <w:t>96.</w:t>

        </w:r>

        <w:del w:id="17" w:author="Randall Farrar">

          <w:r>

            <w:rPr>

              <w:color w:val="000000" />

            </w:rPr>

            <w:delText>0%</w:delText>

          </w:r>

        </w:del>

        <w:ins w:id="18" w:author="Randall Farrar">

          <w:r>

            <w:rPr>

              <w:color w:val="000000" />

            </w:rPr>

            <w:t>5%</w:t>

          </w:r>

        </w:ins>

      </w:p>

    </w:tc>

  </w:tr>

</w:tbl>

<w:p xmlns:w="http://schemas.openxmlformats.org/
wordprocessingml/2006/main" /
>

 

Word 2007 Irritant – Comments in the Reviewing Pane

Navigating through your document using Words Next and Previous revision buttons is straight forward, except when there are comments in your document. This is when you’ll get a little surprise. With comments in your document, and while you’re navigating through your document, Word will automatically open up the Reviewing Pane (if it’s not already open) when it hits a comment. Word then places the insertion point in that comment in the Reviewing Pane. At this point, you’re no longer in the document; rather you’re in the Reviewing pane.

Don’t panic, because if you click the Next or Previous button again it goes on to the next or previous revision in the document and out of the Reviewing Pane. Things only get sticky when you actually click in the Review Pane (it’s now the active Window) and at this point you’ll be navigating inside the Reviewing Pane (see How to Navigate your Revisions Inside the Reviewing Pane). You have to click back into your document or close the Reviewing Pane.

Solutions:

  • Close the Reviewing Pane when it appears using the keyboard shortcut Shift+Alt+C.
  • Hide your comments in the Show Markup option by unchecking comments in the drop-down list (see Figure – Show Markup below).

Show Markup
Show Markup

 

iRedline handles this much more elegantly by ignoring the comments (using iRedline’s Next and Previous buttons) and navigating only the revisions in your document.

 

 

Navigate your Word 2007 Revisions Inside the Reviewing Pane

Most people don’t know that you can use the inside of the Reviewing Pane (see Figure – Reviewing Pane below) to navigate your revisions. When you use the Reviewing Pane in this way, you’ll actually be navigating from one revision to the other inside the Reviewing Pane. This approach will highlight each revision inside the Reviewing Pane and at the same time scroll the document to show where that revision is located.

How to Navigate your Revisions inside the Reviewing Pane

  1. Point to a revision text beneath the bordered change type in the Reviewing Pane with your mouse pointer
  2. Click your mouse
  3. Click the Next button to navigate to the next revision
    The next revision will be highlighted and you’ll see the actual revision in your document to the right.

Reviewing Pane
The Reviewing Pane

 

 

Word 2007 Irritant – Revisions in Tables

When working with rows and cells in a table, word will only be able to track inserted and deleted cells, while editing. Word is unable to track merged or split cells. Merged and split cells can only be tracked when you compare or combine documents… in Native Word or iRedline v7.

Word 2007 Irritant – Navigating Revisions

Unfortunately there are no keyboard shortcuts for the Previous and Next button for navigating your revisions. Word forces you to use your mouse.

A way to solve this is to map two keyboard shortcuts to the Word commands:
NextChangeOrComment and PreviousChangeOrComment.

iRedline v7 has solved this by mapping the keyboard shortcuts to iRedline’s Previous and Next revisions navigation button (which also gives you’re the ability to navigate DeltaView changes):

Move to Previous revision – Ctrl+Alt+P
Move to Next revision- Crtl+Alt+N

Navigating Between Moves in Word 2007

Often it isn’t obvious where a move tracked change has moved to or moved from, because it may be on another page. I really like the way Microsoft has implemented this feature. Using your mouse, right-click on a move and select Follow Move in the short cut menu (click image below). This simple short-cut will navigate to the related move.

Navigating Between Moves in Word 2007

Navigating Moves

Word 2007 Irritant – Reviewing Pane and Moves

The Reviewing Pane show Moved From as Moved (insertion) when in fact it is a Deletion… very confusing. I have no idea what Microsoft is trying to convey, except that the “result”, where it “moved to” is an insertion. That is confusing. Click the example below.

Reviewing Pane with Moves

I believe the best way to handle Moves in the Reviewing Pane is to use them as Move location markers. Double clicking on the specific Move in the Reviewing Pane will move the insertion point to that move revision in the document.

Revision Types in the Word 2007’s Reviewing Pane

I feel that the Reviewing Pane, when tracking changes, is one of the most under utilized features of Word 2007. The power lies in the fact that it acts as a hyperlink list to your changes, gives a count of changes in your document, and tells you what has changed for each revision.

The powerful Reviewing Pane can also be used to review changes in an iRedline result document as well.

Below is a list of the types of revisions you’ll see in the Reviewing Pane.

  • Insertions – Revisions that are "new" content typed, pasted or moved to another location in the document (if Track Moves is unchecked in Change Tracking Options).
  • Deletions – Revisions that are deleted content deleted, cut or moved to another location in the document.
  • Moved (Deletion) – When tracking moves, these revisions are tracked as "moved from".  Only paragraphs and sentences can be marked as a move while editing the document.
  • Moved Up (Insertion) – When tracking moves, these revisions are tracked as "moved to" when they are moved above Moved (move from).  Only paragraphs and sentences can be marked as a move while editing the document.
  • Moved Down (Insertion) – When tracking moves, these revisions are tracked as "moved to" when they are moved below the Moved (move from).  Only paragraphs and sentences can be marked as a move while editing the document
  • Formatting – This revision occurs when any "direct" formatting or style has been applied to the content.
  • Style Definitions – When a style has been changed in the document it is marked in the Reviewing Pane, but it is not a revision you can navigate to.

Track Changes – Moves

While editing a document “Moves” can only be paragraphs or sentences. If you drag any non paragraph or sentence content to another location, it shows as an insertion and deletion and not as a move.

Word 2007 Irritant- Paragraph Numbering Changes

Word doesn’t show paragraph numbering changes in the revision pane, and won’t navigate to it. It shows the list change as a formatting revision. That isn’t very helpful if you have large number of paragraph changes spanning multiple pages. The user has to manually navigate those changes visually (click on example below).

Reviewing Pane Miss Markings
Solution:
Use iRedline to compare two documents with numbering lists to convert the auto numbers to text, which gives you a much more accurate result document.

Word 2007 Irritant – Moving a Moved To

If Track Changes is turned on you cannot move a “Move Up” or “Move Down” revision. You will get a message that says, “The selection is marked as deleted text”

Moving a Move

Talk about irritating and confusing, because the text has been inserted (Moved To). I bet this “corrected adjective use” won’t be mentioned in a Service Pack.

Tracked Changes – Change the Font Style for Balloons

If you like to use balloons but prefer the font to be different (larger) than Word uses by default, you can change it by modifying the Balloon Text style.

  1. On the Home tab, in the Styles group, click the Styles Dialog Box Launcher (see Figure 1 – Styles Dialog Box Launcher).
  2. Styles Dialog Box Launcher

    Figure 1 – Styles Dialog Box Launcher

  3. In the Styles task pane, click Manage Styles Manage Styles, and then click the Restrict tab.
  4. In the Select a Style to edit list, select Balloon Text
  5. Click the Modify button
  6. Change the Font characteristics and click OK
  7. Click OK in the Manage Styles dialog box

Word 2007 Irritant – Revision count

The Reviewing Pane is a handy reference for counting the revisions in your document, but I disagree with the way Word counts revisions. Word counts a contiguous revision as one.

I believe that if a paragraph has been inserted it should be two (the text and the paragraph mark) or one if is a lone paragraph mark. I base my belief on the way Microsoft marks revisions in the underlying OpenXML content of the document. Contiguous Text in a paragraph and paragraph marks are marked separately. When iRedline counts revisions (for reports and iRedline Document Properties) the revised text and paragraphs are counted separately as Microsoft marks revisions in the OpenXML content.

Also, a move is a move. When you move a paragraph its one move. Word tracks this as two moves, iRedline tracks it as one.

Word 2007 Irritant – Showing Markups

This is so confusing. The difference between Final Showing Markup and Original Showing Markup have no effect unless balloons are showing. This little settings is completely missed by users who are completely confused by it, and ignore these settings all together. Who wants this as a support issue?

Changing the Review Display for Track Changes

If you want to view your document in different scenarios or views for various stages of the edit process, you would use the Display for Review list (see Figure 1 – Display for Review) in the Tracking group. Each of the four options in the list provides a different view of the document. Final Showing Markup is the default when you open any document.

Display for Review

Figure 1 – Display for Review

Final Showing Markup – This view displays the final document with all tracked changes and comments showing. This is the default view for all documents opened in Word.  When balloons are displayed, the insertion are shown as inline revisions and deletions are shown in the margin in balloons.

Final – This view displays the document without tracked changes showing. Don’t worry, any tracked changes that have not been accepted, rejected, or deleted are still in the document.

Original Showing Markup – This view displays the original text with tracked (display balloons to see this view). Only deletions are shown as inline revisions and insertions are shown in the margin in balloons.

Original – This view displays the original document without tracked changes and comments showing. Don’t worry, any tracked changes that have not been accepted, rejected, or deleted are still in the document. In other words – what did the original document look like?

iRedline provides the Display for Review list button on its Ribbon without having to switch back to the Review tab.

How many Revision Authors Can Word 2007 Track?

This is something that’s been a little confusing in the Microsoft document metadata management market space. From the beginning (since Word 97) we’ve heard that “Word tracks the last 10 authors.” Well… that is just not true. In fact I created a simple VBA routine (see code below) that placed 5000 authors in a Word 2007 document.

Word 2007 could show all the Reviewers under Show Markup and the Reviewing Pane. Word 2003 could not show the Reviewers using the Review toolbar, but it was able to show all 5000 authors in the Reviewing Pane with both DOC and DOCX file formats. [A single reason why the Reviewing Pane should be used more by users.]

Now just how many authors can Word 2007 track? I stopped at 5000 authors. Com’on, who in their right mind would let everyone at Microsoft Corp edit their document with Track Changes turned on? And 5000 authors is completely unrealistic.

In VB, the property type of Activedocument.Revisions.Count is a Long data type (32-bit 4-byte). A 32-bit long data type can hold 2,147,483,647 items. I doubt very much that Word could handle that without blowing up, and this number is moot.

The point here is that Word can track a significant number of authors and you have to ask yourself if the metadata management application your firm depends on can handle that number. iScrub can manage that number.

Here’s the code to test my assumptions:

First create a new blank document, then run the code.

Sub AuthorAdditions()
     Dim x As Long

     Application.ScreenUpdating = False
     ActiveDocument.TrackRevisions = True
     For x = 1 To 5000
          Application.UserName = "Author" & Format(x)
          Selection.TypeText Text:="This is more text"
          Selection.TypeParagraph
          ActiveDocument.Save
     Next
     Application.ScreenUpdating = True
End Sub

Word 2007 Irritant – Update Revision Count

The Update Revision Count Update Revision Count button in the Reviewing Pane does nothing, because the revision count is updated dynamically as revisions are made. I have found on VERY large documents it speeds up the process, but then on the same document it had no effect when I closed it-re-opened it and made the same changes. It shouldn’t be there, because it assumes that the revision count may need to be updated.

This will be a support call.

Word 2007 Irritant – Author information for Tracked Changes

There is no way to remove the author, the date, and time the revision was made for tracked changes in a document without using the Document Inspector. The Document Inspector not only removes the author and date information, it also removes important document properties as well. I don’t recommend using the Document Inspector to do this. A detrimental overkill!

There are times you may not want the other party to know who made the revision and when the revision was made. Fortunately, when you compare two documents using iRedline, iRedline can manage the author and date information in the result document. With iRedline, you can remove or change the author information and the time the revision was made can be removed.

Esquire Innovations’ metadata management product iScrub can also remove the author and date information from each tracked change much better and cleaner than the document inspector.

Turning Track Changes On

At any time while you are working on your document you can turn Track Changes on. But, did you know that there are three ways to to Turn Track Changes On?

Tracked Change Example

Figure 1 – Turning Track Changes Example

 

Method 1

  • Click on the Tack Changes button (see Figure 2 – Turning Track Changes On).
    This is a toggle button, and clicking it again will turn Track Changes off. You will also see in the status bar (see Figure 3 – Track Changes Status) the Track Changes status at the bottom of the Word window.

Method 2

  • Click the Track Changes text in the status bar (see Figure 2 – Track Changes Status).
    This is a toggle button, and clicking it again will turn Track Changes off.

Method 3

  • Press CTRL+SHIFT+E.
    This is a toggle keyboard shortcut, and pressing these keys again will turn Track Changes off.

Turning Track Changes On

Figure 2 – Turning Track Changes On

 

Track Changes Status

Figure 3 – Track Changes Status

 

I prefer method 2 and 3 because you can use them anytime without having to access the Review tab.

When Track Changes is turned on, and as you type, the new text is inserted. When you delete text, it will show as deleted (see Figure 1 – Tracked Change Example).

Word 2007 Irritant

Moves can only be paragraphs. If you drag words or a sentence to another location, it shows as an insertion and deletion and not as a move

For most collaboration – turn balloons off

Word 2007 Irritant
By default (out of the box), Word 2007 uses unwieldy balloons to display deletions, comments, formatting changes, and content that has moved. I think this is confusing for insertions, deletions, and moves AND counter intuitive for law firms who have been using redlining for the last 1000 years. Even as an advanced user… I had to use Help to figure out what Microsoft was trying to do. [Ok... I think that makes me non-advanced user. That's why Judye Carter Reynolds is our Microsoft Office sage.]

I would advise turning them off for your users, and then “training” to show them the benefits and when to use them. You may need to read Microsoft’s help and google “using microsoft word track changes.” Now I get it… I thought they were kinda cool for some types of collaboration.

By the way, iRedline v7 allows you to save, in an iRedline scheme, whether you want balloons or not for your result documents… and it’s document specific, and will not affect the user’s default track change options for other documents.

Esquire Innovations' Products

  • Document Production
       iCreate
  • Document Metadata Management
       iScrub
  • Redlining and Comparison
       iRedline
  • Document Management Identification
       iDocID

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