Accepted changes don't stick when emailed

[Trisha]

Scenario: A document's footer includes the doc's
filename. Track changes is on. The doc's filename is
changed as it passes through the review process. When
final, all changes are accepted - including those to the
filename in the footer. The footer shows only the
current filename. When emailed, however, the footer
reverts to current filename plus a redline of the previous
filename.

We've been cursing this problem for weeks. Is there a
fix? Seems to happen whether Word is my email editor, or
not.

 

[Margaret Aldis]

Not sure I fully understand this, but try turning track changes off as well
as accepting the changes.

 

[dennis]

Track changes OFF

Show changes ON

 

[Guest]

Track changes still needs to be on ... it's a "final" doc
as far as we're concerned internally, but then it goes out
for external review. Any other ideas?

 

[Guest]

Thanks for the tip! Track changes still needs to be on --
the doc then goes for external routing, so we need to know
what changes are made to it. Any other ideas?

 

[Margaret Aldis]

Well, if tracking is On, then Word is going to track any change to the
filename, so the first thing to be sure about is that you have saved the
file to the final path, updated the header and footer fields (switch to
print preview mode and back), accepted the change, and saved the file again.
Also check that it is this final saved version that you are e-mailing.

When you open now, I assume you don't see the filename change?

But mailing this document to an external reviewer with track changes on is
still going to show a change in pathname when the recipient saves the file
locally.

Could you lock the pathname field before sending for review - assuming you
don't need that field to update while it is with the reviewer?

 

[Trisha]

I'll try locking the pathname field. Thanks!

-----Original Message-----
Well, if tracking is On, then Word is going to track any change to the
filename, so the first thing to be sure about is that you have saved the
file to the final path, updated the header and footer fields (switch to
print preview mode and back), accepted the change, and saved the file again.
Also check that it is this final saved version that you are e-mailing.

When you open now, I assume you don't see the filename change?

But mailing this document to an external reviewer with track changes on is
still going to show a change in pathname when the recipient saves the file
locally.

Could you lock the pathname field before sending for review - assuming you
don't need that field to update while it is with the reviewer?

--
Margaret Aldis - Microsoft Word MVP
Syntagma partnership site: http://www.syntagma.co.uk





.

 

[Guest]

I tried locking just the pathname field, there isn't a way
to lock just that field. I didn't mention this before ...
when I email the doc to myself it looks fine, but if I
email it to anyone else - that's when the redline appears
again. Very frustrating.

 

[Chad DeMeyer]

Well, not sure I understand why wouldn't be able to lock just that field,
but another alternative is to unlink the field by selecting it and pressing
Ctrl+6. That converts it from a field to regular text.

Regards,
Chad DeMeyer

 

[Trisha]

We can't lock the filename field, or convert it to
text ... because then the filename in the footer won't
match the filename of the doc if the filename is changed.
It definitely feels like a bug -- because of the way it
looks fine until you email it, and the redline doesn't
show up until the file is emailed. Has anyone else
experienced this?

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Select just the FILENAME field and press Ctrl+F11 to lock it. To unlock it
later, press Ctrl+Shift+F11.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

 

[Shauna Kelly]

Hi Trisha

I guess I don't see this as a bug. I think it's working the way it should.

That is, you saved the document as, say, c:\my folder\report.doc. When it
left you, the { FILENAME } field had been updated, and no tracked change was
left. And you email it to me.

I open up the email and save your file to h:\ReportsFromTrisha\report.doc.
So when I open up the document, the { FILENAME } field will, quite rightly,
update to show h:\ReportsFromTrisha\report.doc. And, since track changes is
on, Word will track the change.

I suppose what you actually need is either a command that says "Turn on
Track Changes, but not for this particular bit of the document" or, a field
called {FILENAME, But Only If It's On My Computer }. But Word doesn't have
a command or a field like that!

I think your options are:
1. put up with the fact that the document will display the recipient's
FILENAME on the recipient's machine.
or
2. lock the field before you send out the document, and un-lock it when it
comes back.

Hope this helps.

Shauna Kelly. Microsoft MVP.
http://www.shaunakelly.com/word

 

[Guest]

It honestly is a little more buggy than that. Let me give
some more info.

First, this used to work. And by that, I mean that in the
past - when routing a doc with track changes on, the
filename would not appear redlined when emailed to someone
else. It's only in the last 3-6 months we've had this
problem. First, we thought it was user error and didn't
pay much attention. Now we realize it's something else.

Second, it should definitely appear in another user's
inbox without a redline in the filename - until they save
it somewhere themselves. It's a fielname field as opposed
to a filename/path field - so the filename should be the
same until someone renames it.

 

[Trisha]

Thanks for the suggestion!

Unfortunately, that doesn't work because the field needs
to automatically update each time the file is renamed. If
the FILENAME field is locked, it will not update as we
need it to.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

If the file is renamed, then Track Changes should correctly display this as
a change.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

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all may benefit.

 

[Shauna Kelly]

Hi Trisha

I just did some tests, using Word 2003 and Outlook 2003. I can email a
document with a {FILENAME} field, and track changes on. When I open the
document, and update the field, Word does *not* show the field result with a
tracked change. Word will, correctly, show a tracked change if the field
includes the path name, since the path obviously changed.

But... if I open the email, and open the file from within Outlook (eg, if I
double-click the file to open it, or right-click the file name and choose
Open), then Word creates a temporary copy of the file in a temporary
directory. If that temporary directory already has a file with the same name
(eg report.doc), then Word will give the new temporary file a name like
report (2).doc. And that will show as a tracked change.

On the other hand, if I open the email, and choose to save the file, and
save the file with the same file name, and open the file from within Word,
then Word doesn't see a change in filename.

Of course, these results apply only to Word 2003 and Outlook 2003. Earlier
versions, or using Word with a different email application may work
differently.

If your problem started 3 to 6 months ago, then it might be worth
considering what changed 3 to 6 months ago. Did people start opening files
directly from the email, instead of saving the file and then opening it? Did
the recipients get a new email system (or an update to their existing one)?
Did they get a new document management system (or an update to the existing
one)? These might affect the place and way that files are stored, and thus
might affect what Word sees as the { FILENAME }.

Hope this helps.

Shauna Kelly. Microsoft MVP.
http://www.shaunakelly.com/word

 

[Trisha]

Very interesting!

What you say makes sense. Thanks for the suggestions.

 

[Trisha]

However, Track Changes should not display this as a change
once changes have been accepted, and the doc has been
saved, closed, and re-opened --- should it?

This is my experience. A file is renamed. Track changes
shows this as a change in the footer, where the filename
field appears. Changes are accepted, the document is
saved.

When the doc is reopened, the filename appears as it
should - with no redline.

When the doc is emailed to someone else, however ... the
filename field appears as the current filename, with
previous version filename in redline to the right.

My IT group was able to replicate this problem. Is there
a workaround? We didn't have this problem 3-6 months ago.

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

I'm assuming that Track Changes is still on, even though changes have been
accepted? My suspicion is that, even though your FILENAME field doesn't
include the path, Word is still noticing that the path has changed, and that
is the reason for the tracking, but I have no way to confirm that.

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA

Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.