How to I preserve track-change colors when I save the document?

[dan]

I have a problem I've not encountered before. I created a Word document and
sent it to someone else. He made changes with tracked changes turned on and
his changes show up in red. When I make additional changes, they show up in
blue, as expected. But when I save the document, all of my changes turn to
red, so you can't tell the difference between what he entered and what I
entered. The problem is exhibited:
1. In both Word XP and Word 2007
2. In Vista and XP operating systems
3. Regardless of the author names

Does anyone have any idea what's going on?

 

[dan]

I have figured out that when this document was created in Word 2003, the
original author checked "Remove personal information" under
Tools\Options\Security, so that now whenever the document is saved the
author's identity is removed and change tracking doesn't know that a
different person made the changes. That is what's causing the problem.

So a new question remains. I don't see a "remove personal information"
option in Word 2007, but if I want change tracking to work correctly with
this document, I have to reimplement the saving of personal information (in
this case, identity of the author). Is there any way to do that in Word 2007?

 

[Jay Freedman]

Turn off the option as follows:

Go to Office button > Word Options > Trust Center. Click the Trust Center
Options button there, and select Privacy Options. If the "Remove personal
information from file properties on save" box is enabled (not grayed out) and
checked, uncheck it.

The option will be enabled only for documents that were created in earlier
versions. For documents created in Word 2007, use the Document Inspector (Office
button > Prepare > Document Inspector) to remove personal data.

 

[scott]

Regarding colors, does anyone know how to make a specific comment appear in a
different color than other comments? As you may know, comments about the
same line of text merge lines when pointing to the text so it can be
difficult to tell which comment goes to which text on a given line.

 

[grammatim]

Change the "UserName" in the customization doohickey (and change it
back when you want your comments to be in the original color again).
Changing from "scott" to "Scott" would work.

 

[Judy]

I did go to Tools/Options/Security. Checked "remove personal information" so
when I started doing my changes it was changing them in red again.
Unfortunately, I made the mistake of "saving" my changes and all the red
markings TURNED GREEN! What the heck? What's wrong now?
Judy

 

[grammatim]

It changes color when it thinks you're a different user -- but
sometimes the same document will open next time with different colors.
Then next time they're back again. It is a puzzlement.

 

[Splasher Booman]

Turn off the option as follows:

Go to Office button > Word Options > Trust Center. Click the Trust Center
Options button there, and select Privacy Options. If the "Remove personal
information from file properties on save" box is enabled (not grayed out) and
checked, uncheck it.

The option will be enabled only for documents that were created in earlier
versions. For documents created in Word 2007, use the Document Inspector (Office
button > Prepare > Document Inspector) to remove personal data.



--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so all may benefit.
Thanks for all this helpful info. I have a question in this regard. When I add comments in a document with other user comments, the colors appear different (correct), but when I save the document, all the comments now have the date of my current comments when you "hover" over the comment balloon. So all comment date info appears to have occurred on the same day. How can I save the documents with the original comments from other users with their date of comment insertion remaining? Will this be solved in the same way as the "color" issue?

 

[Jay Freedman]

Thanks for all this helpful info. I have a question in this regard. When I add comments in a
document with other user comments, the colors appear different (correct), but when I save the
document, all the comments now have the date of my current comments when you "hover"
over the comment balloon. So all comment date info appears to have occurred on the same day.
How can I save the documents with the original comments from other users with their date of
comment insertion remaining? Will this be solved in the same way as the "color" issue?

I wouldn't think that the "remove personal information" action would change the
dates of comments, but I just don't know -- I don't have access to source code,
and as far as I know it isn't documented in that much detail. Trying it would be
the only practical way to find out. Please let us know what happens.

 

[Splasher Booman]

I wouldn't think that the "remove personal information" action would change the
dates of comments, but I just don't know -- I don't have access to source code,
and as far as I know it isn't documented in that much detail. Trying it would be
the only practical way to find out. Please let us know what happens.

--
Regards,
Jay Freedman
Microsoft Word MVP
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so all may benefit.
The "Remove personal information from file properties on save" box was not enabled, so there was nothing I could change (uncheck). At least it still keeps the original author's initials in the comment box. But thanks for your quick response. This is a bummer.

 

[Mick Manzana]

I believe this can be accomplished by selecting Review/Track Changes (the
lower half of that button/icon. A screen displays with multiple editing
options.

 

[Mick Manzana]

Regarding colors, does anyone know how to make a specific comment appear in a
different color than other comments? As you may know, comments about the
same line of text merge lines when pointing to the text so it can be
difficult to tell which comment goes to which text on a given line.