Track Changes Privacy Suggestion -- Make Date/Time Stamp Optional!

[Guest]

In Word 2002 for Windows XP (and apparently in other newer versions of Word
as well), rolling the mouse over a Track Changes balloon turns up the name of
the person who made the change or comment, along with the date and time the
change or comment was made. Currently I can choose the privacy option
"Remove personal information from file properties on save" and have my name
replaced with the anonymous term "author" -- however, I cannot opt to remove
the date and time. I believe that information about date and time is
personal, too, and I feel strongly that I should have the option to take it
out.

Here is the situation: I am a freelance editor, and my clients would like
me to make my changes using the Track Changes option instead of the
old-fashioned way (on paper with a red pencil). I don't mind helping them
out that way -- I'm all for going electronic whenever possible -- but I DO
mind that the electronic document will suddenly provide them with information
that was never available to them in the paper version: for example, that I
often work late into the night, or that I often change my mind about a
correction I have made and go back later to revise it. As long as I make my
deadlines, my clients do not need to know when I made my changes and comments
-- they only need to know that the changes and comments have been made.

Please help...thanks!

----------------
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http://www.microsoft.com/office/com...08220c&dg=microsoft.public.word.docmanagement

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

FWIW, your clients don't have to know when you have changed your mind: just
reject the change. Or accept it, turn Track Changes off and change it back,
then turn Track Changes on again.

--
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.

In Word 2002 for Windows XP (and apparently in other newer versions of Word
as well), rolling the mouse over a Track Changes balloon turns up the name of
the person who made the change or comment, along with the date and time the
change or comment was made. Currently I can choose the privacy option
"Remove personal information from file properties on save" and have my name
replaced with the anonymous term "author" -- however, I cannot opt to remove
the date and time. I believe that information about date and time is
personal, too, and I feel strongly that I should have the option to take it
out.

Here is the situation: I am a freelance editor, and my clients would like
me to make my changes using the Track Changes option instead of the
old-fashioned way (on paper with a red pencil). I don't mind helping them
out that way -- I'm all for going electronic whenever possible -- but I DO
mind that the electronic document will suddenly provide them with information
that was never available to them in the paper version: for example, that I
often work late into the night, or that I often change my mind about a
correction I have made and go back later to revise it. As long as I make my
deadlines, my clients do not need to know when I made my changes and comments
-- they only need to know that the changes and comments have been made.

Please help...thanks!

----------------
This post is a suggestion for Microsoft, and Microsoft responds to the
suggestions with the most votes. To vote for this suggestion, click the "I
Agree" button in the message pane. If you do not see the button, follow this
link to open the suggestion in the Microsoft Web-based Newsreader and then
click "I Agree" in the message pane.

http://www.microsoft.com/office/com...08220c&dg=microsoft.public.word.docmanagement

 

[Guest]

Without giving actual examples, it's hard to give you an idea of what I mean
here, so let's say that the author of a manuscript I'm editing creates a
character named Frank. He's Frank from page 1 to page 72, but on page 73, he
suddenly becomes Fred. Only I'm sort of distracted by the author's annoying
habit of putting three exclamation points at the end of every sentence, so I
don't notice that he's Fred until page 175. So now I go back to page 73
(having searched for "Fred" and discovered that that was where the name first
appeared).

Anyone looking at my changes will be able to see that I made the Fred/Frank
change three days (or however long it has been) after the other changes --
deleting of exclamation points, suggestions about ambiguous language, grammar
corrections -- made on the same page. And while my imperfect eye is
something I should be aware of (because being aware of it will make me a
better editor), it is NOT something I need to show my clients...or that,
really, they have any need to know.

Does that make it any clearer why this is so important to me?

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

I'm sorry, but you are describing exactly the kind of work I do, and I can't
see that a client would have any reason to care *when* you make the changes
provided the required changes get made. I make numerous passes through the
documents I work on, and I find more mistakes every time. No one can see
everything at once, and I don't think anyone expects you to. Most
instructions I've read actually stipulate that you make several passes. And
I have to say that I read a lot of published books where there is no
evidence that any editor made even one pass, much less several. I recently
proofread the page proofs of a book to be published by Random House (which
had been copyedited and proofread by their editors), and the author (for
whom I was performing the work) and I were equally appalled by the number of
errors I found. I wouldn't care how many times the editor had to read the ms
or backtrack in it provided the errors were corrected.

FWIW, it's also true that the more corrections there are to be made, the
more passes it's going to take. You just can't see everything at once. And a
lot of things you aren't going to know are "errors" till much later. In the
book I'm currently working on, there are stupefyingly thorough bios of two
of the characters early on; neither mentions any military service (or allows
any space in the timeline for it). Several chapters later, they're talking
about their army experiences in Iraq. Another character, a nurse, is shy on
one page and bold on the next (she actually vacillates throughout the book).
Those are just a few of the problems. As it happens, I've about given up on
this book, which the author is self-publishing; I finally decided I'd done
all I could reasonably do, and if the author thinks it's done, I'll just
call it done. I don't think he'll sell more than a couple of dozen copies no
matter how much we polish it, anyway. <g>

--
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.

 

[Guest]

OK, now you've succeeded in really making me laugh...first because you DO
know exactly what I'm talking about, and second because I am so glad the
manuscript I'm working on isn't in THAT much trouble! You would have been
amused by the stunned look on my face the first time a production editor said
to me, "Well, actually, by the time it comes to you, the editor is finished
with it." Meanwhile there I am wondering how on earth this author got a book
contract...and whether or not the editor actually read past page three before
sending it off to the freelance copy editor...

Out of curiosity, do you do most of your editing using Track Changes, or are
you still on pencil and paper too? (The reason all of this has come up for
me is that one client is interested in making the switch. I've never worked

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

I forgot to mention that the two aforementioned characters were gangsters
from Detroit for half the book, then from Mobile for another half; then,
because of problems with both, we decided to make them be from Chicago, but
the author still keeps sending me stuff that says "Mobile." <sigh>

As for markup, I do sort of a combination. I don't use red pencil, by the
way, but green pen. In a previous life, I was a teacher (Latin), and I know
that people react adversely to red (one student said it looked like her
paper was hemorrhaging), and actually green (pencil) is traditional for
editing. I do still mark up copy by hand sometimes, but the more I use
computers, the more I find I keep itching to get to the file and correct it
directly. In most cases, the result is what the client is concerned about,
not how it was achieved, so I just make the changes, and they read the
revised edition and (if I've done it right) think, "Wow! I'm a better writer
than I realized." I used to write a lot of comments on the manuscript,
either directly on it or on Post-its, but now I often make a separate
comments file. I don't really like Track Changes because most of the people
I work with are unsophisticated (many of them elderly) and wouldn't know how
to deal with the technology (even for comments). So far I've had no one
specifically request it, and I don't suggest it.

--
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.

 

[Guest]

Wow, I never knew that about the color red! I like green, but worry that it
wouldn't show up all that well...and people seem to be pretty used to my red
by now. A copy chief I worked for once had a great system I'd love to
emulate someday: red pencil for changes not to be argued with (serious
grammatical or punctuation issues, malapropisms, etc.) and blue for
suggestions. Of course, she worked at a magazine where everyone had been
trained to know what the colors meant -- as a freelancer, I'd have to attach
an explanation to every returned manuscript!

I still like my pencils and Post-its, I have to say...and while I do get the
same urge you do to just go into the file and correct it, it's an itchy
trigger finger I feel I am duty-bound to resist! Track Changes would
probably keep me from making a lot of the comments I make now, simply because
it's more of a process...and because I hate the look of a marked-up document!
Though maybe it wouldn't be so bad if I fiddled with the color choices...

Anyway, thanks for the commiseration and for the advice. Good luck with
Mobile...I mean Detroit...I mean Chicago...

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Green works well for me because a lot of my authors make *their* corrections
in red or blue. I tend to make my "changes not to be argued with" in the
text, with an explanation (if I feel it's needed) in the margin. I use
Post-its for "suggested" changes or queries. But the more I use computers,
the harder it becomes for me to write much by hand (especially legibly), and
I often go through several Post-its before I get the desired wording on a
"suggestion." That's why a separate file of comments can be helpful,
especially since you can make comments about "passim" sorts of problems,
referencing page numbers of numerous occurrences of the same issue or
drawing attention to conflicts between statements in two locations (whereas
in the ms you'd have to write, "Detroit? Cf. p. x" and "Mobile? Cf. p. x.").

I recently worked on a novel by a well-known and highly acclaimed novelist.
I was typing the ms and wasn't supposed to make any changes at all, but
aside from numerous routine corrections (for which I was predictably
blasted, and they may well all be reversed), I submitted a separate
eight-page file of comments on conflicts, solecisms, awkward phrasing, etc.
I'll be interested to see what gets published. <g>

--
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.

 

[Guest]

Ah, yes, I have a very similar system...though I've just spent this evening
trying to pare my comments down to the basics, since apparently this author
is kind of persnickety about her work. Hence the careful wording of
Post-its, too (I'm definitely keeping THAT company in business, the way I go
through them)...

This one gets packed up tomorrow; then on to the next one!

 

[Suzanne S. Barnhill]

Deliver me from persnickety authors! I generally avoid "creative" writers;
most of the books I work on are either nonfiction or for clients with whom I
have a longtime established relationship, so that they trust my judgment.

--
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.

 

[Guest]

Well, I have the buffer of the staff editors, so I rarely feel whatever wrath
might be coming my way. It's not so bad -- just means I have to couch my
criticisms in a lot of extra compliments!

Luckily for me, this particular persnickety author is a good one, too, so
I've really enjoyed working on her book. There were some things I would have
changed that I didn't, given the pernicketiness, but overall this manuscript
was in much better shape than I'm used to, so I really can't complain!