Tracking Changes made by a single author in Word 2002 and 2003

[Guest]

I noticed that any modifications I made to a Word 2002 or 2003 document were't being tracked beyond the initial modification. For example
Create a document consisting of 3 sentences on three lines. Turn on 'Track Changes', Save and close it
Open it again, (make sure Track Changes is enabled) then delete sentence 2 and replace it with something else. Note that your deletion is visible in the balloon to the right
Save and close the document
Now, open the document again, delete sentence 2 again and replace it with something else, notice that the prior modifications aren't tracked. You can see the original deleted sentence in the balloon but what about the change you just overwrote
This scenario involves a single document with a single author who is the sole modifier who needs to keep track of his changes. How can one keep track of intermittent changes in a document that is constantly being modified
Any ideas?

 

[Shauna Kelly]

Hi Eddy

The way Track Changes is designed to work is that it won't mark changes of
the kind you're discussing. It keeps track of who did what, so if a reviewer
makes a change to some text, and then makes further changes to that text,
only the net effect of the changes is recorded.

Word attributes a change to the person named at Tools > Options > User
Information. You can change the information there to suit your needs. So you
could, for example, change the name given there each time you start a major
revision (eg Eddy_Version2). You would then be able to see the changes
tracked in the way you want. (And you could also use the Show options on the
Reviewing toolbar to see the changes made by a selection of your
"reviewers".)

However, I strongly suggest that you experiment a bit before using this idea
in a real environment. In particular, your file could get very messy very
easily if you had dozens of "reviewers". And, be aware that whatever name is
listed at Tools > Options > User Information is used as the "Author" name
for every new document you create.

There's some more info about track changes at
http://www.ShaunaKelly.com/word/trackchanges/HowTrackChangesWorks.html

Hope this helps.

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

I noticed that any modifications I made to a Word 2002 or 2003 document

were't being tracked beyond the initial modification. For example:

Create a document consisting of 3 sentences on three lines. Turn on 'Track Changes', Save and close it.
Open it again, (make sure Track Changes is enabled) then delete sentence 2

and replace it with something else. Note that your deletion is visible in
the balloon to the right.

Save and close the document.
Now, open the document again, delete sentence 2 again and replace it with

something else, notice that the prior modifications aren't tracked. You can
see the original deleted sentence in the balloon but what about the change
you just overwrote?

This scenario involves a single document with a single author who is the

sole modifier who needs to keep track of his changes. How can one keep track
of intermittent changes in a document that is constantly being modified?