Turning Formating "On and Off"

[Guest]

G'day All:

My group creates fairly complex documents (in terms of formatting; tables,
charts, etc.) for various departments. Department heads insist on being able
to then edit these documents and (predictably) do large amounts of damage to
the formatting of the docs, which my group then has to repair.

Is there a way, either internal to Word -- or using a commercial or Open
Source tool -- that we can let the Department heads:

1. Add/Delete/Modify text
2. Move or reorder large chunks of text
3. Add/Delete/Modify Charts, Tables, Diagrams

without them destroying formatting? I.e. can we let them modify a copy of
the document(s) with formats 'hidden' or 'turned off' -- and we "turn the
formatting back on" once they have finished?

Many, many thanks in advance for any and all ideas!

 

[Summer]

Cannot they handwrite edits and you edit the documents for them? That's why
there are document specialists who edit/modify and maintain format while
"others" handwrite or digitally dictate" their edits.

Use great formatting (styles etc) and educate the users.

 

[CyberTaz]

Depends on your version of Word & whether you're using Styles for
formatting. If 2003, for example, you may want to take a look at the
Tools>Protect Document features. The top checkbox in the Protect Document
Task Pane is to "Limit formatting to a selection of styles" which you
specify & prevents a user from applying direct formatting changes. The
protection can be password protected.

There may also be other approaches, so look for suggestions yet to come

HTH |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac

 

[Ed]

Oh, do I feel your pain! Every single one of our engineers thinks
he's both a writer and a computer guru! And the supervisors think
they are Tribune editors!! They use the computer like an electronic
hammer - open a document, pound away, and then give it back to the
editing section to repair damages. Whole pages dropped in from other
docs, comments on top of comments, track changes turned off and
reformatting done manually, then the next one turns tracking on and
changes it all again, TOCs overwritten manually, don't know or care
what a style is or does . . .

All I have been able to do is keep a copy for myself so I know what it
looked like when I sent it out, then format the mess I get back like
it's supposed to be. If you're tables are all pretty much the same,
you might be able to create a macro to loop through each table and at
least set styles. You can set keyboard shortcuts for assigning
certain styles, then just highlight misshapen paragraphs and clean
them up with the touch of a button.

Aside from mandating a template on all computers that opens everything
as Read-Only, disables SaveAs, and delivers an electric shock when
they try anything else with calling you first, there's not much you
can do. Just when you think you've made it idiot-proof, they'll
promote a more efficient idiot!

Ed