Saving won't honor "Track Changes" display state

[denriddy]

Version: 2008 Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) Processor: Intel The latest infuriating bug I've encountered with Word is showing up in a long manuscript that I've already posted about other save problems with, and now it's stopped honoring the display option I have set in "Track Changes" for displaying "Final." Every time I reopen the document now, that option is set to "Final Showing Changes," and I have to manually re-set it to get rid of the change balloons.

I save it that way, then when I reopen the document, there they are back again, and the drop-down is changed to "Final Showing Changes." In earlier saved versions of this document it would open in whatever state I left it in. No longer.

I cannot find any solution to this anywhere. I think this ranks high in the list of buggiest software I've ever had the displeasure to work with.

I hope somebody can offer some way around this mess.

Denriddy

 

[John McGhie]

That's a design change.

So many users forgot to turn off tracked changes and ended up blowing up
their documents, that Word will now force unresolved changes visible every
time the document is opened.

If you had to deal with as many broken documents as I have to, due to users
who neither know nor care how they have set Word to behave, you would
consider this a great benefit.

In your previous post, you complained loudly about Word crashing and hanging
on your documents. The cause is Tracked Changes.

Turn them off, and use Compare Documents instead. If you use Compare
Documents to insert change tracking at the end of your editing, and you use
Word with the normal degree of care and precision required to take on
commercial documentation projects, Word will never either crash or hang.

On the other hand, if you do not change what you are doing, you should not
expect your results to change either

Cheers

Version: 2008 Operating System: Mac OS X 10.5 (Leopard) Processor: Intel The
latest infuriating bug I've encountered with Word is showing up in a long
manuscript that I've already posted about other save problems with, and now
it's stopped honoring the display option I have set in "Track Changes" for
displaying "Final." Every time I reopen the document now, that option is set
to "Final Showing Changes," and I have to manually re-set it to get rid of the
change balloons.

I save it that way, then when I reopen the document, there they are back
again, and the drop-down is changed to "Final Showing Changes." In earlier
saved versions of this document it would open in whatever state I left it in.
No longer.

I cannot find any solution to this anywhere. I think this ranks high in the
list of buggiest software I've ever had the displeasure to work with.

I hope somebody can offer some way around this mess.

Denriddy

This email is my business email -- Please do not email me about forum
matters unless you intend to pay!

--

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP (Word, Mac Word), Consultant Technical Writer,
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
Sydney, Australia. | Ph: +61 (0)4 1209 1410
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]

 

[denriddy]

That's a design change.

>
> So many users forgot to turn off tracked changes and ended up blowing up
> their documents, that Word will now force unresolved changes visible every
> time the document is opened.

Well, no; it doesn't. I edited the same document for a while and saved it in numerous versions before it started exhibiting that behavior, and it would honor whatever state I left it in. Other documents do, too. I've now copied the MS into a new document, abandoning the earlier changes, and although I have Track Changes turned on, when I close and reopen the document it now honors whatever I have selected to have displayed—including "Final," which displays none of the changes.

If you had to deal with as many broken documents as I have to, due to users
> who neither know nor care how they have set Word to behave, you would
> consider this a great benefit.

I don't ever consider anything forced on a user "a great benefit," and I've been editing for 30 years, so have dealt with, um, a few broken documents. They beat the pants off of broken applications.

In your previous post, you complained loudly about Word crashing and hanging
> on your documents. The cause is Tracked Changes.

That part you got right. But as far as I can determine, the reason Tracked Changes was causing such problems was because of it storing corrupted images and/or formatting that I had deleted, but of course still remained in the document. (And if you thought that was "complaining loudly," you should have heard me here.)

Turn them off, and use Compare Documents instead.

The use of Track Changes was on insistence of the client, and Compare Documents was suggested and rejected. However, because of all the garbage that was in the original, the client is now going to have to deal with two copies of the edited MS anyway (because I abandoned earlier changes in copying over into a new document), one with pre-copy changes, one with post-copy changes, so I suppose will have to resort to Compare Documents anyway.

None of the above excuses Microsoft for the shoddy way Word is handling whatever was in the original file (created in Word on a PC) that caused such nightmarish problems.

YMMV

Denriddy

 

[John McGhie]

Hi Denriddy:

Believe it or not, I agree with you more than you think I've peeled the
paint off the walls with my language more than once as a result of Word's
tracked changes

However, I should warn you that the way Word is now designed, in Word 2008,
if you open a document containing unresolved Tracked Changes, the Reviewing
toolbar should be forced visible, and the Display for Review setting should
be set to "Final showing markup".

If that's not happening, the document file has serious problems, take a
backup

Cheers

Well, no; it doesn't. I edited the same document for a while and saved it in
numerous versions before it started exhibiting that behavior, and it would
honor whatever state I left it in. Other documents do, too. I've now copied
the MS into a new document, abandoning the earlier changes, and although I
have Track Changes turned on, when I close and reopen the document it now
honors whatever I have selected to have displayed—including "Final," which
displays none of the changes.


I don't ever consider anything forced on a user "a great benefit," and I've
been editing for 30 years, so have dealt with, um, a few broken documents.
They beat the pants off of broken applications.


That part you got right. But as far as I can determine, the reason Tracked
Changes was causing such problems was because of it storing corrupted images
and/or formatting that I had deleted, but of course still remained in the
document. (And if you thought that was "complaining loudly," you should have
heard me here.)


The use of Track Changes was on insistence of the client, and Compare
Documents was suggested and rejected. However, because of all the garbage that
was in the original, the client is now going to have to deal with two copies
of the edited MS anyway (because I abandoned earlier changes in copying over
into a new document), one with pre-copy changes, one with post-copy changes,
so I suppose will have to resort to Compare Documents anyway.

None of the above excuses Microsoft for the shoddy way Word is handling
whatever was in the original file (created in Word on a PC) that caused such
nightmarish problems.

YMMV

Denriddy

This email is my business email -- Please do not email me about forum
matters unless you intend to pay!

--

John McGhie, Microsoft MVP (Word, Mac Word), Consultant Technical Writer,
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
Sydney, Australia. | Ph: +61 (0)4 1209 1410
+61 4 1209 1410, mailto:[email protected]