Turn off Tracking Changes in 2003

D

deb

Is there any way in Word 2003 to turn off tracking changes once and for all.
I do NOT want to see the tracking changes in the document and do not care
what changes are made. Can they be turned off? I have to send a document to
several different departments and do not want to have to deal with this in
200+ documents when they send them back.
 
S

Suzanne S. Barnhill

Make sure that Track Changes is turned off. Then, on the Reviewing toolbar,
click the arrow beside Accept Change and choose Accept All Changes in
Document. If there are comments, click beside Delete Comment and choose
Delete All Comments in Document.
 
D

deb

Thanks Anne - I'll try that. I hate tracking changes and in the previous
version we had I always made sure when the departments sent me documents I
turned them off under Tools before I saved the documents. I couldn't seem to
find anything under help or at Microsoft to do this (and we just recently
upgraded to 2003). I did find one article that said something about tracking
changes once and for all, but it didn't address this issue exactly. It spoke
about accepting all the changes. That's ok if I have to, but I'd rather not
deal with them at all. THANKS again. If that doesn't take care of it, I'll
be back. ; )
 
S

Suzanne S. Barnhill

Be aware that turning off the Reviewing toolbar and hiding the changes (if
any) does not remove them. If you send the document to someone else, the
recipient will be able to see your edits.
 
D

deb

That's what I thought. I can't see why this change was made in the newer
version. For someone that works with a lot of documents and has to send them
between other users (and doesn't care about the changes because it is a form
and there will necessarily be changes in every document), this causes major
problems. I'm wishing my office would go back to office 2000. Thanks for
your help.
 
B

Bob Buckland ?:-\)

Hi Deb,

The behavior that changed in Word 2003 is to
try to make it more obvious if there were 'tracked'
changes active in the document.

If Track changes was on in Word 2000 they could easily
not be seen unless you were looking for them.

You can still turn off Track changes (TRK dimmed) in
the Status Bar in Print Layout view in both versions
and in Tools=>Options=>Security in Word 2003 you can turn
on the setting to warn you if there are tracked changes
in the document before printing, emailing, etc.

=========
That's what I thought. I can't see why this change was made in the newer
version. For someone that works with a lot of documents and has to send them
between other users (and doesn't care about the changes because it is a form
and there will necessarily be changes in every document), this causes major
problems. I'm wishing my office would go back to office 2000. Thanks for
your help. >>
--
Let us know if this helped you,

Bob Buckland ?:)
MS Office System Products MVP

*Courtesy is not expensive and can pay big dividends*

For Everyday MS Office tips to "use right away" -
http://microsoft.com/events/series/administrativetipsandtricks.mspx
 
M

Margaret Aldis

Let's take your particular problem in order:

First, you have to make sure that the document you send out a) is not
tracking changes and b) does not contain any tracked changes. That means
accepting any changes already there, and making sure track changes is OFF on
your own machine when you edit and save the document.

If you keep finding track changes ON in new documents, you also need to turn
it OFF it in the template you are starting from.

Next, it would be nice if you could stop the departments turning track
changes on. But I'll bet they'll leave it they way you send it to them so
let's not worry about that.

Finally, if they do track changes, you don't want to see them in the 200
documents you get back. You can handle that by going to Tools > Options >
Security and unchecking the "Make hidden markup visible" checkbox. But when
you do that, be aware that any changes will still be in the files. Don't get
caught out tracking in your own documents and sending those changes out to
someone else. It would really be better just to Accept All (it's only one
click on the menu that drops down beside the Accept button - you don't have
to accept each change individually) and turn tracked changes off on any
document you receive that is showing revisions.
 
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