Track Changes - On or Off?

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Guest

After reading many of the posts regarding tracked changes I am still confused
about just turning it to OFF for creation of NEW documents. I read a response
that said turn it off, but you still must accept or reject the changes.
Why have an On/Off if you still are going to get tracking even if you've
turned it off?! Is the On/Off for viewing only and Word 2003 ALWAYS tracks?
--no matter what? I'm rather scared to send anything out anymore, having no
clue what it will look like on the other end! Can anyone answer definitively
this question: Can I turn OFF tracked changes and not have Word 2003 track
or show any changes? -- to me, or anyone else it is sent to?
 
Tracking and Showing are two different things and have separate on/off
switches. That's the key point.

Tracking means that new edits are being actively tracked as changes. Once
tracked, that change is stored IN the document until it is removed.
Tracking defaults to OFF.

Showing just means it will show changes if any exist in the document, but
not create any additional ones. Word 2003 forced a default of ON for
showing.

You'll find an excellent and complete explanation here:
http://shaunakelly.com/word/trackchanges/HowTrackChangesWorks.html
 
Thank you for your response! You are absolutely right -- link to Shauna
Kelly's site is EXCELLENT! Thanks to Shauna for putting it all together and
making it understandable!! ... MVPs are AWESOME!!
 
You're welcome.

You might consider sending the link for Shauna's site on to people you work
with--from the posts on this group, you are most certainly not alone in not
understanding what's going on with Track Changes. :)
 
I am using Office 2007 and by default, am finding track changes = on. I know
how to turn it on and off in an individual document, but i I turn it off and
save the doc, when I reopen it, changes are back on again.

How do I turn track changes off by default please, so that I only get them
when I choose to turn them on, or when opening documents saved with them on?
 
Probably what's happening is that all your Changes are being Shown
when you open your document, as opposed to Track Changes getting
turned on so that any new changes get registered as changes rather
than simply happening.

This is the default scheme, so that for instance you don't
accidentally send someone a document with the changes and comments
hidden, that you didn't want them to see.

There's a checkbox in the Word Options for turning off the automatic
showing of changes at opening, but it's probably not a good idea.
(Once you Accept your Changes, they can't show any more.)
 
No, you haven't understood my point. I have a document with track changes
turned off. I make sure all changes are accepted and save it. For most
purposes, I don't need them turned on. Then I reopen the document and track
changes is back on again. I want the choice to have the default off. I used
to be able to do this in earlier versions, and generally they would either be
turned on because I was using document I wished to collaborate in with other
people, or because I received a document from someone where they were already
turned on. I cannot get Word 2007 to behave in the same way.
 
Phil

The default behaviour of Track/Show changes being enabled/disable when you
create a new file, is based on the setting in the template from which you
create the file.

For example, when you open Word, the default template is typically the
Normal.dot file. This file is normally found in your user profile folder, by
defaul in Windows XP:

C:\Documents and Settings\%username%\Application
Data\Microsoft\Templates\Normal.dot

The Application Data folder is normally hidden, so you'll have to type this
in manually, or show hidden folders.

If you open this template, you'll be able to edit the default settings for
new files created from this template. To solve your particular problem,
you'll want to disable track/show changes (on the Review Toolbar), then save
and close the file.

Hopefully, when you create a new file, Track Changes should be disabled by
default (it worked for me in Office 2003).


Regards
Daniel
 
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