Using Track Changes with Emailed Documents

  • Thread starter Thread starter JenC
  • Start date Start date
J

JenC

Hello,

I am a fairly competent Word user, but I've always been a bit confused by
Track Changes when working on a document that's edited via email. I'm hoping
someone can point me to a resource that might explain so I can understand it
once and for all!

I seem to remember that in older versions of Word (maybe a few versions
ago), there was an option to open a document received by email, make changes
(using the Track Changes feature), then email it back to the sender with
changes.

I can no longer figure out a way to do this. It seems that if someone sends
me a document to review, I need to open it, make the tracked changes, then
save it to my own files before emailing it back to them. This is very
annoying - I don't need multiple copies of these documents littering my
files, and if I do need to refer to the changes I made, they will be captured
in the email I sent back. It's just one more step for me to go back and
manually delete the created file.

Is there a way to do this without saving first? Or is this another example
of Word trying to save me from myself and making things more complicated in
the process?

Thanks,
Jen
 
You should always save the e-mail attachment to your hard drive before
making changes to the file. Otherwise, you're working with a file downloaded
to your temporary internet files folder; any changes to that file will be
lost when you close it.
 
Thanks for your response, Stefan. For large documents that I'm going to spend
a lot of time with, I absolutely agree - I know documents stored in temp
files are finicky, and I wouldn't want to risk losing something I'd done a
lot of work on.

But in a lot of cases, someone sends me a short document that needs a 5-10
minute review (like meeting minutes for a meeting I attended). I really don't
want a copy of the document, since I'm going to be sent the final version
anyway. So I end up having to save a copy and then immediately go back and
delete it - not the most efficient process, and if I forget to delete it, I
end up with multiple copies of a non-critical document.

I also know that when I used to do this with earlier versions, I NEVER lost
a document, even those longer ones that can be a problem. I'm sure it CAN
happen, but for these short documents, I'm quite willing to take the chance.

It just seems like there should be a way to do this. I know I "should" save
it to my hard drive, but if I don't want to, is there a way to get around it?

Jen
 
In that case, in Word 2003, File | Send To | Mail Recipient (as Attachment)
would do what you want, as it creates an e-mail message and adds the current
document as an attachment.

I don't know if the corresponding command is still available in Word 2007. I
certainly couldn't find it in Word Options, Customize.
 
Thanks Stefan - I couldn't remember the name of the command (Send to Mail
Recipient), but when I searched, I was able to find it. You have to add the
command to the QAT.

Much appreciated!
 
As far as I can see, Office button > Send category > E-mail is the same
command as the previous File > Send To > Mail Recipient (as Attachment).

--
Regards
Lene Fredborg - Microsoft MVP (Word)
DocTools - Denmark
www.thedoctools.com
Document automation - add-ins, macros and templates for Microsoft Word
 
I can confirm that that is the case. The one that's actually a challenge to
find is the command to send the document as the body of an email (which I've
never wanted to do, but we get a lot of questions about that here).

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
http://word.mvps.org
 
Hmm, apparently that was too easy. :-) I didn't even think to look under the
Office button for this. Thank you!
 
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