Word track changes "unknown" bug
D.F.
editors and I use "Track Changes" for... well, to track changes ;) I find
that as I'm editing documents, I frequently (very frequently, actually) see
parts of my edits change to a different color, indicating they were done by
someone else. The info for those edits say that they were performed by
"unknown."
There's no way to "fix" these "unknown" edits other than to highlight them,
cut them, accept changes, then past them again so that they appear to come
from me. Even then, this process often results in nearby text suddenly
changing from me to Mr. (or Ms.) Unknown.
If I quit Word completely when this happens, then launch it again, the
problem disappears for a while, but it always comes back.
This has been driving me nuts for months, but I thought it was just a
personal thing. Then I mentioned it to my editors, who said it's been
bugging them for a lot longer than that. I also talked to a few other
authors at the Expo in Januaray, and found out that it's actually a pretty
common issue.
Is there any way to fix this bug? It makes Word's Track Changes feature
either worthless or (if you have the patience to quit, relaunch, and re-edit
every time it starts) very annoying.
P.S. I've applied all the Office v.X updates reinstalled a few times,
deleted preferences, etc. I've also done a few Web searches (including the
Microsoft Web site) to try to find a solution.
Any help is appreciated.
Shannon Jacobs
people's edits, and sometimes even for your own edits. If you have the
proper toolbar enabled, it's just a one-click toggle. (Sorry, not sure of
what it's called in English.) The problem seems to be related to the
ownership of the document. Hopefully one of the MVPs will come up with some
more definitive information... (Then again, it might not matter, since all
of these collaborative editing features are so badly broken in Word XP.)
D.F. wrote:
> I've been using Word to write a book for the past five months, and my
> editors and I use "Track Changes" for... well, to track changes ;) I
> find that as I'm editing documents, I frequently (very frequently,
> actually) see parts of my edits change to a different color,
> indicating they were done by someone else. The info for those edits
> say that they were performed by "unknown."
>
> There's no way to "fix" these "unknown" edits other than to highlight
> them, cut them, accept changes, then past them again so that they
> appear to come from me. Even then, this process often results in
> nearby text suddenly changing from me to Mr. (or Ms.) Unknown.
>
> If I quit Word completely when this happens, then launch it again, the
> problem disappears for a while, but it always comes back.
>
> This has been driving me nuts for months, but I thought it was just a
> personal thing. Then I mentioned it to my editors, who said it's been
> bugging them for a lot longer than that. I also talked to a few other
> authors at the Expo in January, and found out that it's actually a
Elliott Roper
<sha...@my-deja.com> wrote:
> You have to turn off the revision tracking while you are working with other
> people's edits, and sometimes even for your own edits. If you have the
> proper toolbar enabled, it's just a one-click toggle. (Sorry, not sure of
> what it's called in English.) The problem seems to be related to the
> ownership of the document. Hopefully one of the MVPs will come up with some
> more definitive information... (Then again, it might not matter, since all
> of these collaborative editing features are so badly broken in Word XP.)
One of them did. Try google groups with 'track changes' as the subject.
John McGhie gave me a lot of detailed advice over several posts quite
recently.
Summary:- It is fairly broken. It is even more broken on the Mac
version.
>
> D.F. wrote:
> > I've been using Word to write a book for the past five months, and my
> > editors and I use "Track Changes" for... well, to track changes ;) I
> > find that as I'm editing documents, I frequently (very frequently,
> > actually) see parts of my edits change to a different color,
> > indicating they were done by someone else. The info for those edits
> > say that they were performed by "unknown."
> >
> > There's no way to "fix" these "unknown" edits other than to highlight
> > them, cut them, accept changes, then past them again so that they
> > appear to come from me. Even then, this process often results in
> > nearby text suddenly changing from me to Mr. (or Ms.) Unknown.
> >
> > If I quit Word completely when this happens, then launch it again, the
> > problem disappears for a while, but it always comes back.
> >
> > This has been driving me nuts for months, but I thought it was just a
> > personal thing. Then I mentioned it to my editors, who said it's been
> > bugging them for a lot longer than that. I also talked to a few other
> > authors at the Expo in January, and found out that it's actually a
> > pretty common issue.
You and your editors are not alone. Except I was already nuts, so
nobody I knew blamed Word for that.
> >
> > Is there any way to fix this bug? It makes Word's Track Changes
> > feature either worthless or (if you have the patience to quit,
> > relaunch, and re-edit every time it starts) very annoying.
> >
> > P.S. I've applied all the Office v.X updates reinstalled a few times,
> > deleted preferences, etc. I've also done a few Web searches
> > (including the Microsoft Web site) to try to find a solution.
Doesn't help
> >
> > Any help is appreciated.
Just don't try merging tracked changes from several reviewer's work
done in parallel. You think *you've* got problems?
>
Clive Huggan
Elliott is right. In view of that, you *may* be interested to know how I
work around the problem in Word 2001:
I avoid these problems by not using the Track Changes feature during each
iteration of the document but doing a document comparison on a spare copy of
the document if I need to see the changes. I have shown my clients how to do
likewise. This is quick to do, does not affect the document's integrity, and
achieves the same outcome. Here is how I do it:
1. After getting my documents back from commentators (and having asked them
to leave "Track changes" off, though some do not comply) I open the document
to make sure it does not contain tracked changes (because that confuses the
subsequent comparison ‹ so if they are present, I "Accept All"). Then I
verify that "Track changes" is off (see below).
2. I create a new folder called "Compare temp" and Option-drag a copy of
both the original and the new document into it (thus leaving the two
originals untouched).
3. Then I choose Tools menu -> Track changes -> Compare documents.
4. I then look at the changes to see which way is best to incorporate them.
5. My next step depends on the extent of the changes; the first two of these
three alternatives are efficient and minimize the chances of corruption:
* If there have been very few, I key them into the original.
* If there are more but still not too many, I display both versions and drag
the amended text across to the original.
* If there are many changes I go through the full "Accept / reject" process.
To turn off Track Changes, either Command-Shift-e or go to Tools menu ->
Track changes -> de-select options in window that appears. Or, on the
Reviewing toolbar, click Track Changes button so it is not pressed in.
Cheers,
Clive Huggan
* Please post all comments to the newsgroup to maintain the thread.
* My advice is offered in good faith in appreciation of advice I have
received from other participants in this newsgroup. I do not receive
payment or training from Microsoft, or have any relationship with the
company other than as a purchaser of its products. No warranty whatsoever
attaches to my advice.
* Remove "the" from my address above if you also e-mail me directly, but
please note that e-mails with an attachment will be automatically rejected.
* If you're still reading down this far, here's a question: is it time for
you to back up your Normal template and other Word settings?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
in article 050220032249181860%ell...@yrl.co.uk, Elliott Roper at
ell...@yrl.co.uk wrote on 6/2/03 9:49 AM:
D.F.
> Hello D. (how cruel your parents were, only giving you initials :-|),
Sorry, my default "post to newsgroups" account uses only initials and a
phony email address to avoid usenet spam crawlers.
Thanks for the responses! On the one hand, I'm glad I'm not alone in
experiencing this problem. On the other, I'd rather be in the situation
where it was all my fault so I could fix it ;)
Thanks,
Dan
org.dot.frakes.at.dan
Clive Huggan
Don't be sorry -- it was just good therapy for me: I've never forgiven my
parents for calling me "Clive"!
in article BA671054.D88E%nos...@nospam.com, D.F. at nos...@nospam.com wrote
on 6/2/03 2:02 PM:
Never a truer word....
Cheers,
Clive
>
> Thanks,
> Dan
> org.dot.frakes.at.dan
>
John McGhie [MVP]
The "Unknown" may be coming from an author who has not filled their details
in in Preferences>User Information. Or it may be coming from a Word XP user
who is "removing all personally identifying information on Save".
Either way, the Name field is blank. I posted a Macro a week or so ago that
enables you to fill in any name you like for Tracked Changes and comments...
Cheers
This responds to article <BA671054.D88E%nos...@nospam.com>, from "D.F."
<nos...@nospam.com> on 5/2/03 7:02 PM:
--
All Spam and attachments blocked by Microsoft Entourage for Mac OS X. Please
post replies to the newsgroup to maintain the thread.
John McGhie, Microsoft MVP: Word for Macintosh and Word for Windows
Consultant Technical Writer <jo...@mcghie-information.com.au>
+61 4 1209 1410; Sydney, Australia: GMT + 10 hrs
Lifeng Wu
Word 2001 is driving me nuts. It has been freezing me up for the past few
weeks. Usually it's like this: I start the program, it works for a couple
of minutes, then freezes. I can still move the mouse but Word is not
responding.
I am using Word 2001 on the original iBook, with 320M built-in memory. I
have tried Word with both the virtual memory off and on and it won't help!
John McGhie [MVP]
Then allocate 24 MB of Preferred memory to Word.
If it's still crashing/freezing after that, come back here and we'll dig a
bit deeper for you. It may be various other share-ware programs causing the
problem.
Cheers
This responds to article <BA6C7F81.378B0%wuli...@msu.edu>, from "Lifeng Wu"
<wuli...@msu.edu> on 9/2/03 6:58 PM:
--