Track Changes - author changing to "unknown" unexpectedly
Angela Ross
if this is the case.
I just wondered if anyone would be able to help me with a small track
changes problem. I am using Word 97 in Windows NT 4. I have a document
which has been emailed to me with track changes - these all appear fine, all
in one colour and when you hover over the changes, they show the author
which is correct. However, on a line which contains track changes by this
other user, I have inserted changes of my own and they start off fine - i.e.
in a separate colour and showing myself as the author - however, half way
through what I am typing, the colour changes to a different colour and the
author is shown as being "unknown". I have checked in my Tools - Options -
User Information and my name appears there. I use track changes a lot and
this is the first time I have
encountered this problem and just wondered if anyone could tell me why this
is happening and how to fix it.
Regards,
Angela Ross
John McGhie [MVP]
This is happening because Track Changes is a bit flaky in Word before Word
2002.
If you try not to allow changes to butt into each other, and avoid changes
to changes, you will get less of this. But it still happens from time to
time.
When it does, it indicates that the text in that area of the document is
getting pretty frayed. I wouldn't push your luck too much further if I were
you: you may get a document corruption and lose the whole document (you have
a backup, I hope?).
I think I would save the other user's work then Accept All changes and save
a new version before putting your changes in. Word 97 is not an ideal
platform for heavy work: don't push your luck.
Cheers
On 6/11/01 8:34 PM, in article edQ1vXqZBHA.1588@tkmsftngp03, "Angela Ross"
<ARR...@paull-williamsons.co.uk> wrote:
--
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
Angela Ross
Thanks for your reply - this explains a lot as we do sometimes experience
various other problems in some of our long docs where we do use quite a lot
of formatting (in particular automatic numbering).
Would you recommend moving to XP?
Regards,
Angela Ross
"John McGhie [MVP]" <jo...@mcghie-information.com.au> wrote in message
news:B811D5C9.ADE8%jo...@mcghie-information.com.au...
Günther Grill
"John McGhie [MVP]" wrote
> This is happening because Track Changes is a bit flaky in Word before Word
> 2002.
It seems to me that there are still problems with track changes in Word2002.
If you do a search and replace operation with "groups" while track changes
mode turned on, e.g. replace
55-56 with 55 to 56
with the String
([0-9]@)-([0-9]@)
\1 to \2
the result is 55 5to 6.
This happens everytime you use more than one "group".
How can this behaviour of Word be avoided ?
Günther
John McGhie [MVP]
I would recommend XP, but maybe not just yet in a professional setting.
I have it and generally it's an improvement over Word 2000 and a big
improvement over Wd 97. However I have had some problems with it crashing
when doing heavy work.
Crashes in Word XP are simply annoying rather than serious, because it
*always* seems to manage to save your work and all your changes. It's very
good like that.
But I think it will be even better after its first service release appears.
That should be in just a month or so from now.
So: Yes, I would recommend XP, but you may want to wait until the first
Service Release appears for it. In the meantime, you might want to check
that all of your machines are running Windows 2000 or Windows XP and that
they all have 256 MB of memory or better. XP likes a good feed of memory to
work at its best. Word XP will go about 20 per cent faster on Windows XP
than it will on Windows 2000.
Hope this helps
On 10/11/01 3:14 AM, in article uhUUVlTaBHA.1552@tkmsftngp03, "Angela Ross"
John McGhie [MVP]
I don't know. I would not attempt wild-card replacements using regular
expressions with Track Changes turned on, personally.
cheers
On 12/11/01 7:45 PM, in article eZptG71aBHA.1540@tkmsftngp03, "Günther
Grill" <g-g...@gmx.net> wrote:
--
Bob Buckland ?:-)
This one may be an issue with the
wildcard string used rather than track changes.
If you use Word 2002's multi-selection feature
in Edit=>Find [Highlight all items found
in Main document] and use the [Find All]
button while searching with [x] Wildcards
and your find string of
([0-9]@)-([0-9]@)
you'll probably see that only
55-5
rather than
55-56
is highlighted in the result which
is consistent with the outcome you
saw. It doesn't matter if you have
track changes on or off in this case.
The [0-9]@ string is set to
locate the first digit in the range
of zero through 9. See if
([0-9]{1,2})-([0-9]{1,2})
gives you the result you need.
http://mvps.org/word/FAQs/General/UsingWildcards.htm
============
<<"Günther Grill" <g-g...@gmx.net> wrote in message news:eZptG71aBHA.1540@tkmsftngp03...
It seems to me that there are still problems with track changes in Word2002.
If you do a search and replace operation with "groups" while track changes
mode turned on, e.g. replace
55-56 with 55 to 56
with the String
([0-9]@)-([0-9]@)
\1 to \2
the result is 55 5to 6.
This happens everytime you use more than one "group".
How can this behaviour of Word be avoided ?
Günther>>
--
Hope that helps,
Bob Buckland ?:-) MS Word/Office MVP
http://forums.compuserve.com/gvforums/default.asp?SRV=MSOfficeForum
*Courtesy is not expensive and can pay big dividends*
Günther Grill
> See if
> ([0-9]{1,2})-([0-9]{1,2})
> gives you the result you need.
The result ist 55-56to. This is a BUG!
The workaround is: Do the operations with "track changes" turned off on a
copy of the document, then compare it.....
Thank your for answering, its quite silent about this issue out there!
bye
Günther
Bob Buckland ?:-)
Hmmm, it may be languge specific as I get the
correct result with the string I mentioned, but
not with the one you originally mentioned.
Using the wildcard string you suggested the
'incorrect' string would be the result I would
expect.
=============
<<"Günther Grill" <g-g...@gmx.net> wrote in message news:OMY5I6EcBHA.1028@tkmsftngp04...
Hi Bob,
bye
Günther>>
--
Hope that helps,
Bob Buckland ?:-) MS Office Products family MVP
http://forums.compuserve.com/gvforums/default.asp?SRV=MSOfficeForum
*Courtesy is not expensive and can pay big dividends*
Use a focused newsgroup for questions about a specific Office application:
via Browser:
http://communities.microsoft.com/newsgroups/default.asp?icp=prod_office
via Newsreader - news://msnews.microsoft.com
http://support.microsoft.com/highlights/default.asp?pr=news&cl=179
MS Office XP and 2002 apps Support FAQ
http://support.microsoft.com/highlights/OffXP.asp
Jalal
I don't have an answer to your problem, but I was
wondering whether you can advise me on a change issue.
Basically I want to print the change and the revision.
How can I do this? I'm struggling and I would appreciate
your advice.
Jalal
>.
>