Word for Mac 2011 Insert/Merge Files Question

BenPanced

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I'm currently working on edits and my ms is divided up into three separate files right now. Tracking Changes has been activated, per my publisher's requirements. Never mind for the moment the perpetual question of why Word changes the colors of the comment balloons every 30 seconds. What I'd like to know is there a way to mash all three files into one document but still keep the tracked changes intact? When I tried to do this with copy/paste or Insert File, I lost all of the comments and ms formatting so I just left it at three files.
 

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Ben I don't have MSWord since moving to Lion.

What I'd try is:

1. Create a new blank document to be the master file.
2. Make sure Track Changes is on
3. Open the first of the three documents; do a Command-A Select All, and then Command-C copy.
4. Paste the copied text in the new document
5. Save it.

Did it work?
Repeat and see if it works with file #2.

This used to work . . .
 

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I've tried your suggestion, but it's being oddly selective on the comments it's showing. I saved the original document before the select all-copy-paste Just To Make Sure but it carried over less than half of the comment balloons.
 

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I've tried your suggestion, but it's being oddly selective on the comments it's showing. I saved the original document before the select all-copy-paste Just To Make Sure but it carried over less than half of the comment balloons.

That sounds like a borked file.

Have you tried importing it into Pages, and do you still lose comments?
 

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I'll let Medi or another Mac user help with your main question.

When you get that solved and want to deal with the track change colors: It probably thinks you're a different reviewer at times. Go to Tools > Options > Track Changes and change all the color options to the ones you want to use rather than auto or By Author [Or something similar; I use another version of Word so yours could be different; MS likes to move things around].
 

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That sounds like a borked file.

Have you tried importing it into Pages, and do you still lose comments?
Yeah, I lose the comments when I try a copy-and-paste into a Pages document with "track changes" switched on. All I get is the "inserted text" vertical line on the left margin, similar to what happens with Word.
 

DragonWing

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Have you tried merging the documents? I use Windows, so it might be a bit different for Mac, but a search for "Document Merge" in MS Word's Help system gave me this:

If you send a document for review to several reviewers, and each reviewer returns the document, you can combine the documents two at a time until all the reviewer changes have been incorporated into a single document.

  1. On the Review tab, in the Compare group, click Compare.
ZA010153944.gif


  1. Click Combine revisions from multiple authors.
  2. Under Original document, click the name of the document into which you want to combine the changes from multiple sources.
If you don't see the document in the list, click Browse for Original
ZA010124710.gif
.

  1. Under Revised document, browse for the document that contains the changes by one of the reviewers.
  2. Click More.
  3. Under Show changes, select the options for what you want to compare in the documents.
By default, Microsoft Office Word shows changes to whole words. For example, if you change the word cat to cats, the entire word cats will show as changed in the document and not simply the character s.

  1. Under Show changes in, click Original document.
  2. Click OK.
To change which documents appear on the screen when you click OK, in the Compare group, click Hide Source Documents or Show Source Documents.

  1. Repeat steps 1-8. Word will merge all of the changes into the original document.
Note Word can store only one set of formatting changes at a time. Therefore, when you merge multiple documents, you may be prompted to decide whether you want to keep the formatting from the original document or use the formatting from the edited document. If you don't need to track formatting changes, you can clear the Formatting check box in the Compare and Merge Documents dialog box.
Unfortunately, Word's Help system doesn't give me a URL for that. Maybe this one will help.