Track editing in Word

I think I have a different version of Word than you, since my menu items don't match up. However, be aware of the difference between tracking changes and comments. You can have tracked changes appear inline or in the comments box on the right, but you can also have comments (which are a different thing) in the comments box on the right. The box on the right will show up if you have any comments or any tracked changes.
Are the 'Previous' and 'Next' comment buttons active under the Review tab? If so, there is/are one or more comments. You'll have to delete them before the box will go away and stay gone.

The way I handle it is I usually do an "accept all and quit tracking changes" which makes the change tracking box go away (my brain doesn't deal with strikeout and replace text) then I address comments, in the order that they appear, deleting them, until their are all gone. Then the comment box goes bye bye.

Yes, to make change tracking actually go away you have to either accept or reject the changes. (Showing "Final" text just hides them -- they're still there, and if you change the view, or reopen the doc with something else as the default they're visible again.) If you don't want to deal with each change individually you can "Accept All" or "Reject All" -- these commands apply to entire doc, not just the page you're looking at, & I don't think you can Undo, so be careful. There's no mass delete for Comments - you have to select and delete each one individually.

benbenberi said:

There's no mass delete for Comments - you have to select and delete each one individually.

Click to expand...

I have MS Word 2010, and it has a "delete all comments in document" option.

LJD said:

I have MS Word 2010, and it has a "delete all comments in document" option.

Click to expand...

You can do that yes, but in my experience comments are usually few enough and important enough to address individually.

This thread is a perfect example of why you should ALWAYS keep a copy of the manuscript version you start with in any editing session. I detest the editing whistles and bells in MS-Word. When I edit, I make a copy of the manuscript, put it away, and then edit, using font colors to indicate any changes, ideas or comments I may have. Next day I review those, keep the ones I like, make a new copy, rinse and repeat.

caw

Also a reminder that Dropbox, and probably many of its competitors, store version history of the files you put there, so every time you save the file the older version is still there in the pile and available should you want it. It doesn't identify changes, of course, but it's a safeguard in case you do something in editing that you really shouldn't have.

http://www.gmayor.com/SaveVersionsAdd-in.htm

-cb

LibreOffice has versioning, and I mark a new version after the initial typing.

My NAS is configured to make daily snapshots of the volume I'm using for this, and keep for 2 years. Windows “show previous versions” is supposed to be able to browse those.

Almost unknown to writers is a version control system like git. For plain text files (like source code) it’s a workhorse tool. I'm tempted to edit in markdown rather than a word processor just to have that.

That is super annoying. Frustrations like this remind me why I use Pages (Mac iWork).

JP