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DVB
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 Posted: Thu Jun 07, 2012 3:59 am Post subject: Change tracking problems with Word documents SOLVED |
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My publishers have sent me the copy-edited text of my next book with change tracking. Unfortunately their original is Word 2007. OOo 3.3's list of other formats includes Word 97/2000/XP and the earlier Word 95 and Word 6.0, but not Word 2007.
There are two major formatting problems.
1. All the comments are clumped together in a long list on the right hand side, every time there's a comment. There's a line pointing to the relevant place in the text each time, but the other end of the line always points to the first of the clump of comments. As we're talking about an academic book, you can imagine the clump of comments is quite long, even in individual chapter files. I remember meeting this problem once before, but I can't remember how it was resolved.
2. Although most of the time changes show up correctly (green underlined for insertions, red crossed-out for deletions, etc), every now and then a huge chunk of text several pages long (in one case over half a chapter) appears as green underlined or red crossed-out -- and within those chunks no other editing changes are shown.
The first problem is a pain, but copable with. The second completely defeats the point of tracked changes.
Has anyone else encountered similar problems -- and more importantly, found ways to fix them? My copy-editor is suggesting that I use Word to edit the text, but that isn't an option.
If anyone can help -- thank you!
Last edited by DVB on Thu Jun 07, 2012 10:46 am; edited 1 time in total |
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jrkrideau
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Joined: 08 Aug 2005
Posts: 6733
Location: Kingston ON Canada
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| Posted: Thu Jun 07, 2012 8:06 am Post subject: Re: Change tracking problems with Word documents |
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| DVB wrote: | My publishers have sent me the copy-edited text of my next book with change tracking. Unfortunately their original is Word 2007. OOo 3.3's list of other formats includes Word 97/2000/XP and the earlier Word 95 and Word 6.0, but not Word 2007.
There are two major formatting problems.
1. All the comments are clumped together in a long list on the right hand side, every time there's a comment. There's a line pointing to the relevant place in the text each time, but the other end of the line always points to the first of the clump of comments. As we're talking about an academic book, you can imagine the clump of comments is quite long, even in individual chapter files. I remember meeting this problem once before, but I can't remember how it was resolved.
2. Although most of the time changes show up correctly (green underlined for insertions, red crossed-out for deletions, etc), every now and then a huge chunk of text several pages long (in one case over half a chapter) appears as green underlined or red crossed-out -- and within those chunks no other editing changes are shown.
The first problem is a pain, but copable with. The second completely defeats the point of tracked changes.
Has anyone else encountered similar problems -- and more importantly, found ways to fix them? My copy-editor is suggesting that I use Word to edit the text, but that isn't an option.
If anyone can help -- thank you! |
Have them send you the file in Word 97/2000/XP.
Otherwise you may find that LibreOffice will read the file.
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jrkrideau
Kingston ON Canada
Currently using Windows 7 & OOo 3.4.0 and Ubuntu 12.04 & LibreOffice 3.5.2.2 |
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DVB
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| Posted: Thu Jun 07, 2012 8:25 am Post subject: |
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Thanks -- I'll ask them to, and hope that that solves it.
I've kept wondering about switching to LibreOffice, but haven't been able to find out enough about it to make the decision.
I'm planning to upgrade to OOo 3.4 -- but not until they include a British dictionary! |
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DVB
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| Posted: Thu Jun 07, 2012 10:45 am Post subject: |
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Postscript:
Your response came just before I took a break for dinner: I came back and was about to ask if he could send the files in Word 97/2000/XP (ie .doc format)-- and discover he's already done it. And it's solved both problems on all the files.
At least now we know that OpenOffice doesn't like Word 2007's .docx files... |
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jrkrideau
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Joined: 08 Aug 2005
Posts: 6733
Location: Kingston ON Canada
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| Posted: Fri Jun 08, 2012 6:44 am Post subject: |
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| DVB wrote: | Postscript:
At least now we know that OpenOffice doesn't like Word 2007's .docx files... |
I think its more that Word 2007 hates OpenOffice.org.
It's good to hear that the solution did work.
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jrkrideau
Kingston ON Canada
Currently using Windows 7 & OOo 3.4.0 and Ubuntu 12.04 & LibreOffice 3.5.2.2 |
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DVB
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Joined: 01 Feb 2008
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| Posted: Fri Jun 08, 2012 7:04 am Post subject: |
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| jrkrideau wrote: | | DVB wrote: | Postscript:
At least now we know that OpenOffice doesn't like Word 2007's .docx files... |
I think its more that Word 2007 hates OpenOffice.org.
It's good to hear that the solution did work. |
Thanks for your help again. If you're interested I'll send you a note when the book's published in Dec/Jan -- I don't know if Sociology of Religion is your cup of tea... |
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jrkrideau
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Joined: 08 Aug 2005
Posts: 6733
Location: Kingston ON Canada
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| Posted: Fri Jun 08, 2012 9:12 am Post subject: |
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| DVB wrote: | | jrkrideau wrote: | | DVB wrote: | Postscript:
At least now we know that OpenOffice doesn't like Word 2007's .docx files... |
I think its more that Word 2007 hates OpenOffice.org.
It's good to hear that the solution did work. |
Thanks for your help again. If you're interested I'll send you a note when the book's published in Dec/Jan -- I don't know if Sociology of Religion is your cup of tea... |
Not really but I'd be interested in at least seeing it.
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jrkrideau
Kingston ON Canada
Currently using Windows 7 & OOo 3.4.0 and Ubuntu 12.04 & LibreOffice 3.5.2.2 |
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