Keep your word documents private.Q. I've heard that the two latest versions of Word (XP) store the editorial changes and comments of Track Changes (the Word tool that allows various people to pose questions and make suggested changes to a document) and that, if you send the document to someone, he or she can read those comments and changes. If that's true, it's pretty scary. A. It is true, and yes, it is scary. Recently a major public company was embarrassed when someone was able to uncover the tracked changes in one of its financial press releases. It revealed that, to make its negative news more palatable pal·at·a·ble adj. 1. Acceptable to the taste; sufficiently agreeable in flavor to be eaten. 2. Acceptable or agreeable to the mind or sensibilities: a palatable solution to the problem. , the original document had been revised before it was released. The good news is that, after you've finished editing a document and you're ready to distribute it, there are things you can do to eliminate all traces of the tracked changes. (For more on Track Changes, see "Collaboration Without Headaches," JofA, Mar.03, page 71). The first thing to do after employing Track Changes--and making whatever editorial adjustments you want to make--is to turn it off. As obvious as that sounds, the reality is most people forget to do it because the tool sits quietly in the background and the only way to know it's still functioning is either to make an editorial change and see the colored type appear or to call up the Toolbar A row or column of on-screen buttons used to activate functions in the application. Many toolbars are customizable, letting you add and delete buttons as required. Toolbars may be fixed in position or may float, which means they can be dragged to a more convenient location in the menu and see the check mark next to the Reviewing icon. A shortcut (1) In Windows, a shortcut is an icon that points to a program or data file. Shortcuts can be placed on the desktop or stored in other folders, and double clicking a shortcut is the same as double clicking the original file. to get rid of the check mark: Click inside an unoccupied place on the toolbar and uncheck Reviewing. To eliminate all stored track changes in a document, open the Reviewing function. In Word 2002 and 2003, you can alternatively click on View and Markup (text) markup - In computerised document preparation, a method of adding information to the text indicating the logical components of a document, or instructions for layout of the text on the page or other information which can be interpreted by some automatic system. . From that point you can look at each change and decide whether to accept or reject it individually. If you want to accept all the changes that have been made, on the Reviewing toolbar The reviewing toolbar is a toolbar in Microsoft Office applications, used for the addition of comments and also to track changes made in a document. This toolbar is very useful when sharing a single document across a workgroup or having it proofread. click on the down arrow next to the "check" icon and pick Accept All Changes in Document. To reject all of them, click on the down arrow next to the X icon and choose Reject All Changes in Document. Blessedly, Microsoft has a memory aid for such forgetfulness Forgetfulness See also Carelessness. Absent-Minded Beggar, The ballad of forgetful soldiers who fought in the Boer War. [Br. Lit.: “The Absent-Minded Beg-gars” in Payton, 3] absent-minded professor : You can set it to warn you when you save a document that contains tracked changes or comments. To enable this feature, click on Tools, Options and Security and check the box marked Warn before printing, saving or sending a file that contains tracked changes or comments. Forewarned is forearmed. STANLEY ZAROWIN, a former JofA senior editor, is now a contributing editor A contributing editor is a magazine job title that varies in responsibilities. Most often, a contributing editor is a freelancer who has proven ability and readership draw. to the magazine. His e-mail address See Internet address. e-mail address - electronic mail address is zarowin@mindspring.com. |
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