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How do I get rid of tracked changes?

Anonymous
2020-06-26T16:43:49+00:00

I recently sent a short book that I wrote in MS Word 2010 to a copy editor.  The editor did a wonderful job, using the features in the Review ribbon menu.  When she sent the file back to me I dutifully went through all her markup, accepting/rejecting her edits and dealt with all her comments.  So, now it's time to do some typesetting to get the book ready for publishing.  Here are my problems. 

  1. The tracking data displays even though it was previously dealt with.  I can't seem to get rid of it.  I used the Options dropdown menu from the track changes to uncheck all the "track changes" checkboxes, saved, exited and reloaded the file, and it all just comes back.  Besides being annoying, it makes it hard to edit the file.  I can get it to go away for a while by unchecking boxes, but those options don't save.  How do I get rid of it?  I don't need that data anymore.
  2. In order to do the typesetting I need to copy the text of the book, one section at a time, into my typesetting tool.  When I do that copy/paste operation, instead of just copying the text in its finished format it copies all the tracked changes with it.  For instance, I changed the title of the book.  When I copy/paste the title it inserts the old title right next to the new title.  It does the same thing with every tracked change in the manuscript.  How do I fix this?  Please help me!!!    :>(
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  1. Jay Freedman 207.6K Reputation points Volunteer Moderator
    2020-06-26T19:20:39+00:00

    Agreed.

    Just to clarify a point that may not be obvious: "Unchecking boxes" only hides the markup but does not remove it. You can remove it only by using the Accept and/or Reject commands. Also, if you don't turn off Tracked Changes, then any edits you make after the Accept/Reject will become new markup -- even if they aren't displayed as markup.

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  1. Stefan Blom 339.2K Reputation points MVP Volunteer Moderator
    2020-06-27T18:37:44+00:00

    Thanks for the follow-up. As you have found, the settings at Review > Show Markup are truly just for display; they do not affect whether tracking occurs or not.

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  2. Anonymous
    2020-06-27T18:29:49+00:00

    In the end it was all so simple.  Just to be clear for someone else reading this thread -- to turn change-tracking on/off you simply click the "track changes" button in the Review ribbon.  It's a toggle switch.  Click it once, it turns it on, click it again, it turns it off.  I had to experiment to see how it worked.

    It took both of the replies by Stephan Blom and Jay Freedman along with some experimentation to get to the heart of my problem, but it worked.  It all happened because I was totally unfamiliar with the features of the Review ribbon.  When I got my edited manuscript back from the editor I very dutifully accepted/rejected everything she did.  Later, I also made some independent changes.  What caught me is what Jay referred to in his post:  "...if you don't turn off Tracked Changes, then any edits you make after the Accept/Reject will become new markup -- even if they aren't displayed as markup."  The markup doesn't always display, so all the changes I made  were tracked, but didn't show up as such.  When I went to copy it into my typesetting tool, I copied those tracked changes right along with the text I wanted and made a mess of things.  So, the solution is to toggle that "Track Changes" button and then go through and Accept/Reject the edits that were tracked.  I've done that and it seems to have done the trick.  

    Thanks for your help.

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