Track changes options doesn't save

Question

As a professional Technical Author, I spend most of my time at work reviewing and editing Word documents. I've always used balloons to show deletions and formatting changes. In Word 2003, once I had set that option, it stayed there. I have recently upgraded to Word 2010 and it seems that any changes I make to the change tracking options are lost when I shut down my computer – the next day, it has reverted to the defaults.

What I'm talking about is under the Review menu > Tracking tab, click the drop-down arrow beneath Track Changes then Change Tracking Options.The bottom section of the dialog box that appears is Balloons and then the first option: Use Balloons (Print and Web Layout). I want this set to 'Always' but, as I said, it reverts to the default every day.

Is there any way of getting that to save? I know it's not a big deal to go and change it manually but it's annoying.to have to do so.

Answer 1

I'm not sure where the setting is stored, but you could try deleting the Data key for Word in the registry. Then see if Word preserves the setting you choose.

Alternatively, use auto macros as follows:

Sub AutoOpen()

On Error Resume Next

ActiveWindow.View _

    .RevisionsMode = wdBalloonRevisions

End Sub

Sub AutoNew()

On Error Resume Next

ActiveWindow.View _

.RevisionsMode = wdBalloonRevisions

End Sub

Note that the RevisionsMode property is hidden in Word 2010, which means that it still works, but it won't be supported in the future. The On Error statement above will prevent it from raising an error (when it eventually stops working), though.

For assistance with the auto macros, take a look at http://www.gmayor.com/installing_macro.htm.

Answer 2

Try opening Word in its application safe mode and check if the issue occurs.

Click Start > run>type 'winword /safe' (Without the quotes and note the space in the command)

If you’re able to work with Word in safe mode, then follow the steps provided in the article below and check if that helps:

http://support.microsoft.com/kb/921541