Formatting issues when working in collaborative mode on a word with track changes on

Question

Hello,

We always have bugs and formatting issues that mess up the document when many employees are making changes in the same word document (100 pages and more reports) with "track changes" on.

I think that some employees open the document online and others open it on the desktop app.

Is there anything we can do to avoid this issue ?

Thanks,

Soukaina

Answer 1

Hello Stefan,

Many thanks for your response.

Do you know if there are any other official "best practices" when editting large word files (min 15Mb) in collaborative mode (5 to 10 people) with the "track changes" on (in addition to editing in the locally installed version of word) ?

Thank you for your help!

Regards,

Soukaina

Answer 2

Hello Stefan,

Many thanks for your response.

Do you know if there are any other official "best practices" when editting large word files (min 15Mb) in collaborative mode (5 to 10 people) with the "track changes" on (in addition to editing in the locally installed version of word) ?

Thank you for your help!

Regards,

Soukaina

You are going to get some messes with that many users trying to edit a document in collaborative mode with track changes on. Using the desktop versions is a key, though.

I would, on a daily basis, make two backups: One that is simply a backup of the document and a second would be one with all changes accepted.

• Do all formatting using styles.
• Make sure the document is not set to update styles from the template upon opening.
• If being used, have a common set of building blocks in a shared global template.

Answer 3

We have the same issue but it is not limited to track changes mode and everyone on our team works locally. We have sent screen shots of the same exact document which shows with different format (i.e. some lack spacing between paragraphs while others have them). We can have three different Word users looking at the same document - only one sees formatting that looks correct while others have huge blank pages, extra spaces or no spaces.