Is it spossible to preserve the original line numbers for reference when editing a document?

[mr_gray]

Hi there, this is my first post - I've had a good look about and haven't been able to find much at all on this, I'll attempt to explain the problem:




I submitted an article to a panel of reviewers and the required format was to use line numbering for them to reference, track changes wasn't used; I received a document from each listing line-specific comments for me to address


Now I want to work through these comments but as I type, the line numbers obviously change and I quickly get lost as to where their comments relate


The only solution I can think of is to print out a hard copy to refer to and then use 'find' to locate the text that was originally on that line, but this is time consuming and I wondered whether anybody could think of a way to preserve the original line numbers that will at least roughly stay in place as the document changes?


I really hope that makes sense? I am currently so distracted by trying to find a solution to this that I’m not actually doing the editing I need to do!! Any help at all will stop me procrastinating

[macropod]

You could start by inserting manual page breaks between all the pages. That way any changes in line numbering will be restricted to just the page you're editing. Furthermore, if you start making changes from the bottom of each page, the line numbers towards the top won't have been changed by the time you get to them. When you're done, delete the manual page breaks.

[mr_gray]

That makes sense thank you, if I highlight changes as i go I can also then refer back and report to each reviewer "re comment x; please see line (new line numer)"

I'm going to merge their comments now and sort them so I can work backwards rather than going just going through reviewer by reviewer.

Thanks again, that lets me get on with it... in the meantime though, if anyone does think of a way to actually preserve the old numbering, (possibly even beside the 'new' line numbers which update as you edit) it's still bugging me!

[Charles Kenyon]

Another method would be to use a copy of your file. Do your editing in the copy, refer to the original for your line numbers.