Fixing/stabilizing/setting/securing/converting markup of tracked changes into "hard" formatting

[paulkaye]

Sorry for the complicated title - I wasn't sure how to phrase the question, and want others to be able to find this easily in the future.

I often want to convert the markup that is displayed due to tracked changes into hard-formatting. In particular, I'd like insertions to become underlined, and deletions to become struck-through. This is so that people who subsequently handle the document can mess with the document (including using track-changes, and accepting changes) without eliminating this markup/formatting.
Is there a straightforward way to do this? If not, is this doable using a macro?



Thanks in advance!
Paul

[Charles Kenyon]

You could save as pdf with track change markings printed.

[paulkaye]

Thanks, but this won't enable subsequent users to edit the document. I really am looking for exactly what I say - a way to make the track-changes markup permanent (or as permanent as any other text in a Word document).

[Charles Kenyon]

There is no straightforward way to do this. A macro to do this would be daunting to me.

[eNGiNe]

May or may not be what you're aiming for … but you could perhaps – though I haven't tried this belt-and-braces approach – use character styles to mark your changes and then let Track changes mark whatever your colleagues do.

A bit of context: while I might use track changes (reluctantly, since it's an easy way of creating an unreadably messy document) during a review phase, I wouldn't dream of relying on it for a deliverable. For a deliverable, I use character styles for new and deleted content.

Cherry on the cake, but my usual tools let me associate a value with changes so I can say (for example) "highlight all changes for version 3.0, hide all deletions from earlier versions, show all additions from earlier versions without highlighting" :-}

[macropod]

You cannot make tracked changes permanent, especially not the way you suggest. Even if one were to do as you suggest (which is feasible), what's to stop someone adding to or deleting from your content or even just changing its formatting?

[Charles Kenyon]

I agree with Paul. The only way to keep your style-based tracked changes is to lock down the document, which sort of defeats the purpose of sending it to other editors.

A possibility, not what you asked for, but a possibility, would be to use versioning software to save versions. You could then use the Compare feature to mark up the differences instead of tracked changes.
See Save numbered versions add-in for Word 2007 to 2013