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Old 03-19-2020, 01:54 PM
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Default How to turn off tracking (Grrrrrr)?

I am just getting up to speed on Word 2016 as part of Office 365. For some reason, Word just started tracking changes by putting red lines in the left margin for every change I make. I hate this. I never meant to activate it. And I cannot for the life of me figure out how to turn it off permanently. I have done
  • Review | Tracking | Track changes | and unclicking Track Changes. I've even tried clicking on Lock Tracking, but it wants a password.
  • Review | Tracking | Tracking | and unchecking all of the checkboxes. That turns it off until I close and reopen the document, then it's back on again. Grrrrrrrrrr.

How do I turn the damned thing off permanently?
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Old 03-19-2020, 02:21 PM
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Your description suggests that document protection with Tracked Changes has been applied to the document. If you click Review > Restrict Editing, then what do you see in the Restrict Editing pane?
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Old 03-19-2020, 07:51 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Stefan Blom View Post
Your description suggests that document protection with Tracked Changes has been applied to the document. If you click Review > Restrict Editing, then what do you see in the Restrict Editing pane?
I have attached both the Restrict Editing dialog and the Track Changes dialog. I didn't mean for them to be so huge. Is there a way to make them smaller?
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Old 03-20-2020, 01:44 AM
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Often, it is necessary to make files with screen shots a bit smaller by using a graphics program (such as Microsoft Paint).

That said, your screen shots illustrate that document protection isn't the issue with the document.

If you click Review > Accept > Accept All Changes and Stop Tracking and then save the document, you should be able to open it again with no tracking. Note that the Accept All Changes... command does not delete comments, which must be done separately via Review > Delete > Delete All Comments in Document.
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Old 03-20-2020, 04:20 PM
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Stefan Blom View Post
your screen shots illustrate that document protection isn't the issue with the document.

If you click Review > Accept > Accept All Changes and Stop Tracking and then save the document, you should be able to open it again with no tracking. Note that the Accept All Changes... command does not delete comments, which must be done separately via Review > Delete > Delete All Comments in Document.
I did all of that. On re-opening the document, it appears that it is no longer tracking changes. However, the Track Changes Options dialog still looks exactly as in the screen shot above. All of the checkboxes are still checked. I've unchecked them several times and saved and closed the document, but when I reopen it, they are checked again. Grrrrrrrrrrr!!!
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Old 03-20-2020, 08:46 PM
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It is most likely a security setting that turns these on by default. A document containing tracked revisions could be hiding information that the author doesn't want other people to see so the security settings make sure there are no hidden surprises in your documents.

Go to your options Trust Center and in the Privacy Options area look at the setting that says 'Make hidden markup visible when opening or saving". Is this turned on? If you turn it off, does it change the behaviour you are complaining about?
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Old 03-21-2020, 05:28 AM
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Would it be possible for you upload a copy of the actual Word document here (so that we can have a look)? Remove any sensitive information first.
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Last edited by Stefan Blom; 03-21-2020 at 08:26 AM.
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