Cannot activate "Track Changes" on Word 2004 for Mac

Thanks.

"Tools/Protect Document" shows that it is NOT protected.

Copying and pasting all except the very last carriage return fixes it,
but now the document has different formatting, some images are huge,
etc.

Any other way to avoid such issues?

Thanks.

-------------------

On 2007-04-05 04:31:05 +0200, "John McGhie" <john.TakeThisOut@mcghie.name> said:

> Check the Tools>Protect Document setting. It may be that he has Protected
> the document, in which case the Revision Tracking tool can not enable.
>
> Or it may be that he has been paying around with the changes that were
> marked near a table or section break (within one character of a table or
> section break) and has managed to orrupt the document.
>
> Copy everything except the last paragraph mark into a fresh new documen and
> see if that fixes it...
>
> Cheers
 >> Stay informed about: Cannot activate "Track Changes" on Word 2004 for Mac 

Okay, so that means it was corrupt.

The other corrupt doc fix is to round-trip it through HTML--see the
instructions here under Procedure #1:
http://word.mvps.org/Mac/DocumentCorruption.html

Word's HTML is designed to maintain formatting through a round-trip, so
let us know how successful it is. If that doesn't work, try the other
Procedures, though I'm not sure how formatting will behave. Make sure
you set aside a copy of the original, naturally.


Tony wrote:
> Thanks.
>
> "Tools/Protect Document" shows that it is NOT protected.
>
> Copying and pasting all except the very last carriage return fixes it,
> but now the document has different formatting, some images are huge, etc.
>
> Any other way to avoid such issues?
>
> Thanks.
>
> -------------------
>
> On 2007-04-05 04:31:05 +0200, "John McGhie" <john DeleteThis @mcghie.name> said:
>
>> Check the Tools>Protect Document setting. It may be that he has
>> Protected
>> the document, in which case the Revision Tracking tool can not enable.
>>
>> Or it may be that he has been paying around with the changes that were
>> marked near a table or section break (within one character of a table or
>> section break) and has managed to orrupt the document.
>>
>> Copy everything except the last paragraph mark into a fresh new
>> documen and
>> see if that fixes it...
>>
>> Cheers
>
>
 >> Stay informed about: Cannot activate "Track Changes" on Word 2004 for Mac 

Hello,
I have learned from John that when you receive document with tracked changes
is better to accept all changes (this doc will became as *original*). Then
create *your* document (track changes are off) and at the end compare the
*original* with your document by word function tools>merge document which
will highlight the differences between these 2 document.

The importatn thing is that when you use this workflow when creating *your*
document the track changes are off so the corruption is less often because
you cannot "break" the code word generates when track changes are on.


On 5.4.2007 13:49, in article 2007040513495016807-nospam@nospamcom, "Tony"
<nospam.TakeThisOut@nospam.com> wrote:

> Thanks.
>
> "Tools/Protect Document" shows that it is NOT protected.
>
> Copying and pasting all except the very last carriage return fixes it,
> but now the document has different formatting, some images are huge,
> etc.
>
> Any other way to avoid such issues?
>
> Thanks.
>
> -------------------
>
> On 2007-04-05 04:31:05 +0200, "John McGhie" <john.TakeThisOut@mcghie.name> said:
>
>> Check the Tools>Protect Document setting. It may be that he has Protected
>> the document, in which case the Revision Tracking tool can not enable.
>>
>> Or it may be that he has been paying around with the changes that were
>> marked near a table or section break (within one character of a table or
>> section break) and has managed to orrupt the document.
>>
>> Copy everything except the last paragraph mark into a fresh new documen and
>> see if that fixes it...
>>
>> Cheers
>
>

--
little creature
Don't let the terrorist win!
Think twice before acting. Any mass ideology is way how to control people.
 >> Stay informed about: Cannot activate "Track Changes" on Word 2004 for Mac 

Thanks.

I finally fixed it following the Daiya's advice (above).

Thanks again to all, and have a nice Easter!

-------------

On 2007-04-05 16:41:09 +0200, little_creature
<littlecreature DeleteThis @discussions.microsoft.com> said:

> Hello,
> I have learned from John that when you receive document with tracked changes
> is better to accept all changes (this doc will became as *original*). Then
> create *your* document (track changes are off) and at the end compare the
> *original* with your document by word function tools>merge document which
> will highlight the differences between these 2 document.
>
> The importatn thing is that when you use this workflow when creating *your*
> document the track changes are off so the corruption is less often because
> you cannot "break" the code word generates when track changes are on.
>
>
> On 5.4.2007 13:49, in article 2007040513495016807-nospam@nospamcom, "Tony"
> <nospam DeleteThis @nospam.com> wrote:
>
>> Thanks.
>>
>> "Tools/Protect Document" shows that it is NOT protected.
>>
>> Copying and pasting all except the very last carriage return fixes it,
>> but now the document has different formatting, some images are huge,
>> etc.
>>
>> Any other way to avoid such issues?
>>
>> Thanks.
>>
>> -------------------
>>
>> On 2007-04-05 04:31:05 +0200, "John McGhie" <john DeleteThis @mcghie.name> said:
>>
>>> Check the Tools>Protect Document setting. It may be that he has Protected
>>> the document, in which case the Revision Tracking tool can not enable.
>>>
>>> Or it may be that he has been paying around with the changes that were
>>> marked near a table or section break (within one character of a table or
>>> section break) and has managed to orrupt the document.
>>>
>>> Copy everything except the last paragraph mark into a fresh new documen and
>>> see if that fixes it...
>>>
>>> Cheers
 >> Stay informed about: Cannot activate "Track Changes" on Word 2004 for Mac 

Hi Tony:

You mean apart from Upgrading to Office 2008?? :-) When it goes on sale,
Office 2008 will prevent this problem occuring.

In the Word .doc file format, all of the formatting (and most everything
else except the actual character strings) is contained in a series of
look-up tables in the binary file format. These properties and attributes
are all called in with binary pointers that indicate which rows of the
tables apply to each piece of text.

It's the binary tables that seem to corrupt. These are re-created when you
de-corrupt the document. But yes, you do lose some formatting, picture and
page sizes, etc. And it's very difficult to know which of the decorruption
methods will result in the least damage in any particular document. I shy
away from the HTML method for most of my work because it converts all
pictures to PNG bitmaps, and I use a lot of vectore art. But other than
that, it's pretty good. Round-tripping through RTF fixes "some" problems,
but generally RTF makes such a faithful copy of the document that it copies
the problem as well, so I rarely use or advise that one. Copying all but
the last paragraph mark (some of us know that as a "Maggie") fixes the
widest range of problems, but is potentially the most destructive. Of
course when you're desperate you can round-trip through Plain Text (or use
"Recover text from any file" to open the document. Either way, you lose ALL
the formatting but you get your text back.

My suggestion is that you avoid tracked changes if you have an unskilled
editor or a diffeent version of Word in your workflow. Use Compare
Documents instead: it's much less likely to result in problems :-)

Hope this helps

--

John McGhie, Consultant Technical Writer,
McGhie Information Engineering Pty Ltd
Sydney, Australia. GMT + 10 Hrs

+61 4 1209 1410, <mailto:john@mcghie.name> mailto:john@mcghie.name


"Tony" <nospam DeleteThis @nospam.com> wrote in message
news:2007040513495016807-nospam@nospamcom...
> Thanks.
>
> "Tools/Protect Document" shows that it is NOT protected.
>
> Copying and pasting all except the very last carriage return fixes it, but
> now the document has different formatting, some images are huge, etc.
>
> Any other way to avoid such issues?
>
> Thanks.
>
> -------------------
>
> On 2007-04-05 04:31:05 +0200, "John McGhie" <john DeleteThis @mcghie.name> said:
>
>> Check the Tools>Protect Document setting. It may be that he has
>> Protected
>> the document, in which case the Revision Tracking tool can not enable.
>>
>> Or it may be that he has been paying around with the changes that were
>> marked near a table or section break (within one character of a table or
>> section break) and has managed to orrupt the document.
>>
>> Copy everything except the last paragraph mark into a fresh new documen
>> and
>> see if that fixes it...
>>
>> Cheers
>
>
 >> Stay informed about: Cannot activate "Track Changes" on Word 2004 for Mac 

Daiya,

Wow! That worked OK and fixed the problem! You are a genius!

:-)

1. "File/Save as/Web Page (HTML)". Close the document.
2. Open the HTML file with Word (drag and drop works). "File/Save
as/Word document". Close the document.
3. Open the new ".doc" document just saved.
4. Fixed!

Many thanks!

------------

On 2007-04-05 16:36:54 +0200, Daiya Mitchell
<daiyaNOSPAM DeleteThis @mvps.org.INVALID> said:

> Okay, so that means it was corrupt.
>
> The other corrupt doc fix is to round-trip it through HTML--see the
> instructions here under Procedure #1:
> http://word.mvps.org/Mac/DocumentCorruption.html
>
> Word's HTML is designed to maintain formatting through a round-trip, so
> let us know how successful it is. If that doesn't work, try the other
> Procedures, though I'm not sure how formatting will behave. Make sure
> you set aside a copy of the original, naturally.
>
>
> Tony wrote:
>> Thanks.
>>
>> "Tools/Protect Document" shows that it is NOT protected.
>>
>> Copying and pasting all except the very last carriage return fixes it,
>> but now the document has different formatting, some images are huge,
>> etc.
>>
>> Any other way to avoid such issues?
>>
>> Thanks.
>>
>> -------------------
>>
>> On 2007-04-05 04:31:05 +0200, "John McGhie" <john DeleteThis @mcghie.name> said:
>>
>>> Check the Tools>Protect Document setting. It may be that he has Protected
>>> the document, in which case the Revision Tracking tool can not enable.
>>>
>>> Or it may be that he has been paying around with the changes that were
>>> marked near a table or section break (within one character of a table or
>>> section break) and has managed to orrupt the document.
>>>
>>> Copy everything except the last paragraph mark into a fresh new documen and
>>> see if that fixes it...
>>>
>>> Cheers
 >> Stay informed about: Cannot activate "Track Changes" on Word 2004 for Mac 

John,

Thanks. Sure, but the problem is that we may have about 5,000 edit
points or more in a 50 to 100 page document every time it goes to
revision by a single co-author (most of the times we check and accept
all changes). So, for us, "Track Changes" is absolutely required. In
such scenario it would be a real nightmare to compare documents...

I look forward to Office 2008. Any tentative date?

Hint for Microsoft MBU (if possible): hopefully Word 2008 will not
crash unexpectedly when copy/paste applications like CopyPaste
http://www.scriptsoftware.com/copypaste/ or iClip
http://inventive.us/iClip are active, as now is the case with Office
2004.

Thanks.
Regards,

---

On 2007-04-06 01:58:38 +0200, "John McGhie" <john.DeleteThis@mcghie.name> said:

> Hi Tony:
>
> You mean apart from Upgrading to Office 2008?? :-) When it goes on sale,
> Office 2008 will prevent this problem occuring.
>
> In the Word .doc file format, all of the formatting (and most everything
> else except the actual character strings) is contained in a series of
> look-up tables in the binary file format. These properties and attributes
> are all called in with binary pointers that indicate which rows of the
> tables apply to each piece of text.
>
> It's the binary tables that seem to corrupt. These are re-created when you
> de-corrupt the document. But yes, you do lose some formatting, picture and
> page sizes, etc. And it's very difficult to know which of the decorruption
> methods will result in the least damage in any particular document. I shy
> away from the HTML method for most of my work because it converts all
> pictures to PNG bitmaps, and I use a lot of vectore art. But other than
> that, it's pretty good. Round-tripping through RTF fixes "some" problems,
> but generally RTF makes such a faithful copy of the document that it copies
> the problem as well, so I rarely use or advise that one. Copying all but
> the last paragraph mark (some of us know that as a "Maggie") fixes the
> widest range of problems, but is potentially the most destructive. Of
> course when you're desperate you can round-trip through Plain Text (or use
> "Recover text from any file" to open the document. Either way, you lose ALL
> the formatting but you get your text back.
>
> My suggestion is that you avoid tracked changes if you have an unskilled
> editor or a diffeent version of Word in your workflow. Use Compare
> Documents instead: it's much less likely to result in problems :-)
>
> Hope this helps
 >> Stay informed about: Cannot activate "Track Changes" on Word 2004 for Mac 

<snip>

On 4/6/07 5:20 AM, in article 2007040611205416807-nospam@nospamcom, "Tony"
<nospam RemoveThis @nospam.com> wrote:

> We may use the latter hundreds of times each single day and it is
> really tedious to go trough the "Edit/Paste Special/Unformatted
> Text/OK" each time.
<snip>

A thought that may at least help:

Why not throw a custom keystroke on the EditPasteSpecial command (I use
Shift+Control+V)? Although it only brings up the dreaded dialog you can then
double-click the Unformatted Text entry or up-arrow/return. Or you can
record a simple macro such as:

Sub PastePlain()
'
' PastePlain Macro
'
Selection.PasteSpecial Link:=False, DataType:=wdPasteText, Placement:= _
wdInLine, DisplayAsIcon:=False
End Sub

and assign the keyboard shortcut to it.

HTH |:>)
Bob Jones
[MVP] Office:Mac
 >> Stay informed about: Cannot activate "Track Changes" on Word 2004 for Mac 

In article <2007040611205416807-nospam@nospamcom>, Tony
<nospam RemoveThis @nospam.com> wrote:
<snip>
> Last but not least, and a bit off-topic BUT RELATED TO THE ABOVE ISSUE,
> there is a single feature that I would love to see in Word 2008: copy
> and paste without style with a one-click menu for it, a one-click
> button on toolbar for it and --most importantly-- a simple keyboard
> command for it. For instance (as Eudora does):
>
> Copy unformatted (plain) text: Shift Command C
> Paste unformatted (plain) text: Shift Command V
>
> We may use the latter hundreds of times each single day and it is
> really tedious to go trough the "Edit/Paste Special/Unformatted
> Text/OK" each time. Because the ³Paste Options² contextual popup
> clipboard icon to select "Keep Text Only" does not show many times when
> you paste something in a Word document. That seems a flaw-bug of Word
> to me, but that is what happens.

Good Grief Charlie Brown! You do paste unformatted "hundreds of times
each single day" and you have never written/recorded a macro and
assigned a keyboard shortcut for paste unformatted?

Here's mine:
Sub PasteUnformatted()
Selection.PasteSpecial Link:=False, DataType:=wdPasteText,
Placement:= _
wdInLine, DisplayAsIcon:=False
End Sub

Stick it in normal. Better yet, if you have a team of editors, make it
part of a global template in everybody's startup.

Try the help. If all else fails, ask again, or demand that MacBU 'fixes
it'.

--
To de-mung my e-mail address:- fsnospam$elliott$$
PGP Fingerprint: 1A96 3CF7 637F 896B C810 E199 7E5C A9E4 8E59 E248
 >> Stay informed about: Cannot activate "Track Changes" on Word 2004 for Mac 

Tony wrote:
> Because the "Paste Options" contextual popup clipboard icon to select
> "Keep Text Only" does not show many times when you paste something in
> a Word document. That seems a flaw-bug of Word to me, but that is what
> happens.

It doesn't show up when you paste from multiple-clipboard applications,
at least that's what my quick test finds, and repeated cmd-Vs of the
same text after that. Features like the Paste Options button are
probably dependent on Word maintaining its own clipboard. As you pointed
out, there seems to be a conflict between Word and the
multiple-clipboard utilities.
>
> Any place to send such suggestions to Microsoft MBU?
Use Help | Send Feedback in any Office application to send feature
requests. If sending bug reports, please be sure to include very
specific details to reproduce the bug.

It's also good to post things here--we can help with workarounds,
perhaps help figure out the conditions to reproduce, etc, MVPs can pass
along verified information.

By the way, I don't believe the conflict with Copy/Paste or iClip had
ever been reported here--I use the Butler clipboard without seeing
increased crashes, as far as I know. I'll start tracking it.

Daiya
 >> Stay informed about: Cannot activate "Track Changes" on Word 2004 for Mac 

Thanks. I have tried to create a macro and keyboard shortcut (Command
V) to paste plain text, yet does not seem to work:

1. Select "Tools/Macro/Macros". Macro Name: PastePlain

2. Create.

3. Paste into the "Normal - NewMacros (Code)" window:

Sub PastePlain()
'
' PastePlain Macro
'
Selection.PasteSpecial Link:=False, DataType:=wdPasteText, Placement:= _
wdInLine, DisplayAsIcon:=False
End Sub

4. Close the "Normal - NewMacros (Code)" window.

5. Select "Tools/Customize/Customize Keyboards".

6. Select Categories: Macros.

7. Select Macros: PastePlain

8. Place cursor on "Press new shortcut key" and type:

Command V

9. Click "Assign". Click "OK".

Now, if I paste something into Word using:

Command V

it does paste it formatted and not unformatted as I expected.

What am I doing wrong?

Thanks.

--------------------

On 2007-04-06 12:23:03 +0200, CyberTaz <onlygeneraltaz1 RemoveThis @com.cast.net> said:

> <snip>
>
> On 4/6/07 5:20 AM, in article 2007040611205416807-nospam@nospamcom, "Tony"
> <nospam RemoveThis @nospam.com> wrote:
>
>> We may use the latter hundreds of times each single day and it is
>> really tedious to go trough the "Edit/Paste Special/Unformatted
>> Text/OK" each time.
> <snip>
>
> A thought that may at least help:
>
> Why not throw a custom keystroke on the EditPasteSpecial command (I use
> Shift+Control+V)? Although it only brings up the dreaded dialog you can then
> double-click the Unformatted Text entry or up-arrow/return. Or you can
> record a simple macro such as:
>
> Sub PastePlain()
> '
> ' PastePlain Macro
> '
> Selection.PasteSpecial Link:=False, DataType:=wdPasteText, Placement:= _
> wdInLine, DisplayAsIcon:=False
> End Sub
>
> and assign the keyboard shortcut to it.
>
> HTH |:>)
> Bob Jones
> [MVP] Office:Mac
 >> Stay informed about: Cannot activate "Track Changes" on Word 2004 for Mac 

General principle--test by running the macro from the Tools | Macros
menu, to isolate the problem to the macro itself or just the keyboard
shortcut.

Tony wrote:
> Thanks. I have tried to create a macro and keyboard shortcut (Command
> V) to paste plain text, yet does not seem to work:
>
> 1. Select "Tools/Macro/Macros". Macro Name: PastePlain
>
> 2. Create.
>
> 3. Paste into the "Normal - NewMacros (Code)" window:
>
> Sub PastePlain()
> '
> ' PastePlain Macro
> '
> Selection.PasteSpecial Link:=False, DataType:=wdPasteText,
> Placement:= _
> wdInLine, DisplayAsIcon:=False
> End Sub
>
> 4. Close the "Normal - NewMacros (Code)" window.
>
> 5. Select "Tools/Customize/Customize Keyboards".
>
> 6. Select Categories: Macros.
>
> 7. Select Macros: PastePlain
>
> 8. Place cursor on "Press new shortcut key" and type:
>
> Command V
>
> 9. Click "Assign". Click "OK".
>
> Now, if I paste something into Word using:
>
> Command V
>
> it does paste it formatted and not unformatted as I expected.
>
> What am I doing wrong?
>
> Thanks.
>
> --------------------
>
> On 2007-04-06 12:23:03 +0200, CyberTaz <onlygeneraltaz1.RemoveThis@com.cast.net>
> said:
>
>> <snip>
>>
>> On 4/6/07 5:20 AM, in article 2007040611205416807-nospam@nospamcom,
>> "Tony"
>> <nospam.RemoveThis@nospam.com> wrote:
>>
>>> We may use the latter hundreds of times each single day and it is
>>> really tedious to go trough the "Edit/Paste Special/Unformatted
>>> Text/OK" each time.
>> <snip>
>>
>> A thought that may at least help:
>>
>> Why not throw a custom keystroke on the EditPasteSpecial command (I use
>> Shift+Control+V)? Although it only brings up the dreaded dialog you
>> can then
>> double-click the Unformatted Text entry or up-arrow/return. Or you can
>> record a simple macro such as:
>>
>> Sub PastePlain()
>> '
>> ' PastePlain Macro
>> '
>> Selection.PasteSpecial Link:=False, DataType:=wdPasteText,
>> Placement:= _
>> wdInLine, DisplayAsIcon:=False
>> End Sub
>>
>> and assign the keyboard shortcut to it.
>>
>> HTH |:>)
>> Bob Jones
>> [MVP] Office:Mac
>
>
 >> Stay informed about: Cannot activate "Track Changes" on Word 2004 for Mac 

Try using a different keyboard shortcut than Cmd-V, and see if that works.

If that doesn't work, see if this page helps:
http://word.mvps.org/Mac/PasteText.html

Tony wrote:
> Thanks. I have tried to create a macro and keyboard shortcut (Command
> V) to paste plain text, yet does not seem to work:
>
> 1. Select "Tools/Macro/Macros". Macro Name: PastePlain
>
> 2. Create.
>
> 3. Paste into the "Normal - NewMacros (Code)" window:
>
> Sub PastePlain()
> '
> ' PastePlain Macro
> '
> Selection.PasteSpecial Link:=False, DataType:=wdPasteText,
> Placement:= _
> wdInLine, DisplayAsIcon:=False
> End Sub
>
> 4. Close the "Normal - NewMacros (Code)" window.
>
> 5. Select "Tools/Customize/Customize Keyboards".
>
> 6. Select Categories: Macros.
>
> 7. Select Macros: PastePlain
>
> 8. Place cursor on "Press new shortcut key" and type:
>
> Command V
>
> 9. Click "Assign". Click "OK".
>
> Now, if I paste something into Word using:
>
> Command V
>
> it does paste it formatted and not unformatted as I expected.
>
> What am I doing wrong?
>
> Thanks.
>
> --------------------
>
> On 2007-04-06 12:23:03 +0200, CyberTaz <onlygeneraltaz1.DeleteThis@com.cast.net>
> said:
>
>> <snip>
>>
>> On 4/6/07 5:20 AM, in article 2007040611205416807-nospam@nospamcom,
>> "Tony"
>> <nospam.DeleteThis@nospam.com> wrote:
>>
>>> We may use the latter hundreds of times each single day and it is
>>> really tedious to go trough the "Edit/Paste Special/Unformatted
>>> Text/OK" each time.
>> <snip>
>>
>> A thought that may at least help:
>>
>> Why not throw a custom keystroke on the EditPasteSpecial command (I use
>> Shift+Control+V)? Although it only brings up the dreaded dialog you
>> can then
>> double-click the Unformatted Text entry or up-arrow/return. Or you can
>> record a simple macro such as:
>>
>> Sub PastePlain()
>> '
>> ' PastePlain Macro
>> '
>> Selection.PasteSpecial Link:=False, DataType:=wdPasteText,
>> Placement:= _
>> wdInLine, DisplayAsIcon:=False
>> End Sub
>>
>> and assign the keyboard shortcut to it.
>>
>> HTH |:>)
>> Bob Jones
>> [MVP] Office:Mac
>
>
 >> Stay informed about: Cannot activate "Track Changes" on Word 2004 for Mac