Friday, November 23, 2007

Email Word 2007 Document For Reviews and Tracking Changes

Emailing a Word 2007 document to another user for review, meaning any changes they make it will track those changes in Word 2007, is a snap!
Getting it setup takes a few more steps than previous version of Word 2000, Word XP (2002) and Word 2003. Because in those versions it was a simple: File>Send To>Mail Recipient (For Review), and then click the Send (b) to email it off.
Stop bloviating and tell me where to do the same with Word 2007 you opine! Fine. But let me warn you that writing more than steps is not only therapeutic for me when it comes to blogging, but downright fun!
Email Word 2007 Document For Review and Tracking Changes Steps. First you have to add the Send For Review (b) to you QAT (Quick Access Toolbar). Yeah! I know there’s not another easier way I know of. So Right /QAT toolbar>Customize, /Choose commands arrow>All, scroll to & //Send for Review, /ok. Now on your QAT toolbar /Send for Review (b) and it will do two things: first attach your Word 2007 document into an email, and also it turns on the Track Changes (b) on the Review tab. Now just type in an email address and /Send (b) to email your document off to one of your Super Friends!
Once Wonder Woman (one of your Super Friends) opens the attachment and makes any changes to the document, it will track it i.e. if she deletes a word it will put a red line through it, and if she adds text it will color it in green. So when she’s done all she has to do email those changes back to you where you can, with the help of Reviewing tab, accept or reject her changes i.e. removing the red lines for deletions, or removing her added text.
You know you can just as easily open Word 2007, /Review tab & /the Track Changes (b) and turn on the changes yourself and the /Word’s Office Logo (b)>Send and email without having to add the Send For Review (b) to your QAT toolbar.
Having said that I bet you’re thinking: I wouldn’t choose Wonder Woman as a Super Friend with only a magic lasso to protect me, and second anybody can turn off the “Track Changes” feature and then I couldn’t protect my document from unwanted, trackable changes!
Yes, you’re right and so the only way to “protect” someone from messing with your document without being trackable, or seeing their changes is to follow these steps: /Developer tab>Protect group & /Protect Document (b)>Restrict Formatting and Editing, in Task Pane’s Editing restrictions section check “Allow only this…” box and /its arrow>Tracked changes & /Yes, Start Enforcing Protection (b) and type in your password.
Now that’s protection! Okay, having password protection on a document is like having a Super Friend like Superman protecting you. Invincible he is until some krptonite is found - computer geek breaks the password, but better than nothing eh?
Source: Free Articles

1 comment:

Mike said...

BTW - then there is the opposite problem, which is you have a document with tracked changes, and you want to send it to someone but you *don't* want them to see how you edited it and what all the rough drafts were. In that case, you can use a product like SendShield (http://www.sendshield.com) which sits in outlook, watches your email attachments, and notifies you if you are about to make a mistake.