How do I mark changes in PDF/Word

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Tansy
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Joined: Wed Aug 25, 2010 11:37 am

How do I mark changes in PDF/Word

Unread post by Tansy »

I need to mark changes for each document version and then either accept or hide these changes when I issue a new document version. Currently I mark my changes with two asterisks that are present only in the REVISION build.
For example, this is how text for review would look like:

**Some new text added

The reviewers just use the text search to navigate the text marked with ** to see what was changed.

But as I issue a next version of the document, all the ** remain so the reviewers will have to go through all text marked with ** over again. Of course I could use some other combination of symbols such as *** to mark changes, but I'd have to think up a new combination every week or so, which will eventually make the project very loaded with all those symbols.

Is there a way similar to MS Word's track changes functionality or something like that? I'd like to mark changes for the current revision and when the document is reviewed, remove or hide all those change marks in the project - all in one go.

The reviewers read the PDF or MS Word output, so the marks must be visible in these formats.

What do I do?
Thanks in advance!
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Tim Green
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Re: How do I mark changes in PDF/Word

Unread post by Tim Green »

Hi Tansy,

Help+Manual does not have content-level change tracking like that in MS Word and similar programs. However, it does have a number of other features that can help you:

Report Tool
The Report Tool in the Project tab can be used to generate a list sorted by the modification date, so that you can see all the recently edited topics at the top. The reports can include just the topic IDs and titles (Short Report) and also has options with much more details and different content. Note that if you use the TOC sorting option you will only see topics that have TOC entries.

History Function
If you are not using version control the history function stores every version of every topic in the project and enables you to perform manual before/after comparisons between different versions and return to any saved version of a topic at any time. See here for details:

https://www.helpandmanual.com/help/inde ... istory.htm

Version Control
In addition to this HM supports modern version control systems (currently Subversion, which is free, and MS Team Foundation Server), which maintains a central copy of your projects and all changes on a server that can also be accessed via the Internet. These systems have functions that compare the source of your projects and topics and allow you to locate the differences.

Version control systems also allow authors in the same or different locations to collaborate on the same projects and synchronize their work efficiently. They make it possible for authors to work on collaborative projects offline -- even on a train or a plane. See this chapter in the help for details:

https://www.helpandmanual.com/help/inde ... ed_vcs.htm

Full, content-level change tracking like that in Word is not currently planned, however.
Regards,
Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

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Tansy
Posts: 89
Joined: Wed Aug 25, 2010 11:37 am

Re: How do I mark changes in PDF/Word

Unread post by Tansy »

Thank you Tim!
All those functions are only available for the project open in Help and Manual, right? Is there any way to show the changes in MS Word / PDF output?
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Tim Green
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Re: How do I mark changes in PDF/Word

Unread post by Tim Green »

Tansy wrote:All those functions are only available for the project open in Help and Manual, right? Is there any way to show the changes in MS Word / PDF output?
Not really. What you can do in PDF is use the comments function in Help+Manual (Comment tool in Write > Insert Object) and select the option in the Publish screen to include the comments in the PDF. Otherwise, comments are never exported.
Regards,
Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

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Tansy
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Joined: Wed Aug 25, 2010 11:37 am

Re: How do I mark changes in PDF/Word

Unread post by Tansy »

Is there a way to automatically delete all those comments afterwards from the project? Or one by one only?

Can these comments be shown in MS Word output?
Tansy
Posts: 89
Joined: Wed Aug 25, 2010 11:37 am

Re: How do I mark changes in PDF/Word

Unread post by Tansy »

Also, is there a way to delete all instances of a certain text automatically? For example, can I delete all text enclosed in conditional markers, for example: <conditional marker IF>**<conditional marker ENDIF>?
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Tim Green
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Re: How do I mark changes in PDF/Word

Unread post by Tim Green »

is there a way to delete all instances of a certain text automatically? For example, can I delete all text enclosed in conditional markers, for example: <conditional marker IF>**<conditional marker ENDIF>?
Is there a way to automatically delete all those comments afterwards from the project? Or one by one only?
Neither of those things are possible from within Help+Manual. However, it would be possible to create search profiles to do these jobs with the Toolbox utility included in the Premium Pack add-on.
Regards,
Tim (EC Software Documentation & User Support)

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Please do not email or PM me with private support requests -- post to the forum directly.
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