Luckily, I'm in a position where I can give my clients hard copy and make
them mark that up. I don't let them get their hands on "my" file!

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://word.mvps.org
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the newsgroup so
all may benefit.

"Idaho Word Man" wrote in message
...
I have this kind of problem all the time where I work. I use these
principles.

First, I NEVER give them "my" copy of the document. I keep my clean copy
in
a protected folder that only I have access to. Then I create a review
copy
that I distribute to the children with hammers (CWH) for review. Before I
send the CWH a review copy, I re-name the document (so I never get a
review
copy mixed up with my clean copy) and I accept all changes and then turn
on
the change tracking so I can see what they do.

Second, I NEVER use regular copy and paste to import changes from the CWH
into my clean copy. I only use Paste Special - Unformatted text. That
loses
any special attributes, such as italics or superscript, but it saves me
lots
of headaches.

This means I have to re-do everything that they have done, but it keeps
the
CWH out of my clean copy. I can also see what different reviewers have
done.
If Abbott wants to expand a section and Costello wants to delete the same
section, I can see the potential conflict and can get with Abbott and
Costello to resolve the difference.

I hope this helps.

Fred

"Ed" wrote:

Perhaps limit them to
comments rather than revisions?
Oh, how I wish I had the power! G!

(BTW, I'm using Windows and Word XP.) Is there a type of "lock" that
can be
put on a style so whatever they do it won't screw things up too bad?
Maybe
I'm displaying the degree of _my_ ignorance here - I know if they click
into
the paragraph and type, it formats in the Style of that paragraph. Copy
and
paste, though, are totally different animals - and they will pick up
chunks
from various other reports and drop them into my report, change a few
words
to "make it fit", and I get to live with the hodge-podge. Is there a
way to
make the pasted-in bits pick up the Style of my doc, rather than retain
the
Style they were written in? (Paste Special - Unformatted, I know - but
I
can't force that, can I?)

If they change a header and it loses the Style the TOC is looking for,
that's going to break things, right?

And I have the "tabs set left indent" turned off - how do they manage to
run
it back on? Does that also come with bits they paste in?

Ed

"Suzanne S. Barnhill" wrote in message
...
I feel your pain, but I don't know what to suggest. Perhaps limit them
to
comments rather than revisions?

--
Suzanne S. Barnhill
Microsoft MVP (Word)
Words into Type
Fairhope, Alabama USA
Word MVP FAQ site: http://word.mvps.org
Email cannot be acknowledged; please post all follow-ups to the
newsgroup
so
all may benefit.

"Ed" wrote in message
...
There are people who drive their car by turning the key and pressing
the
gas
pedal, and never think about things like oil or radiator fluid. And
there
are people who use Word by opening a document and typing away, never
thinking about Styles or other electronic niceties. It's like giving
a
two-year-old a hammer to play with next to your fine china!

Unfortunately, such are the people who review, add comments to, and
make
edits in my reports! Can someone please tell me how a document
written
in
a
nicely formatted US-English Normal style comes back needing the
Swedish
dictionary to spell-check??!? (And if that was all there was, I
wouldn't
be
posting here!)

Okay - obviously I am not the pinnacle of knowledge about Word
myself.
But
I would really like to know if there is anything I can do to protect
my
report from these people? I'd love to give them a paper copy and a
red
pen,
but that's not possible. Any suggestions are welcome.

Ed