In Word 2002 for Windows XP (and apparently in other newer versions of Word
as well), rolling the mouse over a Track Changes balloon turns up the name of
the person who made the change or comment, along with the date and time the
change or comment was made. Currently I can choose the privacy option
"Remove personal information from file properties on save" and have my name
replaced with the anonymous term "author" -- however, I cannot opt to remove
the date and time. I believe that information about date and time is
personal, too, and I feel strongly that I should have the option to take it
out.

Here is the situation: I am a freelance editor, and my clients would like
me to make my changes using the Track Changes option instead of the
old-fashioned way (on paper with a red pencil). I don't mind helping them
out that way -- I'm all for going electronic whenever possible -- but I DO
mind that the electronic document will suddenly provide them with information
that was never available to them in the paper version: for example, that I
often work late into the night, or that I often change my mind about a
correction I have made and go back later to revise it. As long as I make my
deadlines, my clients do not need to know when I made my changes and comments
-- they only need to know that the changes and comments have been made.

Please help...thanks!

----------------
This post is a suggestion for Microsoft, and Microsoft responds to the
suggestions with the most votes. To vote for this suggestion, click the "I
Agree" button in the message pane. If you do not see the button, follow this
link to open the suggestion in the Microsoft Web-based Newsreader and then
click "I Agree" in the message pane.

http://www.microsoft.com/office/comm...ocmanagemen t

FWIW, your clients don't have to know when you have changed your mind: just
reject the change. Or accept it, turn Track Changes off and change it back,
then turn Track Changes on again.

--
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.

"redpencilgirl" wrote in message
...
In Word 2002 for Windows XP (and apparently in other newer versions of
Word
as well), rolling the mouse over a Track Changes balloon turns up the name
of
the person who made the change or comment, along with the date and time
the
change or comment was made. Currently I can choose the privacy option
"Remove personal information from file properties on save" and have my
name
replaced with the anonymous term "author" -- however, I cannot opt to
remove
the date and time. I believe that information about date and time is
personal, too, and I feel strongly that I should have the option to take
it
out.

Here is the situation: I am a freelance editor, and my clients would like
me to make my changes using the Track Changes option instead of the
old-fashioned way (on paper with a red pencil). I don't mind helping them
out that way -- I'm all for going electronic whenever possible -- but I DO
mind that the electronic document will suddenly provide them with
information
that was never available to them in the paper version: for example, that
I
often work late into the night, or that I often change my mind about a
correction I have made and go back later to revise it. As long as I make
my
deadlines, my clients do not need to know when I made my changes and
comments
-- they only need to know that the changes and comments have been made.

Please help...thanks!

----------------
This post is a suggestion for Microsoft, and Microsoft responds to the
suggestions with the most votes. To vote for this suggestion, click the "I
Agree" button in the message pane. If you do not see the button, follow
this
link to open the suggestion in the Microsoft Web-based Newsreader and then
click "I Agree" in the message pane.


http://www.microsoft.com/office/comm...ocmanagemen t

Without giving actual examples, it's hard to give you an idea of what I mean
here, so let's say that the author of a manuscript I'm editing creates a
character named Frank. He's Frank from page 1 to page 72, but on page 73, he
suddenly becomes Fred. Only I'm sort of distracted by the author's annoying
habit of putting three exclamation points at the end of every sentence, so I
don't notice that he's Fred until page 175. So now I go back to page 73
(having searched for "Fred" and discovered that that was where the name first
appeared).

Anyone looking at my changes will be able to see that I made the Fred/Frank
change three days (or however long it has been) after the other changes --
deleting of exclamation points, suggestions about ambiguous language, grammar
corrections -- made on the same page. And while my imperfect eye is
something I should be aware of (because being aware of it will make me a
better editor), it is NOT something I need to show my clients...or that,
really, they have any need to know.

Does that make it any clearer why this is so important to me?

"Suzanne S. Barnhill" wrote:

FWIW, your clients don't have to know when you have changed your mind: just
reject the change. Or accept it, turn Track Changes off and change it back,
then turn Track Changes on again.

--
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.

"redpencilgirl" wrote in message
...
In Word 2002 for Windows XP (and apparently in other newer versions of
Word
as well), rolling the mouse over a Track Changes balloon turns up the name
of
the person who made the change or comment, along with the date and time
the
change or comment was made. Currently I can choose the privacy option
"Remove personal information from file properties on save" and have my
name
replaced with the anonymous term "author" -- however, I cannot opt to
remove
the date and time. I believe that information about date and time is
personal, too, and I feel strongly that I should have the option to take
it
out.

Here is the situation: I am a freelance editor, and my clients would like
me to make my changes using the Track Changes option instead of the
old-fashioned way (on paper with a red pencil). I don't mind helping them
out that way -- I'm all for going electronic whenever possible -- but I DO
mind that the electronic document will suddenly provide them with
information
that was never available to them in the paper version: for example, that
I
often work late into the night, or that I often change my mind about a
correction I have made and go back later to revise it. As long as I make
my
deadlines, my clients do not need to know when I made my changes and
comments
-- they only need to know that the changes and comments have been made.

Please help...thanks!

----------------
This post is a suggestion for Microsoft, and Microsoft responds to the
suggestions with the most votes. To vote for this suggestion, click the "I
Agree" button in the message pane. If you do not see the button, follow
this
link to open the suggestion in the Microsoft Web-based Newsreader and then
click "I Agree" in the message pane.


http://www.microsoft.com/office/comm...ocmanagemen t

I'm sorry, but you are describing exactly the kind of work I do, and I can't
see that a client would have any reason to care *when* you make the changes
provided the required changes get made. I make numerous passes through the
documents I work on, and I find more mistakes every time. No one can see
everything at once, and I don't think anyone expects you to. Most
instructions I've read actually stipulate that you make several passes. And
I have to say that I read a lot of published books where there is no
evidence that any editor made even one pass, much less several. I recently
proofread the page proofs of a book to be published by Random House (which
had been copyedited and proofread by their editors), and the author (for
whom I was performing the work) and I were equally appalled by the number of
errors I found. I wouldn't care how many times the editor had to read the ms
or backtrack in it provided the errors were corrected.

FWIW, it's also true that the more corrections there are to be made, the
more passes it's going to take. You just can't see everything at once. And a
lot of things you aren't going to know are "errors" till much later. In the
book I'm currently working on, there are stupefyingly thorough bios of two
of the characters early on; neither mentions any military service (or allows
any space in the timeline for it). Several chapters later, they're talking
about their army experiences in Iraq. Another character, a nurse, is shy on
one page and bold on the next (she actually vacillates throughout the book).
Those are just a few of the problems. As it happens, I've about given up on
this book, which the author is self-publishing; I finally decided I'd done
all I could reasonably do, and if the author thinks it's done, I'll just
call it done. I don't think he'll sell more than a couple of dozen copies no
matter how much we polish it, anyway. g

--
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.

"redpencilgirl" wrote in message
...
Without giving actual examples, it's hard to give you an idea of what I
mean
here, so let's say that the author of a manuscript I'm editing creates a
character named Frank. He's Frank from page 1 to page 72, but on page 73,
he
suddenly becomes Fred. Only I'm sort of distracted by the author's
annoying
habit of putting three exclamation points at the end of every sentence, so
I
don't notice that he's Fred until page 175. So now I go back to page 73
(having searched for "Fred" and discovered that that was where the name
first
appeared).

Anyone looking at my changes will be able to see that I made the
Fred/Frank
change three days (or however long it has been) after the other changes --
deleting of exclamation points, suggestions about ambiguous language,
grammar
corrections -- made on the same page. And while my imperfect eye is
something I should be aware of (because being aware of it will make me a
better editor), it is NOT something I need to show my clients...or that,
really, they have any need to know.

Does that make it any clearer why this is so important to me?

"Suzanne S. Barnhill" wrote:

FWIW, your clients don't have to know when you have changed your mind:
just
reject the change. Or accept it, turn Track Changes off and change it
back,
then turn Track Changes on again.

--
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.

"redpencilgirl" wrote in
message
...
In Word 2002 for Windows XP (and apparently in other newer versions of
Word
as well), rolling the mouse over a Track Changes balloon turns up the
name
of
the person who made the change or comment, along with the date and
time
the
change or comment was made. Currently I can choose the privacy option
"Remove personal information from file properties on save" and have my
name
replaced with the anonymous term "author" -- however, I cannot opt to
remove
the date and time. I believe that information about date and time is
personal, too, and I feel strongly that I should have the option to
take
it
out.

Here is the situation: I am a freelance editor, and my clients would
like
me to make my changes using the Track Changes option instead of the
old-fashioned way (on paper with a red pencil). I don't mind helping
them
out that way -- I'm all for going electronic whenever possible -- but
I DO
mind that the electronic document will suddenly provide them with
information
that was never available to them in the paper version: for example,
that
I
often work late into the night, or that I often change my mind about a
correction I have made and go back later to revise it. As long as I
make
my
deadlines, my clients do not need to know when I made my changes and
comments
-- they only need to know that the changes and comments have been
made.

Please help...thanks!

----------------
This post is a suggestion for Microsoft, and Microsoft responds to the
suggestions with the most votes. To vote for this suggestion, click
the "I
Agree" button in the message pane. If you do not see the button,
follow
this
link to open the suggestion in the Microsoft Web-based Newsreader and
then
click "I Agree" in the message pane.



http://www.microsoft.com/office/comm...ocmanagemen t

OK, now you've succeeded in really making me laugh...first because you DO
know exactly what I'm talking about, and second because I am so glad the
manuscript I'm working on isn't in THAT much trouble! You would have been
amused by the stunned look on my face the first time a production editor said
to me, "Well, actually, by the time it comes to you, the editor is finished
with it." Meanwhile there I am wondering how on earth this author got a book
contract...and whether or not the editor actually read past page three before
sending it off to the freelance copy editor...

Out of curiosity, do you do most of your editing using Track Changes, or are
you still on pencil and paper too? (The reason all of this has come up for
me is that one client is interested in making the switch. I've never worked
on a huge project using Track Changes, so it'll be a new experience for me.)


"Suzanne S. Barnhill" wrote:

I'm sorry, but you are describing exactly the kind of work I do, and I can't
see that a client would have any reason to care *when* you make the changes
provided the required changes get made. I make numerous passes through the
documents I work on, and I find more mistakes every time. No one can see
everything at once, and I don't think anyone expects you to. Most
instructions I've read actually stipulate that you make several passes. And
I have to say that I read a lot of published books where there is no
evidence that any editor made even one pass, much less several. I recently
proofread the page proofs of a book to be published by Random House (which
had been copyedited and proofread by their editors), and the author (for
whom I was performing the work) and I were equally appalled by the number of
errors I found. I wouldn't care how many times the editor had to read the ms
or backtrack in it provided the errors were corrected.

FWIW, it's also true that the more corrections there are to be made, the
more passes it's going to take. You just can't see everything at once. And a
lot of things you aren't going to know are "errors" till much later. In the
book I'm currently working on, there are stupefyingly thorough bios of two
of the characters early on; neither mentions any military service (or allows
any space in the timeline for it). Several chapters later, they're talking
about their army experiences in Iraq. Another character, a nurse, is shy on
one page and bold on the next (she actually vacillates throughout the book).
Those are just a few of the problems. As it happens, I've about given up on
this book, which the author is self-publishing; I finally decided I'd done
all I could reasonably do, and if the author thinks it's done, I'll just
call it done. I don't think he'll sell more than a couple of dozen copies no
matter how much we polish it, anyway. g

--
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.

"redpencilgirl" wrote in message
...
Without giving actual examples, it's hard to give you an idea of what I
mean
here, so let's say that the author of a manuscript I'm editing creates a
character named Frank. He's Frank from page 1 to page 72, but on page 73,
he
suddenly becomes Fred. Only I'm sort of distracted by the author's
annoying
habit of putting three exclamation points at the end of every sentence, so
I
don't notice that he's Fred until page 175. So now I go back to page 73
(having searched for "Fred" and discovered that that was where the name
first
appeared).

Anyone looking at my changes will be able to see that I made the
Fred/Frank
change three days (or however long it has been) after the other changes --
deleting of exclamation points, suggestions about ambiguous language,
grammar
corrections -- made on the same page. And while my imperfect eye is
something I should be aware of (because being aware of it will make me a
better editor), it is NOT something I need to show my clients...or that,
really, they have any need to know.

Does that make it any clearer why this is so important to me?

"Suzanne S. Barnhill" wrote:

FWIW, your clients don't have to know when you have changed your mind:
just
reject the change. Or accept it, turn Track Changes off and change it
back,
then turn Track Changes on again.

--
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.

"redpencilgirl" wrote in
message
...
In Word 2002 for Windows XP (and apparently in other newer versions of
Word
as well), rolling the mouse over a Track Changes balloon turns up the
name
of
the person who made the change or comment, along with the date and
time
the
change or comment was made. Currently I can choose the privacy option
"Remove personal information from file properties on save" and have my
name
replaced with the anonymous term "author" -- however, I cannot opt to
remove
the date and time. I believe that information about date and time is
personal, too, and I feel strongly that I should have the option to
take
it
out.

Here is the situation: I am a freelance editor, and my clients would
like
me to make my changes using the Track Changes option instead of the
old-fashioned way (on paper with a red pencil). I don't mind helping
them
out that way -- I'm all for going electronic whenever possible -- but
I DO
mind that the electronic document will suddenly provide them with
information
that was never available to them in the paper version: for example,
that
I
often work late into the night, or that I often change my mind about a
correction I have made and go back later to revise it. As long as I
make
my
deadlines, my clients do not need to know when I made my changes and
comments
-- they only need to know that the changes and comments have been
made.

Please help...thanks!

----------------
This post is a suggestion for Microsoft, and Microsoft responds to the
suggestions with the most votes. To vote for this suggestion, click
the "I
Agree" button in the message pane. If you do not see the button,
follow
this
link to open the suggestion in the Microsoft Web-based Newsreader and
then
click "I Agree" in the message pane.



http://www.microsoft.com/office/comm...ocmanagemen t

I forgot to mention that the two aforementioned characters were gangsters
from Detroit for half the book, then from Mobile for another half; then,
because of problems with both, we decided to make them be from Chicago, but
the author still keeps sending me stuff that says "Mobile." sigh

As for markup, I do sort of a combination. I don't use red pencil, by the
way, but green pen. In a previous life, I was a teacher (Latin), and I know
that people react adversely to red (one student said it looked like her
paper was hemorrhaging), and actually green (pencil) is traditional for
editing. I do still mark up copy by hand sometimes, but the more I use
computers, the more I find I keep itching to get to the file and correct it
directly. In most cases, the result is what the client is concerned about,
not how it was achieved, so I just make the changes, and they read the
revised edition and (if I've done it right) think, "Wow! I'm a better writer
than I realized." I used to write a lot of comments on the manuscript,
either directly on it or on Post-its, but now I often make a separate
comments file. I don't really like Track Changes because most of the people
I work with are unsophisticated (many of them elderly) and wouldn't know how
to deal with the technology (even for comments). So far I've had no one
specifically request it, and I don't suggest it.

--
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.

"redpencilgirl" wrote in message
...
OK, now you've succeeded in really making me laugh...first because you DO
know exactly what I'm talking about, and second because I am so glad the
manuscript I'm working on isn't in THAT much trouble! You would have been
amused by the stunned look on my face the first time a production editor
said
to me, "Well, actually, by the time it comes to you, the editor is
finished
with it." Meanwhile there I am wondering how on earth this author got a
book
contract...and whether or not the editor actually read past page three
before
sending it off to the freelance copy editor...

Out of curiosity, do you do most of your editing using Track Changes, or
are
you still on pencil and paper too? (The reason all of this has come up
for
me is that one client is interested in making the switch. I've never
worked
on a huge project using Track Changes, so it'll be a new experience for
me.)


"Suzanne S. Barnhill" wrote:

I'm sorry, but you are describing exactly the kind of work I do, and I
can't
see that a client would have any reason to care *when* you make the
changes
provided the required changes get made. I make numerous passes through
the
documents I work on, and I find more mistakes every time. No one can see
everything at once, and I don't think anyone expects you to. Most
instructions I've read actually stipulate that you make several passes.
And
I have to say that I read a lot of published books where there is no
evidence that any editor made even one pass, much less several. I
recently
proofread the page proofs of a book to be published by Random House
(which
had been copyedited and proofread by their editors), and the author (for
whom I was performing the work) and I were equally appalled by the
number of
errors I found. I wouldn't care how many times the editor had to read
the ms
or backtrack in it provided the errors were corrected.

FWIW, it's also true that the more corrections there are to be made, the
more passes it's going to take. You just can't see everything at once.
And a
lot of things you aren't going to know are "errors" till much later. In
the
book I'm currently working on, there are stupefyingly thorough bios of
two
of the characters early on; neither mentions any military service (or
allows
any space in the timeline for it). Several chapters later, they're
talking
about their army experiences in Iraq. Another character, a nurse, is shy
on
one page and bold on the next (she actually vacillates throughout the
book).
Those are just a few of the problems. As it happens, I've about given up
on
this book, which the author is self-publishing; I finally decided I'd
done
all I could reasonably do, and if the author thinks it's done, I'll just
call it done. I don't think he'll sell more than a couple of dozen
copies no
matter how much we polish it, anyway. g

--
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.

"redpencilgirl" wrote in
message
...
Without giving actual examples, it's hard to give you an idea of what
I
mean
here, so let's say that the author of a manuscript I'm editing creates
a
character named Frank. He's Frank from page 1 to page 72, but on page
73,
he
suddenly becomes Fred. Only I'm sort of distracted by the author's
annoying
habit of putting three exclamation points at the end of every
sentence, so
I
don't notice that he's Fred until page 175. So now I go back to page
73
(having searched for "Fred" and discovered that that was where the
name
first
appeared).

Anyone looking at my changes will be able to see that I made the
Fred/Frank
change three days (or however long it has been) after the other
changes --
deleting of exclamation points, suggestions about ambiguous language,
grammar
corrections -- made on the same page. And while my imperfect eye is
something I should be aware of (because being aware of it will make me
a
better editor), it is NOT something I need to show my clients...or
that,
really, they have any need to know.

Does that make it any clearer why this is so important to me?

"Suzanne S. Barnhill" wrote:

FWIW, your clients don't have to know when you have changed your
mind:
just
reject the change. Or accept it, turn Track Changes off and change
it
back,
then turn Track Changes on again.

--
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.

"redpencilgirl" wrote in
message
...
In Word 2002 for Windows XP (and apparently in other newer
versions of
Word
as well), rolling the mouse over a Track Changes balloon turns up
the
name
of
the person who made the change or comment, along with the date and
time
the
change or comment was made. Currently I can choose the privacy
option
"Remove personal information from file properties on save" and
have my
name
replaced with the anonymous term "author" -- however, I cannot opt
to
remove
the date and time. I believe that information about date and time
is
personal, too, and I feel strongly that I should have the option
to
take
it
out.

Here is the situation: I am a freelance editor, and my clients
would
like
me to make my changes using the Track Changes option instead of
the
old-fashioned way (on paper with a red pencil). I don't mind
helping
them
out that way -- I'm all for going electronic whenever possible --
but
I DO
mind that the electronic document will suddenly provide them with
information
that was never available to them in the paper version: for
example,
that
I
often work late into the night, or that I often change my mind
about a
correction I have made and go back later to revise it. As long as
I
make
my
deadlines, my clients do not need to know when I made my changes
and
comments
-- they only need to know that the changes and comments have been
made.

Please help...thanks!

----------------
This post is a suggestion for Microsoft, and Microsoft responds to
the
suggestions with the most votes. To vote for this suggestion,
click
the "I
Agree" button in the message pane. If you do not see the button,
follow
this
link to open the suggestion in the Microsoft Web-based Newsreader
and
then
click "I Agree" in the message pane.




http://www.microsoft.com/office/comm...ocmanagemen t

[mephisto]

Hello. I came across redpencilgirl's other post asking how to do this and followed the discussion to this one.

I totally agree with redpencilgirl on this. I left full-time publishing a couple of years ago to return to academia but still do the occasional freelance job. At the moment I'm marking lots and lots of undergraduate essays. The essays are all submitted electronically as .doc files, and marks and feedback are all to be uploaded to the same place. I'm very thorough (probably as a result of my editorial background) and don't want students and other markers to know exactly how long I'm spending marking some essays, when I'm making the comments, or that I sometimes revisit an essay after marking several others to add another comment somewhere. I just want them to see the comments.

Originally Posted by redpencilgirl

In Word 2002 for Windows XP (and apparently in other newer versions of Word
as well), rolling the mouse over a Track Changes balloon turns up the name of
the person who made the change or comment, along with the date and time the
change or comment was made. Currently I can choose the privacy option
"Remove personal information from file properties on save" and have my name
replaced with the anonymous term "author" -- however, I cannot opt to remove
the date and time. I believe that information about date and time is
personal, too, and I feel strongly that I should have the option to take it
out.

Here is the situation: I am a freelance editor, and my clients would like
me to make my changes using the Track Changes option instead of the
old-fashioned way (on paper with a red pencil). I don't mind helping them
out that way -- I'm all for going electronic whenever possible -- but I DO
mind that the electronic document will suddenly provide them with information
that was never available to them in the paper version: for example, that I
often work late into the night, or that I often change my mind about a
correction I have made and go back later to revise it. As long as I make my
deadlines, my clients do not need to know when I made my changes and comments
-- they only need to know that the changes and comments have been made.

Please help...thanks!

----------------
This post is a suggestion for Microsoft, and Microsoft responds to the
suggestions with the most votes. To vote for this suggestion, click the "I
Agree" button in the message pane. If you do not see the button, follow this
link to open the suggestion in the Microsoft Web-based Newsreader and then
click "I Agree" in the message pane.

http://www.microsoft.com/office/comm...ocmanagemen t