Track Changes Before the Deadline
Two editors, Ben and Chloe, must revise a 20-page contract before a Friday deadline. Ben turns on Track Changes and edits. Chloe, working from an earlier copy, edits without Track Changes and emails her version back. Ben now has: his tracked version, Chloe's untracked version, and the original. The client wants to see exactly what changed from the original, but must not see the editors' internal argument comments. Ben is tempted to just accept all changes and compare the two files by eye.
1. Recommend a workflow to produce a clean client copy showing all changes from the original, while hiding internal comments.
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- Consolidate edits into one document. Because Chloe edited untracked, use Compare (Review > Compare > Compare Documents) between the original and Chloe's version to generate tracked differences.
- Combine with Ben's tracked edits (merge/compare the resulting documents against the original) so one file shows every change relative to the original.
- Review and resolve conflicts.
- For the client: delete the internal comments (or set the view/print to hide comments - but for a PDF, actually remove them), then either send with markup visible or produce a clean copy by accepting changes in a separate file.
Keep the working marked-up file internal; export the client PDF from the comment-free version.
2. Why is 'accept all changes and compare by eye' risky, and what should Ben check before sending the client file?
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Risks:
- Accepting all changes destroys the record of what changed, so the client can no longer see the differences from the original - the opposite of the requirement.
- Comparing by eye across 20 pages misses changes and is not reproducible.
- Chloe's untracked edits are invisible as 'changes' unless compared against the original, so they could be silently accepted or lost.
Before sending, Ben should verify: comments are removed (not just hidden) in the exported file, all of Chloe's edits are captured (via Compare against the original), no tracked changes remain in a 'clean' copy, and the PDF metadata/author info is acceptable to share. He should keep the marked-up master file archived internally.