Using the Automated Editing Tools

Writer offers a number of tools to let you compare documents and show the effects of changes made to documents.

Comparing Separate Documents

This procedure shows you how to compare two separate documents, which is different than comparing different versions of the same document (see Comparing Versions of a Document on page 408).

Note

You can't compare content that's in special regions , such as headers, footers, footnotes, frames , fields, and sections. And since manually inserted columns are tagged as sections, content in columns can't be compared. Yes, this is a drag. If you want to use columns and compare documents, consider making your page styles multi-column instead.

To compare two separate documents:

1. Open the document you want to use as the basis for the comparison.

2. Choose Edit > Compare Document.

3. In the Insert window, select the document you want to compare to the open document, and click Insert.

The Accept or Reject Changes window appears. You can either use it to accept or reject changes (see Accepting or Rejecting Changes on page 420) or close it to view the visual differences.

The change marks that are displayed are in relation to the starting document. For example, if you started with Document A, then selected Document B to compare it to, the change marks show how Document B differs from Document A.

To see what the change marks mean, go to Tools > Options > Text document > Changes.

Numbering Lines

You can add line numbers beside lines in Writer. Line numbers are good references for quickly referencing locations in a document; like delivering an edit over the phone. See Numbering Lines on page 419.

Using Change Bars and Other Editing Marks

You can show the effects of changes to a document in many different ways, such as displaying change bars in the margins next to text and automatically formatting text in different ways when it is deleted, inserted, or if the text attributes simply change.

Setting Up Change Bars and Editing Marks

1. Set up the options for change bars and edits. Choose Tools > Options > Text document > Changes.

2. Set the options you want. Use Figure 11-14 for guidance.

   Figure 11-14. Setting document change options

   

3. Click OK.

The editing marks don't show up in your document right away. You must complete the next procedure to show them.

You can't assign change formats to specific authors. The program randomly assigns different colors and styles when a different author edits the content.

Showing Change Bars and Editing Marks

1. Choose Edit > Changes > Record to keep track of the changes.

2. Choose Edit > Changes > Show to display the changes made.

You can turn off the Show option at any time, and as long as the Record option is selected, changes will be tracked. But if you turn off the Record option, changes to the document will no longer be recorded.

Accepting or Rejecting Changes

Writer gives you the opportunity to accept or reject changes made to a document. When you accept a change, the content becomes a normal part of the current document. When you reject a change, the change returns to its previous state in the document.

In order to accept or reject changes, Writer needs to know that changes have occurred, which means that the Record feature needs to be activated while you work with documents (Edit > Changes > Record).

To accept or reject changes:

1. Choose Edit > Changes > Accept or Reject.

2. In the Accept or Reject Changes window (Figure 11-15), you can select one or more items in the list to accept or reject.

   Figure 11-15. Accepting and rejecting changes

   

   You can modify the list of changes by clicking the Filter tab (Figure 11-16) and setting the criteria for which changes will be shown in the List tab.

   Figure 11-16. Filtering the list of changes

   

3. In the List tab, click the appropriate button at the bottom of the window.

   Whether you accept or reject changes, the items you accept or reject are removed from the Accept or Reject Changes window.

4. Close the window when you're finished.

Note

Rejecting changes is a great way to perform a selective undo. When you use undo, in order to undo something five steps back, you have to undo the previous four steps as well. With the accept/reject feature, you can pinpoint the exact action you want to undo (reject). While each change is given a generic description, you can pinpoint the change you want to reject like this: With the Accept or Reject Changes window open, select the change, and the change is highlighted in the document. Then click the Reject button.

Protecting Your Document When You Send It to Other People to Edit

It's all very well to send around your document to other people to get feedback. (Well, you have to pretend that you like to do it.) However, what if someone decides to rewrite part of your original document without recording it as a change? See Figure 11-17.

Figure 11-17. The job announcement you sent around, callously hacked by a co-worker

You can make sure that any input is recorded as a change, with nice red fonts and underlining, by turning on the Protect Changes features. Once it's on, you specify the password people have to enter in order to turn it off (and you don't tell anyone). Now you've ensured that everything anyone types in your document shows up as an edit, and no one can change the original text.

1. Get your document the way you want it.

2. Choose Edit > Changes > Protect Records.

3. In the Enter Password window that appears, enter the password, then enter it again to verify it.

   

4. Send out your document and chuckle madly.

Once you get the document back, you can stop new text being formatted as an edit by choosing Edit > Changes > Protect Records again so that the check mark next to Protect Records disappears. You'll be prompted to enter the same password you entered in step 3.