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Keep your cleaned up document as a master. Let them beat the heck out of
the version you send out. When it comes back transfer the changes into your
master manually or, for big sections of new text, using Paste
Special/Unformatted Text.
I always keep a master than no one else can touch (if I have a choice).
-Karen
-----Original Message-----
From:Van Boening, Tammy
Subject: Word editing question
Forgiveness is begged from the Word gurus and guru-esses on this list.
I am a Framemaker fanatic, but have had to work in the throes of Word hell
on a particular project. Basically, it was a round robin document that got
started by one person who hacked merrily away and added their content, then
passed it on to another person who hacked merrily away and added their
content, and well, you get the picture. This little merry-go-round ensued
among 6 of my SMEs. I was then handed back this monstrosity of a Word
document and expected to "work my magic."
I have spent the last two days removing any, every, and all override to
Normal, creating and applying styles, setting up outlined numbering, and so
on (I have also spend the last two days doing a lot of cussing as well, but
that's beside the point.) This document also has many Visio graphics and I
have also set it up with live links to multiple excel worksheets which
really work! (Score one for me!) It's now clean and ready for public
presentation; HOWEVER, and this is a big however,
The next round of editing is expected - the same kind of round robin format
(I don't know whether to laugh or to cry!). I want to supply this document
in its current pristine form and have track changes set; however, I also
don't want my SMEs to beat the living tar out of this document again - like
overrides, manual tabs - you know the drill.
In Framemaker, controlling the source is a no-brainer, but in Word, I am at
a loss. Do I set up this file with ALL of its current content as a template
and then what do I do or do I save a "back" copy for me and just compare the
god-awful monstrosity that I know will be returned to me and manually
compare the two to incorporate changes or ???
As you can see, I am fumbling in the musty hollows of this very beat to
death brain about how to handle this situation.
Any and all advice from you Word gurus and guru-esses out there is sincerely
appreciated.
TVB
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