View source for Documentation/OOoAuthors User Manual/Writer Guide/Tracking changes to a document

{{DISPLAYTITLE:Tracking changes to a document}}
{{Documentation/WriterTextWorkTOC
|ShowPrevNext=block
|PrevPage=Documentation/OOoAuthors User Manual/Writer Guide/Undoing and redoing changes
|NextPage=Documentation/OOoAuthors User Manual/Writer Guide/Linking to another part of a document
}}
== Introduction ==
{{:Tracking changes to a document}}

== Preparing a document for review ==
When you send a document to someone else to review or edit, you may want to prepare it first so that the editor or reviewer does not have to remember to turn on the revision marks. After you have protected the document, any user must enter the correct password in order to turn off the function or accept or reject changes.

# Open the document. To check whether it contains multiple versions, click '''File > Versions'''. If multiple versions are listed, save the current version as a separate document with a different name and use this new document as the review copy.
# With the review copy open, make sure that change recording is turned on. The '''Edit > Changes > Record''' menu item has a check mark next to it when recording is turned on.
# Click '''Edit > Changes > Protect Records'''. On the Enter Password dialog box, type a password (twice) and click '''OK'''.

{{Documentation/Note|Passwords must contain at least five characters. It is not necessary to password protect the document while preparing it for review.}}

== Recording changes ==
{{:Recording changes}}

== Inserting notes ==
{{:Inserting notes}}

== Accepting or rejecting changes and comments ==
{{:Accepting or rejecting changes and comments}}

== Merging modified documents ==
The processes discussed to this point are effective when you have one reviewer at a time. Sometimes, however, multiple reviewers all return edited versions of a document at the same time. In this case, it may be quicker to review all of these changes at once, rather than one review at a time. For this purpose, you can merge documents in Writer.

To merge documents, all of the edited documents need to have recorded changes in them.

# Open one copy.
# Click '''Edit > Changes > Merge Document''' and select and insert another copy of the document to be merged with the first.
# After the documents merge, the [[#Accepting or rejecting changes and comments|Accept or Reject Changes dialog box]] opens, showing changes by more than one reviewer. If you want to merge more documents, close the dialog box and then repeat step 2.
# Repeat until all copies are merged.

All recorded changes are now included in the open copy. Save this file under another name.

== Comparing documents ==
Sometimes reviewers may forget to record the changes they make. This is not a problem with Writer because you can find the changes if you compare documents.

In order to compare documents, you need to have the original document and the one that is edited. To compare them:

# Open the edited document.
# Select '''Edit > Compare Document'''.
# The Insert dialog box appears. Select the original document and click '''Insert'''.
Writer finds and marks the changes and displays the Accept or Reject Changes dialog box. From this point, you can go through and accept or reject changes procedure as described earlier.

{{Manual}}
[[Category:Writer Guide (Documentation)]]