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Whenever I open an existing document in Word 2007 (on Windows XP), word turns on track changes, and changes the display mode to "Final" (that is, not "Final Showing Markup" -- so I often don't even notice track changes is on if I don't remember to pay attention.

This happens for ALL existing documents, and doesn't happen for new documents. I can't find any option in the configuration that would control this behavior.

I would like to restore the original/default behavior where documents are opening with Track Changes off, and in "Final showing markup" display.

Steps to Reproduce

  1. Open Word 2007.
  2. Create a new document. Verify that track changes is off.
  3. Save the document and close Word.
  4. Open the document (either directly or through Word).
  5. Track changes is now on.

Any ideas?

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3 Answers

up vote 1 down vote

It sounds like those documents have it enabled, and it can be document specific. You may need to disable it in all those documents. If you disable it in one document, save it, then reopen does it show up again or is it still disabled?

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Good idea, but unfortunately track changes turns back on after closing and reopening. Updating the original question to clarify. – Benj Aug 2 '10 at 14:05
It could be a template issue, since the Review settings are stored in templates. For instance your Normal template could have Track Changes turned on. But come to think of it, that should only affect new documents, which is the opposite of what you reported. Well, open the Normal template and see if it has Track Changes on; turn it off and save the template to see if that at least has some effect. You can open templates by selecting 'Trusted Templates' in the Open dialog and choosing 'normal.dotm'. – boot13 Aug 2 '10 at 14:28
Opened normal.dotm, which did have track changes on. Turned it off, saved, reopened, and it was on again. Esp. since new documents don't have track changes on, my conclusion is that it's being turned on somehow when documents are opened, and that also happens when opening normal.dotm – Benj Aug 5 '10 at 15:44
Just to test -- I opened normal.dotm and saved again without disabling track changes. Created a new document, which started with track changes ON. Went back to normal.dotm, turned it off and saved, and new documents have it OFF. Confirms my previous hypothesis, so new documents are fine but opening existing documents is unresolved. – Benj Aug 5 '10 at 15:46
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up vote 0 down vote

The constant appearance of tracking information when you open a document is a pain.

It happens because once tracking is turned on in a document you cant turn it off - you can only accept the changes but they are still there

The easiest way is to copy the whole text to a brand new Word document and then save it as a new file.

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up vote 0 down vote

This mic. office demo tells exactly how to do it. it is very useful. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdlYEir1nJo

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Nice to have a video, but can you summarize the important steps here? – slhck May 10 at 6:10
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