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Show tracked changes in target file.

Tyke

I have some Excel files where I need to work in just one column, which I can do by hiding the other columns, and show the tracked changes in the target document.

I have edited the files with tracked changes on and can see the tracked changes in the Editor View in Studio. But when I Save As all the tracked changes have disappeared. Is there a way to show the tracked changes made in Studio in the target file?

Ben
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    Hi Ben,

    Excel does not support tracked changes the same way Word does. I believe you can use shared workbooks and the whole cells are highlighted in some way, and maybe a note is added... but you won't be able to do this within a single excel file. At least I believe this is the case!!

    The only sensible solution you have really is to use the Studio review document which will show the tracked changes but of course this will be in Word.

    Regards

    Paul

    Paul Filkin | RWS Group

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  • 0 in reply to Paul

    You did make me more curious though as I'd never looked at this before in Excel.  So it works like this:

    So quite hard to see I deleted the word "more" in this cell.  You'd have to get at every comment and then inspect the text to see what changes were made.  Not very helpful.

    I then found this post from Rosalyn Newell which looks pretty interesting:

    It shows a workaround to compare two versions of Excel and also gives a link to a small application that can also compare but with a track changes format.

    So I guess you could workaround, but there is no way Studio is going to be able to support this out of the box as Excel itself does not support tracked changes in the same way Word does.  Might be interesting to look at these other products though and see whether something could be done to generate a target file through a custom batch task using the API that could use one of these methods in some way.

    Interesting topic.

    Regards

    Paul

    Paul Filkin | RWS Group

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  • 0 in reply to Paul
    Hi Paul,

    I already had that information about tracked changes in Excel and was looking for a solution in Studio. The client specifically wants the changes in Excel with a Word-type tracked changes, i.e. different coloured text for insertions and strike through for deletions. They have the documents in authoring system and just want to update the files and make small corrections, which they can do automatically with coloured and strike through text. I will try sending them a Studio review document and see if they can make any sense of that. Otherwise it's going to a long slog manually working in the "tracked changes" into the Excel files.

    Many thanks,

    Ben
  • 0 in reply to Tyke

    Hi Ben,

    I see.  Your client must be using some kind of addin now if they can see tracked changes in Excel.  Do you know what they're using?

    I'be been playing around with the solution in SpreadsheetCompare but this won't work at all in my version of Excel.  I think this is a very uncommon request and it going to require two things for Studio to support this:

    1. Development to enhance the filetype against a custom Excel plugin

    2. Development of a custom Excel plugin

    So probably not a small task, and would also need to be assured for all versions of Excel.

    Regards

    Paul

    Paul Filkin | RWS Group

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  • 0 in reply to Paul

    Hi Paul,

    The problem that I have is that I don't have an Excel sheet with my (tracked) changes, as they disappear when saving target as.

    Here's a target segment with the tracked changes:

    and this is what it looks like in the save target as Excel file:

    Just like Rose, I couldn't get the add-on to work either, which doesn't really matter as it would not be any help.

    I tried copying the column from review changes docx file into an Excel sheet, but it shows all the tags and not the coloured underlined/strike through text, so that didn't help either. It could well be if I could get the track changes like text into review changes I could could then copy them into Excel. Any ideas?

    It looks like it is going to be the long slog.

    All the best.

    Ben
  • 0 in reply to Paul
    Hi Paul,

    They have used InDesign and MadCap Flare/Lingo in the past, but are in a state of flux at the moment, added to that is the guy dealing with it is not very computer savvy so there is always a problem with his jobs. It could also change for the next updates so I am a bit loathed at spending a lot of time doing development work when it might never be used. Plus, I just don't have time to do any development work, too much translating.

    Do you know if it's possible to get rid of the tags in review changes and to display the text as it shows in Studio, with the tracked changes?

    All the best.
    Ben
  • 0 in reply to Paul

    Hi Paul,

    The problem that I have is that I don't have an Excel sheet with my (tracked) changes, as they disappear when saving target as.

    Here's a target segment with the tracked changes:

    and this is what it looks like in the save target as Excel file:

    Just like Rose, I couldn't get the add-on to work either, which doesn't really matter as it would not be any help.

    I tried copying the column from review changes docx file into an Excel sheet, but it shows all the tags and not the coloured underlined/strike through text, so that didn't help either. It could well be if I could get the track changes like text into review changes I could could then copy them into Excel. Any ideas?

    It looks like it is going to be the long slog.

    All the best.

    Ben
  • 0 in reply to Tyke

    Tyke said:
    The problem that I have is that I don't have an Excel sheet with my (tracked) changes, as they disappear when saving target as.

    Of course they do...  Excel out of the box does not support tracked changes in this way.

    Regards

    Paul

    Paul Filkin | RWS Group

    ________________________
    Design your own training!
    You've done the courses and still need to go a little further, or still not clear? 
    Tell us what you need in our Community Solutions Hub

  • 0 in reply to Tyke

    Tyke said:
    Do you know if it's possible to get rid of the tags in review changes and to display the text as it shows in Studio, with the tracked changes?

    As I said right at the start.  Excel does not support tracked changes out of the box.  You cannot do this without some development work in Studio and for Excel.

    Regards

    Paul

    Paul Filkin | RWS Group

    ________________________
    Design your own training!
    You've done the courses and still need to go a little further, or still not clear? 
    Tell us what you need in our Community Solutions Hub

  • 0 in reply to Paul

    Hi Paul

    Do you know if things have changed in the meantime?

    Excel does support track changes (although in newer versions you first need to configure the ribbon to show the commands, complicated!) but it seems that it only shows changes the user made inside Excel.
    Are there any plans to show changes in a target Excel generated by Studio?

    Best regards
    Walter
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