Combining multiple Word documents with changes?

[hughtrimble]

Morning,

I've just been tasked with combining the comments and changes made to Word documents made by 12 people, for return to the original author to then process.

Any tips and tricks? I've been playing with the 'combine' function in Word, but it flashes up the warning that 'Word can store only one set of formatting changes in the final, merged document. Choose which set of formatting changes to keep'.

So this means not everything is actually merged, so changes will be lost. Any tips on how to manage this?

Hugh

 

[Donnie Fisher]

Not done it myself, but this page seems to to go through the steps including some of the more advanced options.

https://www.extendoffice.com/docume...comments-changes-from-multiple-documents.html

It seems to imply towards the bottom of the page you just need to repeat the process against the original file for each of the edited ones you have.

Thing is though, (ignoring the automatic way of doing it for a moment), what if you have 2 different reviewers making different changes to the same piece of text ... how you would you personally chose which of edited versions is the correct one to apply to the original ?

I imagine you're going to have to take your edited versions and decided on an order to to the comparisons.

 

[hughtrimble]

Not done it myself, but this page seems to to go through the steps including some of the more advanced options.

https://www.extendoffice.com/docume...comments-changes-from-multiple-documents.html

It seems to imply towards the bottom of the page you just need to repeat the process against the original file for each of the edited ones you have.

Thing is though, (ignoring the automatic way of doing it for a moment), what if you have 2 different reviewers making different changes to the same piece of text ... how you would you personally chose which of edited versions is the correct one to apply to the original ?

I imagine you're going to have to take your edited versions and decided on an order to to the comparisons.

Thanks for this Donnie - it turns out the combine function is very picky indeed. Sometimes it works perfectly (or at least doesn't warn you of any issues!) and that's when combining 2+ edited versions of the same document together. Other times, there may be a formatting clash, in which case it forces you to choose which one to take the formatting from (without telling you where the formatting differs...). And sometimes it just straight-up refuses to combine them, with a warning message stating they cannot be combined (no reason given, just no can do).

Regarding making decisions about two different reviewers making different decisions, that's up to the primary author of the piece to judge which they feel fits best. So long as the documents combine correctly, then the input from the reviewers will be shown.

It's definitely not perfect, and I do wish it would be more informative when things don't play well together, but it does have its uses.

 

[Donnie Fisher]

It must be a difficult thing to be able to program though. Cause it'll be comparing both the text and the formatting of it, and considering them individually. i.e. the same phrase could be normal in one version and bold in another ... or a section could be bold, but have a different phrase. Both situations would throw a difference flag I suppose.


Would it be easier to ensure all the text is of the same format before comparing ? ( i.e. normal text ? )

 

[bledd]

Horrible task

 

[Donnie Fisher]

I dont envy you. So is it 12 people editing a single author's document ? ( Too many cooks spoiling the broth ? )