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Technology Tip of the Week - January 17, 2007
 

Removing Reviewing Marks in Microsoft Word

The Reviewing tools in Microsoft Word are wonderful for allowing users to make revisions and comments to a document while leaving the original intact. The reviewing tools are helpful when you want to do electronic editing of student work and send it back to them for their review or rewrite, when a group of students is working together on a document, or when you want to work on a document with other members of your department or committee (see the January 25, 2006 Tip). However, when you finally have your final document all set and want to send it out have you ever had the situation where you CAN'T MAKE THE MARKS DISAPPEAR!

You can control the view in your document by clicking on the Show view on the Reviewing toolbar and deselecting the comments, insertions, deletions, etc.

Expanded Show menu

Then you choose the Display for Review option on the Reviewing toolbar and choose Final.

Graphic representation of the Display for Review option in Word

The marks are all hidden now and the document looks perfect. You would think that if you then re-save the document with these options it should now re-open without the review marks and comments, right? Wrong! If you send this document out, when it is re-opened it will appear with all the markups. This can be embarrassing, to say the least!

If this has happened to you, then you'll love this tip. To permanently hide the markup in a document (but still keep the original markups for your own benefit) first you would:

  1. Open the document in Word
  2. Click the arrow next to Accept Change Button image
  3. Click Accept All Changes in Document.

Okay, now you'll see all the insertion and deletion marks disappear. However, this doesn't hide the comments. Here's the trick to hide all the rest of the markup. With the document open in Word and all the changes accepted:

  1. Click on Tools from the menu bar
  2. Click on Options...
  3. Click on the Security tab
  4. Deselect the box next to the Make hidden markup visible when opening or saving option to clear the checkmark.
  5. Save the document. Voila! If you re-open the document, it will look perfect.

Note: Even though you clear this check box, the markup information is still in the document and can be revealed by selecting the type of markup on the Show menu, however it will not display unless prompted. If you want to permanently remove everything from your document (especially if it's a final grant, a resume, a dissertation, etc.):

  1. Click the arrow next to Accept Change
  2. Then click Accept All Changes in Document.
  3. Permanently remove all comments by clicking the arrow next to Reject Change/Delete Comment, and then click Delete All Comments in Document.

If you then do a Save As and save this document with a different name, you will still have your original document with all the revision marks but you'll also have a clean copy with no marks that you can distribute with a clear conscience.

For more help with these features, please contact one of the IT Instructional Support team (Norm Grant, Gene Grande or Linda Beith) or faculty mentors Tony Basilico or Kathy Beauchene.

Website of the Week

Digital Pen and USB Drive

I attend lots of meetings that require that I scribble down notes on a pad and then bring them back to my office and type them up on my computer, either for my own benefit (my penmanship is terrible!) or to distribute to other committee members. I've often wished that there was a magic pen that would instantly convert my scribbling to text without retyping. Well....my wish has come true! There is now a digital pen that allows a user to write and sketch on any paper or surface which automatically sends all written information directly to the companion flash drive. The information is then stored and saved to download to a computer. To transfer the information to a computer, the user just plugs the USB flash drive in (like you would with your regular USB drive) and handwritten information can either be converted to text or saved as an image. Captured notes can even be sent as text via e-mail! How cool is that!

For more information on one example of this technology go to: http://www.epos-ps.com/products.asp?pid=1275&ppid=1278. To view a quick demo, go to: http://www.epos-ps.com/dwlfls/usb_pen.swf

Feel free to post your thoughts or opinions of this site in the Teaching Forum message board.

These tips are provided by the Department of Information Technology instructional support team. If you have any questions on these tips, or wish to offer your own, please feel free to contact Linda Beith at lbeith@ccri.edu or call 825-2487. View an archive of past technology tips at http://it.ccri.edu/Training/Tips/tip_week.shtml.
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