Welcome to the spoken tutorial on Using Track Changes in Writer.
In this tutorial, we will learn how to:
Peer review a document using Track changes option
Edit a document using Record changes option and
Add comments in a document
This tutorial is recorded using Ubuntu linux OS version 18.04 and LibreOffice Suite version 6.3.5
Track changes helps the reviewer to keep track of the changes
This feature is especially important for those who use Writer in workgroups.
It helps the reviewer to give comments
The files used in this tutorial have been provided to you in the Code files link on this tutorial page.
Please download and extract the file.
Make a copy and then use it for practising.
Open the file Seven reasons to adopt FOSS.odt which you have downloaded from Code Files link.
Click on the Show Track Changes Functions icon in the Standard toolbar.
The Track changes toolbar appears at the bottom of the Writer window.
Make sure that the Show Track Changes and Record Track Changes icons are enabled.
If not, then enable these by clicking on them.
Let us see another way to enable these options.
Go to the Edit menu select Track Changes from the list And check the Record and Show options.
Now let’s type a new text in our document.
Keep cursor next to the point 2 and type- “Linux is a virus resistant operating system since each user has a distinct data space and cannot directly access the program files”.
Then press Enter.
We can see that point number 2 has become a new point, that is number 3.
Note that the newly added text is in a different color.
Hover the cursor on the newly added text.
A message is displayed - “Inserted: Unknown Author”, followed by date and time of insertion.
Let us replace Unknown author with our name.
For that, click on the Tools menu in the menu bar and select Options.
Options dialog box opens up.
On the left, under LibreOffice, select User Data option from the list.
In the Address section, type your name in the First/last name/initials field, as shown.
Notice that our initials are auto-filled.
Click on the Apply button and then on the OK button at the bottom.
Now click on the File menu in the menu bar and select Properties.
Properties dialog box opens up.
In the General tab, click on the Reset properties button.
Notice that in the created section in the center of the dialog box, your name appears.
Click on the OK button to close the dialog box.
Now onwards, the person making the comment can easily be identified in the document.
Let us delete the second sentence from point no. 1 -
“It can be installed on all computers without restriction or needing to pay license fees to vendors”.
Note that the deletion does not actually remove the line. But marks it as a line suggested for deletion.
Hover the cursor on the deleted line.
We see a message Deleted followed by the updated username, with date and time.
Using this feature, we can modify the document by adding or deleting changes.
Save the changes and close the file.
Next, let us learn more about Track Changes.
More than one person can edit the same document.
LibreOffice Writer will show each edit in different colors.
This will help the readers to distinguish one reviewer’s work from the other.
Now open the file Government-support-for-FOSS-in-India.odt which you have downloaded from Code Files link.
In this document, we can see several additions and deletions have been done.
Hover cursor on the deleted text in point 1.
It displays the deletion done by Guru.
Keep the cursor at the end of the last point and press Enter.
Then type the following text- “CDAC, NIC, NRC-FOSS are institutions of Government of India which develop and promote FOSS. “
We can see the color of this text is different from the color edited by Guru.
Hover the cursor on the newly typed text.
It shows your name along with the date and time.
This indicates that more than one person can edit the same document.
Note - This is possible only if the author gives editing rights to other readers.
Now we will learn how the author can accept or reject changes made by another reviewer.
Let us assume, I am the author and I will accept or reject the edits made by Guru.
In point no 2, click on the deleted text reasons.
Right-click the mouse and select the Accept Change option.
Another way is to click on Accept Track Change icon in the Track Changes toolbar
The text “reasons” gets deleted as per the change suggested by the reviewer.
On the same line, click the on the text needs.
Again click on the Accept Track Change icon in the Track Changes toolbar.
Observe that the text needs gets included, as per the change suggested by the reviewer.
Using this feature, edits suggested by reviewers can be accepted by the author.
In point no 1, click on the deleted text.
Then click on the Reject Track change icon in the Track Changes toolbar.
Observe that the text becomes normal.
The suggestions given by the reviewer was to delete the text. But that suggestion has been rejected by the author.
Move the cursor to point no 5.
Select the entire text and click on the Reject Track Change icon in the Track Changes toolbar.
We can also reject a change by right-clicking on the mouse and selecting Reject change.
This deletes the entire text inserted by the reviewer.
Disable the Show Track Changes and Record Track Changes icons by clicking on them.
Move the cursor to point no 5
Now delete the blank space by pressing the Backspace key on the keyboard.
Now onwards any further editing will not be marked separately.
Pause the tutorial. Save the file after accepting or rejecting changes to incorporate all the suggestions.
Another feature in Writer is inserting and deleting a comment.
It helps users to exchange ideas and suggestions, which are important.
In our document, we will add a comment to the word e-governance.
In point no. 3, select the word e-governance. Then right-click and select the Comment option.
We can also add comments by clicking on the Insert Comment icon in the Track Changes toolbar.
A comment box appears on the right side of the document.
In the comment box, type the comment as “What is e-governance?”
We can see the commenter’s name along with date and time.
Next, we will see how one can reply to a comment.
Once again keep the cursor on the comment box.
Then click on the Insert Comment icon located in the Standard toolbar.
We can see a new Reply Comment box gets added to our document.
Inside the reply comment box type “It means electronic governance”
Let us delete the newly added comment “It means electronic governance”
Click on the down-arrow icon in the Reply comment box and select Delete comment option.
Repeat the same steps to delete the comment “What is e governance ?”
We see that both the comments are now deleted. And also the word is no more highlighted.
To delete another person’s comments, first disable the Record Track Change icon. And then press Delete key on the keyboard.
Save and close the file.
This brings us to the end of this tutorial. Let us summarise.
In this tutorial, we learnt how to Peer review a document using Track changes option
Edit a document using Record changes option Add comments in a document
As an assignment: Open Seven-Reason-to-adopt-FOSS.odt file
Delete and correct the word available using Record changes
Use Accept change option to accept the changes
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The Spoken Tutorial project is funded by MHRD Govt of India.
This tutorial was originally contributed by IT for Change in 2012.
This is Pratik Kamble along with the Spoken Tutorial team from IIT Bombay signing off. Thank you for watching.