Removing the Time Stamp from Tracked Changes

very helpful, thanks!

Very happy to find this site while searching for an answer to this problem. Unfortunately I don't see any File tab in the ribbon, only in the top-level menu next to Chrome ie File | Edit | View etc. I'm on a Mac using Word for Mac 16.37 -- is this a Windows-only site? I can't find anything relating to Document Inspector / Inspect Document. -- Virginia

My Word 2016 version did not update the times with the comment edit, so I rewrote a macro that will delete and recreate the comments (including replies). This results in the current date and time.

Sub UpdateDatesOnComments()
'Containers for 5 bits of comment data to retain.
Dim cDocScope As New Collection
Dim cComment As New Collection
Dim cAuthor As New Collection
Dim cInitial As New Collection
Dim cIsParent As New Collection

Dim aComment As Comment
For Each aComment In ActiveDocument.Comments
cDocScope.Add aComment.Scope
cComment.Add aComment.Range.Text
cAuthor.Add aComment.Author
cInitial.Add aComment.Initial
cIsParent.Add aComment.Ancestor Is Nothing ' mark if comment is a parent
Next aComment

'Delete all the comments
For Each aComment In ActiveDocument.Comments
aComment.DeleteRecursively
Next aComment

Dim i As Integer
Dim lastParent As Comment
'Add all the commentes again (will have the current time)
For i = 1 To cDocScope.Count
Dim newComment As Comment
If cIsParent(i) Then
Set newComment = ActiveDocument.Comments.Add(Range:=cDocScope(i), Text:=cComment(i))
Set lastParent = newComment
Else 'This is a reply
Set newComment = lastParent.Replies.Add(Range:=cDocScope(i), Text:=cComment(i))
End If
newComment.Author = cAuthor(i)
newComment.Initial = cInitial(i)
Next i
End Sub

Hi Ken,
thanks a billion (that is the next grade after a million, if I am right) for your additional directions. I will use these selectively, because most formatting changes are not essential. But the macro works fine!
I can see that the problem is a real challenge for you and that you want to solve it in an "elegant" way.
Thanks again for your responsiveness.
Regards from Holland.
Peter

Peter
As rejections and additions are made the sequence of revisions can change hence processing in reverse order is needed to prevent either an endless loop or the skipping over of revisions.

The following is the code for processing formatting revisions. There are about 20 formatting types so the code will become quite lengthy.

Good luck with it.

Dim rF() As String
Case wdRevisionProperty
s = aRevision.FormatDescription
s = Mid(s, InStr(s, ":") + 1)
rF = Split(s, ",")
.Reject
For k = 0 To UBound(rF)
With Selection.Font
Select Case Trim(rF(k))
Case "Bold"
.Bold = True
Case "Italic"
.Italic = True
Case "Underline"
.Underline = True
Case "Not Bold"
.Bold = False
etc.

Hi Ken,
thanks a million for the macro example. I tried it and it works great! It is funny to see the macro work its way through the text bottom up.
The macro does not handle cases of track changes within track changes (e.g. when user A first made some textual changes and afterwards user B deleted the whole sentence, including the tracked changes from A). But this is a case that rarely occurs anyway.
I will try to implement the other types of revisions as well.
Have a nice day!
Peter

Peter
To see if the macro solution is feasible I roughed out a macro for re-applying revisions. The following macro will re-apply text deletions and insertions but needs further code for other types of revisions. It would get quite lengthy for paragraph property changes as it would need to parse the FormatDescription string to determine what had changed.

The macro may be of use to you in its present form if you only have text changes.

Sub ReinsertRevisions()
Dim aRevision As Revision
Dim revisionCount As Long
Dim j As Long
Dim rRange As Range
Dim TCstore As Boolean
Dim s As String
TCstore = ActiveDocument.TrackRevisions
ActiveDocument.TrackRevisions = True
ActiveDocument.ShowRevisions = True
ActiveWindow.View.MarkupMode = wdMixedRevisions

revisionCount = ActiveDocument.Revisions.Count
For j = revisionCount To 1 Step -1
Set aRevision = ActiveDocument.Revisions(j)

' If aRevision.Author <> Application.UserName Then ' *********
With aRevision
.Range.Select
Select Case .Type
Case wdRevisionDelete
.Reject
Selection.Delete
Case wdRevisionInsert
s = Selection.Text
.Reject
Selection.InsertAfter s
Case wdRevisionReplace
Case wdRevisionDisplayField
Case wdRevisionParagraphNumber
Case wdRevisionParagraphProperty
Case wdRevisionProperty
Case wdRevisionReconcile
Case wdRevisionSectionProperty
Case wdRevisionStyle
Case wdRevisionStyleDefinition
Case wdRevisionTableProperty
Case wdRevisionCellDeletion
Case wdRevisionCellInsertion
Case wdRevisionCellMerge
Case wdRevisionMovedFrom
Case wdRevisionMovedTo
End Select
End With
' End If ' **************

Next j
ActiveDocument.TrackRevisions = TCstore
End Sub

Hi Ken,
thanks for the tip about a macro solution for the track changes. I will try to implement this. If it works it would mean a big time saver. :)
Have a nice day!
Peter

You need to display Reviewing Pane Horizontal to see the author's full name and the date/time.

The initials shown in the comment are taken from the first letters of the author's names. Thus if the author's name is a single word Linda then the comment starts with
Comment [L1]:
where the 1 is a sequence number.

The macro doesn't seem to work for me (using Word 2013). I've run it in All Markup view and Simple Markup view. "Friday" in the comments still appears.

Maybe I'm misunderstanding something. You mention that the macro removes author's initials. But my comments don't have author's initials.

Any comments welcome.

Peter
In thinking about your problem, a macro solution might be possible. For each revision the macro would delete the revision and re-insert thus the new revision would be tagged with your name.

The macro would need to be handle all 18 revision types.

Marguerite
It is possible to remove the author from comments using a macro. In the above macro add the line:
aComment.Author = ""
just before the Next aComment line.

If you are unfamiliar with using macros, there are some very good tips available. If you use the macro frequently you can put an icon to run it on the Quick Action toolbar.

Peter
Unlike comments, the properties in Track Change revisions are read only and cannot be changed by a macro.

I was familiar with the Document Inspector. However, this does not help to solve another issue I encounter. I often outsource editing tasks to colleagues, but I don't want my client to know the names of the outsource vendors. This means that I need to change the user name on the track changes. Until now I did this by renaming the DOCX file to ZIP and edit the w:author element in worddocument.xml. But a macro would of course be much more convenient. How should I change the above macro to change the user name on track changes?

Thank you very much for any ideas in advance.

Thanks for making the effort, but this did not come close to what I wanted.

I am using Word 2010. Apparently, the identification of the author is hard coded into the comments. Using the document inspector is something with which I am familiar, as I use it to remove identifying personal information from the document's properties.

Adding the check to the Comments box and performing the inspection revealed the identifying information in the comments. Clicking on Remove All served to remove the entire comments, not just the identifying information within them. At no time did 'author' appear. When I closed that dialog, the document was clean of all comments. Fortunately, I saved a student's essay using Test in the filename.
Sorry that this did not work out. I will still look.
I am using Win 7 Home Premium should that matter