To edit documents, I export Word files to plain text files, which I then edit with a developer’s editor (it has greater functionality for making changes in the text), before importing them back into Word.
Unfortunately, this means the changes Track Changes reports are paragraphs-long.
In the ideal case, when the changes I make are only sentence level ones, 2 or 3 words long, I agree being able to see the 2 versions in the Word file itself with Track Changes would be useful.
As a replacement, I can offer a Diff.html file to check changes.
The pink lines are those which are different in the two versions. The orange sections of those lines in the 2 versions extend from the first character which is different to the last character which is different. Unfortunately, this means some of the characters in the middle of those orange sections could be the same in both versions.
It’s not a Word plugin, so you have to copy from the file and paste into Word, which is not as convenient as Track Changes for authors.
In a common, more complex case, I may have to change the order of sentences in paragraphs, add my own sentences, or change many consecutive sentences because of problems with the exposition. In that case, there may be many orange lines in the Diff file with no obvious correspondences between the versions.
And, the large block of changed text shown by Track Changes will be too much for authors to take in at once as they go through the paper checking the changes I have made.
They need to sit down with the two versions in the original and edited files and think about what to do with the changes.
Me atBack to FAQ