Word is the standard for the editors I work with. If I start to use Writer, I need to make sure that the software can handle the back and forth between author and editor using MS Word track changes.
LO can handle them. But beware: there are incompatibilities between LO and MSO (handling text boxes, headers and footers management, and more; in general you can expect problems with complex documents), and it’s generally advised that if you share files with other people for business usage, you should all use the same software.
Thanks! I’ll follow your advice.
Writer has a Track Changes feature.
As far as I know, change information is quite well understood by Writer, whether your file is in .doc(x) format or in .odt (native). Though it is quite a long time since I last participated in mixed-environment collaborative work.
IMHO, you’ll meet many more compatibility problems than track changes report. Beware your document structure. Work constantly with styles, though Word has no notion of character and frame styles (for the other most common categories). Editing in Word a document later handed over to Writer will create a real mess in formatting management due to the lack of higher level notions in Word.
If possible, work exclusively with .odt. Word claims it can read such files, but anyway it will mess up them because of its lack of styles other than paragraph.
You’ve been warned. Watch your steps. Simple document (structure-wise) will incur no problem. Complex documents (containing, tables, frames, sophisticated numbering, …) are at risk.
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Thanks! The document in question would be the manuscript for a novel – so, 350 pages, more or less, with a simple header w/page numbers. No tables or fancy features. Still, it sounds like I should stick with Word.
A novel with a single page layout all along is a very simple case. I assume you’ll have no fancy word highlighting apart from an italic or bold word here and there. It should pass the compatibility test like a charm.
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