Convert "tracked changes" to formatted text

[DomCa]

Hi all,

I have pretty much the same question as @blahedo here:

https://ask.libreoffice.org/t/how-can-i-distill-track-changes-text-into-formatted-text/27548

Is there any way of converting “tracked changes” into formatted text? I simply need it to be formatted because the receiving side insists. It is not an option to provide “tracked changes”.

The receiving party is a client, a huge company. They do not accept a document with tracked changes. This is internal policy because they want to further process the document, and they can process formatting but not tracked changes.

This is simply a fact that I cannot change…

The deleted sections from tracked changes should be formatted as [[deleted text]] (with double square brackets at the beginning and the end). The added text should be formatted underlined.

I would “search and replace” the underlined text with a regular expression, if I could convert deleted into underlined text.

I would also search for deleted text and replace it, if this would be possible. But I could not find a way to do this…

I would also use a script, but I am not a programmer and never wrote any script for LibreOffice. If anybody could give me some hints, I would try this…

Thanks
DomCa

[ajlittoz]

Please, edit your question (click on …, then on the “pencil” tool) to improve it. Describe exactly what you want to get. Track Changes is transient dynamic information; it is not “real” text, i.e. it is not controlled by explicit styles. Tell us what the receiving party wants to do with it. As far as I know, keeping Track Changes info “as is” is enough to work with it. The receiving party can “accept” it to turn the temporary state into definitive contents cancelling edit history. The receiving party can also add modifications you’ll see as such.

You can also replace automatic managed changes into manual changes with Comments but this si not at all user-friendly.

Give us more details about your workflow for best advice.

And, as usual, mention OS name, LO version and save format.

[DomCa]

Hi ajlittoz,

thanks for your remarks. I updated my question.

As you may see, I have no choice regarding the formatting instead of tracked changes…

Any solution would help.

Thanks
DomCa

[ajlittoz]

I see no other solution than working manually. Disable Track Changes. Instead of overtyping new text, add the double brackets and apply a dedicated Deleted character style to replaced text (create this style and give it any typographical attribute you like). Similarly, new text will receive a specific Added character style.

This may conflict with standard application of character styles. However, there is a way to apply several character styles over a sequence of characters. Therefore, you can combine the “standard” formatting with character styles (Emphasis, Strong Emphasis and others) with your Deleted and Added markups for document revision.

Out of curiosity, how do you manage changes in formatting when text is not modified? This is normally handled by a change in the styles, but styles are meta-data without visible insertion in the text. Is your client capable to “see” added, changed or removed styles (mainly paragraph and character)? Can they manage changes in style configuration?

Track Changes is mainly useful to manage text contents, not its formatting.

You have not mentioned OS name, LO version and save format. It is also important to know the same on the receiving party side.

[LeroyG]

@DomCa

tracked changes

If do you export as PDF, you get color, underline and strikethrough. But copy and paste from Adobe Reader / Firefox / LODraw to Writer only brings the color.