how to PERMANENTLY disable libre office writer track changes option

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#1

I have found a few posts about this, but I haven’t seen an answer to how to permanently disable this function. One comment is that the changes are harmless. They are not - as soon as you export the file (to .xhtml, for example), the changes all show up.

The only way I have found to get around this is to open the file, show the changes, toggle the option to turn off tracking and then manually go through the file and delete all the items that are struck-through. I have no use/no desire to keep track of the changes and just want to permanently turn off the function (including the option to disable/remove changes in a file that I receive from someone else). Or, if there is some option to completely wipe the document clean before exporting it, that would be OK, too.

#2

I don’t see any problem with just disabling Edit -> Track Changes -> [ ] Record. If that is disabled no changes you make are tracked. This doesn’t affect changes made by other people, which you can view by View -> Track Changes (which is a pure viewing option). Of course, if you get a document already containing tracked changes, at some point someone needs to accept/discard changes (using: Edit -> Track Changes -> Manage) before a document becomes track-free.

1 Like
#3

oops…missed the last part of your comment… let me try the manage option…

#4

YES! The manage option ‘cleaned it up’ so I don’t see the ‘extra’ lines in my xhtml! Thanks!

#10

2c from a LO fanboy:

The keyboard shortcut to turn on tracking is Ctrl-Shift-C. If you work with Linux terminal, that key combination also copies text from terminal. I use it alot, and apparently accidentally turned this on (while working in Windows, no less), subsequently collecting hundreds of changes that LO began tracking from that point forward.

Not to mention a very annoying habit: The track changes toolbar gets turned on when there are changes to accept/reject.

I love LO. I use it daily. I know I can change any keyboard shortcut I want. Please don’t tell me to do that.

Writing is for MOST users MOST OF THE TIME a solitary activity. In my very large company, only the Legal Dept uses track changes (in MS Word). The rest of the world uses PDFs and other workflow tools to indicate revisions.

And so: It would would be a nice feature to have track changes more difficult to turn on and keep it out of the way.

LO keeps getting better and better and I love updating and exploring it like it’s an old friend returning from vacation with fascinating stories. But, I spent a lot of time figuring this one out (finally winding up here), and although @Kittyrinn was obviously frustrated, s/he has a point. Angry people can also have good ideas.

#11

You are wrong here with your post - you should file an enhancement request at Bugzilla to address the issue of a shortcut which is prone to inadvertently activating Track Changes feature.

#12

@anon73440385 Why is it wrong to comment here in this fashion? Sure, I could submit it as a bug/enhancement, but it’s not a bug, LO is working as intended, and quite frankly, there are many more things that I’m sure the dev team would like to focus on.

In the meantime, those like me and @Kittyrinn who have wrestled with track changes have some more context.

It’s all good. Peace out.

#19

I’m running LO 24.8.3.2 in Windows 11 Pro and, ever since vers. 24, the track changes in the tens of thousands, around 100k in any single, of several files, crashing LO just trying to load a file, several times/day!!! It cannot be turned off at all (much less permanently) from View, from Edit or from Options (All suggested options either don’t t exist or are grayed-out non-operable). I’ve used LibreOffice for years when it was OpenOffice. It’s now unusable. Every time there’s an update that function gets turned back on and, each time, trying to get it turned off becomes an even worse nightmare. Now, I simply cannot find any way to turn it off. My near-new, high-end, lots of memory, computer is overwhelmed simply trying to load any one of several of my most used files. LO, not the computer, crashes just on the attempt to load any one of several files. Some files I simply can no longer load! Not all LO users share files. We have NO use for this feature! So now I need to have some way to give myself permission to approve my own changes in order to edit my files? Seriously? But it prevents us from using LO. NOTHING suggested turns it off any longer. If this issue isn’t addressed I’ll have no alternative than switching to another suite that can open and perform basic editing of my files–and I really dread what a trial that would be, I NEED a way to clean out all of the changes AND turn it off so that updates, other files or whatever cannot bring it back.

#20

If track changes is turned on for every new document then maybe you have set a default template that has Track Changes set to record. In that case Edit the template and turn off Track Changes. Note that having Track Changes turned on in the template doesn’t prevent you turning it off in the new document
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To edit the template, click File - Template - Manage templates, right click the file with the green tick and select Edit. With the template open, click Edit > Track Changes > Record to toggle Track Changes off (icon for Record is not highlighted).
If there isn’t a file with a green tick then you have not set a default template and Writer uses the built in template.

If there is no default template and the menu items are not accessible then test in LibreOffice safe mode. Click Help > Restart in safe mode > Continue in Safe mode.

  • Create a new document, is Track Changes turned on?
  • Open an existing document.
    • Can you toggle off Track Changes by clicking Edit > Track Changes > Record?
    • If so, can you click Edit > Track Changes > Accept All?

If the tests above are OK then exit Safe Mode by closing LibreOffice.

You can reset your user profile but carefully read this first, LibreOffice user profile - The Document Foundation Wiki . I would use the manual version but regardless, backup your profile first so you can copy back templates, wordbook, macros, AutoText, etc.

#21

As I indicated, Track Changes doesn’t answer. Changes nothing. Does nothing. This is Windows 11 Pro, if LibreOffice assumes that means multi-user. I am not a multi-user. Moreover, my user profile cannot be responsible for all of the problems so many others are experiencing with this “feature”, useless to, crash-worthy and unwanted by so many.

Over the past several years, LibreOffice has several times lost my profile–thousands of hours of work each time. After I’ve finally injected the right files in most places (still don’t have my custom colors, and LO still erases my pinned files every “upgrade”) , I’m NOT going down the rabbit hole of messing with my user profile.

IMO, LO should add a single-user option so that checking one box disallows all edit-tracking.

While I’m at it, how about LO get a better lock on window-size & placement through closings, shuttings-down and “upgrades”?

#22

Track changes has nothing to do with being on a multi-user OS or not.

It is your computer, I guess you are the admin of your PC, so it is your choice. But in my view you don’t seek help. You wish to vent your anger somewhere. You can do this, but it is not helpful.
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1000 hours would be 25 weeks at a 40 hours per week workload. So this seems quite inefficient work. I would recommend to backup your profile from time to time (some users actually have real backup schemes, but I guess you don’t have time left for this…), then restoring options is quick and easy…
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Good luck…

#23

LibreOffice user profile does not affect your saved documents. I think you are getting confused with Microsoft user profile which can have serious repercussions if damaged.
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Because you jumped to the wrong conclusion I am guessing that you didn’t go through any of the steps I suggested, nor looked at the link I gave to LibreOffice User Profile. Without clear relevant feedback I cannot help any more. Good luck, Al

#24

I’ve been at it since an Apple 2 and call-up modem. Stop with your simplism,

#25

User profile is not a saved document(s). You ASSUMED saved docs. Don’t assume.

#26

If it is your AutoCorrect that you are worried about then you should immediately back up your user profile if you haven’t done so already.

  1. Close LibreOffice completely
  2. Copy the user folder (see the link I have earlier for location) to a suitable backup location and rename it to user 2024-12. This is because you will continue to back it up from time to time and you will want to have more than one backup as you will know from experience and from Preventing data disaster - The Document Foundation Wiki

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Now, you need to rename the user folder in its current location.

  1. With LibreOffice still completely closed, rename the current user folder to user2024-12-07
  2. Start LibreOffice. It will create a new user folder.
  3. Close LibreOffice
  4. Navigate to the new user folder and copy folders from user2024-12-07 to overwrite the contents of the newly created folders in user. Don’t copy registry for the moment, see LibreOffice user profile - The Document Foundation Wiki for more details.
  5. Open LibreOffice. Is it working ok? Check everything.
  6. If you’re feeling brave, you could close LibreOffice, navigate to the user folder and rename registry to registryOld. Then copy the registry folder from user2024-12-07.
    • Open LibreOffice. Is it still working correctly? If not, then
    • close LibreOffice, delete registry folder and rename registryOld to just registry

If any of the above causes problems you have the choice of deleting the new user folder and renaming user2024-12-07 back to user

Henry Ford broke down complicated operations into simple steps so here could create complicated mechanisms. I applaud simplism

#5

First Edit → Track Changes → Accept All (or Reject All, or Manage to walk through the changes and individually accept/reject), then switch off Edit → Track Changes → Record.

#6

My scenario (below) was resolved by using the option to manage the changes (which I missed before posting the comment below).

Once an item is deleted, it seems to be saved and the Export function then ‘sees’ it and includes it in the new file format. I was able to easily re-create:
I created a new file, took option to turn on track changes.
Added 3 lines:
This is a new text file.

Adding another line.

Now adding another line.

Saved the file. Exitted file.
Re-opened the file for editing. Deleted the ‘Adding another line’ line. Saved the file.
Turned off option for tracking changes, turned on to ‘show’ the changes - I could see the ‘Adding another line’ struckthrough.
Turned off option to show changes. Turned off option to track changes.
Saved file. Took option to ‘Export’, exported as xhtml.
Viewed the xhtml in my browser. I see:

This is a new text file.

Adding another line.

Now adding another line.

When I view the .odt in writer with the track changes -show option on, I see:

This is a new text file.

Adding another line.----> this line is shown as struck-through (ie, deleted). Thus, I wouldn’t expect (don’t want) it to show up when I view the xhtml in my browser.

Now adding another line.

I am running: Version: 6.2.2.2 (x64)
Build ID: 2b840030fec2aae0fd2658d8d4f9548af4e3518d
CPU threads: 12; OS: Windows 10.0; UI render: GL; VCL: win;
Locale: en-US (en_US); UI-Language: en-US
Calc: threaded

#7

Assuming you are using Writer 6.0… According to the LibreOffice Writer 6.0 manual, you cannot. Or the manual does not document a method to do so.

Tracking Changes is discussed on page 71 in the manual.

#8

I find it just as annoying. Whoever it was who decided this had to be permanently turned on should be fired. The only time it’s even of any use is when two or more people are editing the same file. It doesn’t need to be on when I’m entering first draft material. I make so many changes my document would soon become unreadable. Please, if there is anyone who knows how to switch the default to off I’d like to hear it. All the fixes I see do nothing more than shut it off until I start up the program again.

#9
  • This rant doesn’t answer a question
  • If it starts ever and ever again on new documents, you seem to have
    • either a default template, which has the setting turned on (solution: Change your default template - and btw: If that’s the case, you are the one who should be fired according to your own rant, because a customized default template is defined by the user)
    • or you suffer from a corrupt user profile (solution: reset your LibreOffice user profile to factory settings)
  • you don’t understand that nobody can be fired, because people developing LibreOffice are not hired by LibreOffice

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