Track changes problem

[Cody]

My libre office text documents have a new obsession with ‘track changes’. Recently installed Version 24.8.0.3.

I haven’t set it up, don’t want it, have tried disabling it, but every time I open the document I get the banner saying ‘Document contains tracked changes’.

Then when I try to agree/disagree with the tracked changes list, its altering the document I don’t want altered, didn’t ask to be tracked, recorded or anything else.

Can anyone suggest how I get the ‘Track Changes’ feature to stop interfering with my document and get it removed from the document once and forever? Thanks

[Hrbrgr]

Can that help?

Tracking changes to a document

[Cody]

Sorry, but I don’t see how? I read it before posting - it shows me how to use track changes, not resolve the behaviour I am experiencing.

I want to close track changes/remove from the document, as I didn’t set it up and don’t need it interfering with my document or giving me pointless error messages of ‘recording’ that I didn’t set it up to record etc.

[Hrbrgr]

@Cody

Sorry, but I don’t see how?

What?

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Well, it seems to me that you are going round in circles. Why is it like that?

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Let’s make a few theoretical assumptions.

The document is yours.
Nobody has worked on the document except you.
Change tracking was switched on, by mistake or by a version change.
You then continued working on the document with change tracking switched on.
I therefore assume that these are changes made by further editing of the document, i.e. by you.

End of assumptions.

What can you do?
Since it is most likely your changes that have been recorded, the simplest case would be to accept the complete changes (All changes)!

If you do not like the visible changes (I assume you have switched on the display for this), you can reject them.

You can also check beforehand which changes were made by which author.
To do this, select Edit > Changes > Manage... in the menu.
You can now accept or reject individual or all changes.

This is now your decision.

[EarnestAl]

Having followed @Hrbrgr steps above and accepted or rejected the changes then toggle off Track Changes in Edit > Track Changes > Record (make sure Record is not highlighted)

[mikekaganski]

You didn’t mention, if you have upgraded to 24.8, or you installed LibreOffice for the first time; and if you upgraded, then from which version.

Why could that be important? Because (1) in version 7.2, we have removed the “toggle Track Changes” keyboard combination (tdf#130847), because the previous Ctrl+Shift+C was close to Ctrl+C, causing accidental misclicks toggling the function inadvertently; and (2) in the same version 7.2, we have introduced the infobar to inform users about the active Track Changes function (tdf#125909), because having it enabled without a notice is actually a privacy problem, when you may not realize that the document you are editing and then sending someone may contain, beyond the content you see on screen, the history of all the edits, so the text you deleted long ago.

And if you, say, used LibreOffice 6.2, accidentally enabled the function on a file, disabled the display of the function (not a wise decision anyway!), and thought you were done - then used that document to create hundreds of copies to start new documents … then upgraded to 24.8, then you simply became aware of the trap you had all this time (that got worse with each copy of that track-changes-enabled document). It’s not 24.8; it’s not something as easy as “turn it off once and forever”, it’s a work you have to do in all affected files.

But it of course could be something else - if my assumption about upgrade from pre-7.2 version is wrong.