Unable to permanently disable change tracking in writer

[Some_Guy]

After not updating for a while (I fairly recently updated from libreoffice 5.1), returning to libreoffice writer has largely been a painless experience with the exception of one single feature: Change tracking.

I frankly don’t care for the feature in the slightest, and would like to disable it. The trouble is, regardless of what I do, I cannot seem to disable change tracking from within writer in any meaningful way. Toggling the feature off via disabling Edit → Track Changes → View; Edit → Track Changes → Record and View → Track Changes will turn it off for the current session, but the feature seems to always turn itself back on the next time I open writer.

Is there any way to permanently disable the “track changes” feature in libreoffice writer? I cannot find any method that works, regardless of how I try to disable the feature or exit libreoffice. This is frankly irritating.

[librebel]

in my Writer version 5.1.6.2 i do not have these menus that you describe. When i click on the menu "Edit : Track Changes >" i get the following submenu:

Record Changes
Protect Changes...
Show Changes
Manage Changes...
*[Comment on Change...]
[Next Change]
[Previous Change]*
Compare Document...
Merge Document...

[JohnHa]

… will turn it off for the current
session, but the feature seems to
always turn itself back on the next
time I open writer.

The setting is stored in the individual .odt files. Create a few test documents where you set it to OFF. You should find it is OFF when you open these files. You therefore need to set it to OFF in all the files where it is set to ON.

If this helps then please tick the answer and/or show you like it with an uptick.

[Some_Guy]

Perhaps I was unclear: Let’s say I open a file I’ve been working on that has change tracking enabled. I turn off change tracking, save the file, and then close it.

Upon opening the file again, change tracking has been re-enabled for some reason. I find this irritating and cannot seem to find a way to stop it from re-enabling itself.

[Regina]

The default setting is to “show” change tracking. But that means only, that you will see change records, in case there exists such records already in the document. It does not mean, that new changes are recorded. It is useful default; there is no need to set it to “off”.

In case you get a document, which has already change records, you need to handle all of them. Otherwise they will not be erased in the document.

If you do not want comparison tracking, then you should go to Tools > Options > Writer > Comparison and disable generating random numbers.