Q: Why is Track Changes mark-up still displaying, even though the Author has turned off the Track Changes feature in Microsoft Word?

A: Track Changes received some updates in Word 2003, most notably in regard to printing Tracked Changes. In Word 2003, the option to view/hide Tracked Changes in a printed document is not saved with the document itself; instead it is a global setting that must be manually changed by an interactive Word user. Editorial Manager PDF Builder machines are set to always print/display Tracked Changes because of this new feature. Otherwise, no Tracked Changes would print or display in any Editorial Manager created PDF.

What some users experience is this - they receive a document from the journal office that must be revised; it contains a number of comments and notes entered with Track Changes. The author Hides the Tracked Changes on his/her local copy of Word, edits the paper, and rebuilds. Because the Tracked Changes were only hidden on the user's PC and not reconciled using Word, they show up in the PDF built byEditorial Manager. Hidden or not, the Tracked Changes (i.e. the special markup codes) remain inside the Word document until they are reconciled.

Reconciling Tracked Changes involves using the Reviewing toolbar to accept/reject each change requested by the Editor. When reconciled, the Tracked Changes are applied to the document and the special markup is removed. When the markup is removed, its representation will not be printed.