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Track changes in google sheets8/13/2023 ![]() Just stay out of the document while I’m editing, all right? Trust me, we’ll both be happier that way.Google Docs is actually much more sophisticated in the way it tracks changes and manages revision histories than Microsoft Word. ![]() That means I need to count on the writer to either not look while I’m editing, or change the notification settings so they won’t get updates every time I create a comment.Īs the editor (or Google might put it, the person doing the “Suggesting”), I can’t turn these notifications off. The problem with all of these changes, though, is that the creator of the document has to make them. Go to, click on the gear in the upper right, and then select and un-check the email setting. You can even change this for all documents in your Google Drive with a global change in settings. Now you won’t get annoying messages while I’m editing. Switch from “All” to “None” for notifications. Go to the comment icon in the upper right and when the settings pop up, click on the bell icon, which then shows a notifications menu. If you can’t trust yourself, there is a setting in the document that will turn off the notifications. This takes a little will power, but you can do it. The easiest fix is just for the writer to stay out of the document while the editor is working on it. I can see your user icon pop up in the document when you’re watching me. (After all, I didn’t watch and interfere while you were writing, did I?) In the same way, I don’t want you to watch and kibitz while I’m editing. You don’t judge a pie by watching the baker at work and sampling the crust before it’s cooked. ![]() I might do some edits one afternoon and finish the rest the following morning after I’ve slept on it. I need time to assess my perspective on the whole document. Worse yet, they may be tempted to change and fix things while I’m working on the document. They see the email, they come back to the document, and they watch as I make edits, change my mind, and form overall impressions. The problem is that by default, Google Docs sends emails to the original author about my edits and comments as I’m making them. Then I’ll tell the writer to read the edit memo and look at the edits I created. Once I’m done, I’ll write an edit memo with general impressions. (This is one good thing about editing on a screen rather than on paper - you can change your edits after you make them.) Basically, my impressions of the whole document inform all the comments in the document, so I’m likely to be changing things around rather than just leaving the edits from my first impressions. I may make a comment, then after reading more, think better of it and delete or modify that comment. I may notice something halfway through and then check if the same problem occurred earlier. When editing, I work through the document from top to bottom. You can change to Suggesting mode in the top right corner of your screen, assuming that you’re editing on a computer. ![]() (Ironically, the “Editing” mode is inappropriate for editors, since it will just change the text without clarifying where you made the changes.) The Suggesting mode is equivalent to Microsoft Word’s “Track Changes,” since it shows added text in a different color and deleted text with strike-throughs. Since I want the writer to see where I’ve made edits, I use Google Docs’ “Suggesting” mode. In Google, though, editing is “live.” And that can be a problem. I get your document, use track changes to edit it, and then send it back. In Microsoft Word, if you use the default settings, this is easy. I also write a sort of cover letter - an edit memo - describing the general issues with the document and how best to deal with them. What you can expect from me is not just word edits, but comments explaining why I made the choices I did, raising questions, or showing troublesome patterns you may have slipped into (for example, did you use the word “leverage” 24 times in a 2000-word document?). I edit documents in Microsoft Word or Google Docs.
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