Adobe FrameMaker: Track Text Edits (Part III in the Editing Series)

Posted on: November 17th, 2011Author: barb.binderCategory: Adobe FrameMaker

By Barb Binder, Adobe Certified Instructor on FrameMaker
Updated: May 26, 2020

The next topic in our FrameMaker Editing series is on Track Text Edits. (Previous articles in the series are on Change Bars and Compare Documents.) This is a familiar tool for many Word users, and is a terrific way to allow an author to accept/reject the changes suggested by her editor.

Let’s say that Samantha creates a FrameMaker document and e-mails it to Jennie for editing. Jennie can open up the document in FrameMaker, enable Track Text Edits and then proceed to edit the document (adding, deleting and replacing existing text).

When Jennie returns the FrameMaker file to Samantha, Samantha can see what changes Jennie has made, and can choose to accept or reject her changes, both on an individual basis or throughout the entire document.

Here’s how it works:

1. Let’s say you are the editor and need to mark up a FrameMaker document. Start by opening the file in FrameMaker file.
2. View > Toolbars > Track Text Edits to open the toolbar.
   
3. Click the first button to enable track changes (or use Edit > Track Text Edits > Enable).
4. Try adding a word, deleting a word, and replacing a word with Track Text Edits enabled. The green/underline colors you will see are used to show additions, and the red/strikethrough shows words that are marked for deletion.
5. Once you have finished entering in the edits you can return the file to the author. She will use the following buttons on the Track Text toolbar to review your work.
   
6. The first four are used to accept or reject single edits, the second pair is used to navigate from one edit to another, and the last pair is used to accept or reject all of the changes.
7. She will have three additional buttons available to control the display of a document that still contains Track Text Edit information (which means that she has not accepted or rejected all of the edits).
    
   • The first one gives the FrameMaker user a final preview: all red/green indicators are hidden, and the document shows all of the suggested edits.
   • The second previews the original document: all red/green indicators are hidden, and the original document is shown without any of the suggested edits.
   • The third button turns off the preview mode: all the red/green indicators are restored and all the suggested edits are visible.

FrameMaker also give you the ability to set the scope for tracking edits and to filter edits by name (outlined in orange). These commands are also available in Edit > Track Text Edits.

• Scope: You can set the scope for tracking edits for the current book, DITAMAP, or document. (When you open a book or DITAMAP, the scope is set to Book or MAP by default.)
• Filter: To filter the edits by author or reviewer name, select Special > Track Text Edits > Show Reviewer Name> [user name]. This allows you to navigate through the all the edits made by the specified reviewer, and to globally accept or reject all of their edits.

This is a terrific online workflow when everyone has access to (and knows how to use) FrameMaker. What do you do when the author uses FrameMaker, but the editor doesn’t? No worries. There’s a solution for this workflow as well. All the editor needs is a copy of Adobe Reader. For details on how to implement this workflow, see Adobe FrameMaker: Import PDF Comments (Part IV in the Editing Series).

Related posts

Adobe FrameMaker: Change Bars (Part I in the Editing Series)

Adobe FrameMaker: Compare Documents (Part II in the Editing Series)

Adobe FrameMaker: Importing PDF Comments (Part IV in the Editing Series)