Word: highlighting text with different options

[ben1234zz]

Hi

We are trying to acheive a simple solution for our managers.

If someone drafts some text but for parts of the document would like to give another reviewer multiple options for different wording, already typed but they can select them from a list.

It would need to be simple to type (we could probably add a macro), very simple for the reviewer (as they don't have much patience!) and not appear on printouts.

Any suggestions on various methods of how to achieve this would be great?

We thought a macro to add a drop down list would be an option however, the document needs to be protected for this to work which could cause problems as some of the reviewers are clients (they don't like to be trained - they like it simple).

Any assistance would be much appreciated. All users are Office 2k3+

Thanks
B

 

[fumei]

It sounds a bit complicated. We would need much more explicit details on EXACTLY what you want to do. For example, I am confused by:

"already typed but they can select them from a list."

and

"It would need to be simple to type "

These seem to contradict each other.

Gerry

 

[ben1234zz]

Hi, thanks for your post, sorry it was not a great description:

Drafter types:
"The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog"

However they think that, "Blue dog" or "Red chicken" may sound better than "brown fox", the reviewer will decide, but they need to be able to type each somewhere for the reviewer (part one of the solution).

Reviewer:
Reads the document, (somehow) "brown fox" is highlighted and the two options are available and a simple mouse click will apply the change that the reviewer requires (part two of the solution).

I hope that makes more sense.

Thanks
B

 

[GSCaupling]

Ben,

From what you have described, I think the easiest thing to do would be for the writer to list all three options and let the reviewer delete the unwanted words. It sounds like the writer would have to write/create the options anyway, so there seems no need to populate some fancy drop down box.

e.g.: "The quick brown fox / blue dog / red chicken jumped over the lazy dog."

or: "The quick [blue]brown fox / blue dog / red chicken[/blue] jumped over the lazy dog." (of course, after deleting the unwanted text, the reviewer would have to return the color to normal).

Good luck!
GS

[small][navy]**********************^*********************
I always know where people are going to sit. I'm chairvoyant.[/navy][/small]

 

[ben1234zz]

Thank you for your comments,

Unfortunately in practice this is not suitable, if the document is urgent reviewer may not review it they want to be able to just print it as it is (plus the document could be 100 pages), hence my thought about using dropdown lists.

Thanks
B

 

[fumei]

You can make Word do a lot, but it has to be told what to do. It does not read minds. I am not being sarcastic, I am responding to:

"Reviewer:
Reads the document, (somehow) "brown fox" is highlighted and "

My bolding.

Well, it is the somehow that is the issue.

WHAT, or rather, WHY would "brown fox" be highlighted? Why not "quick brown"? Why not "jumped over"?

What is the logic behind this? THAT is what you need to determine.

Let's see if we can do that, the logic I mean.

1. At any given location (THIS is a very important point...is this what you want???) the original drafter types some text.

2. At THAT location (determined by the original drafter??) - but not at other locations - the drafter anticipates that a reviewer may wish alternative text. The drafter puts in multiple alternative text at THAT location.

3. The reviewer may, or may not, select one of the alternative text (which they can see). If they do NOT select an alternative, the default text is....the first one of the multiple alternatives? The second? Are the alternatives to be listed alphabetically?

What if the reviewer does not want ANY of the alternatives the drafter put in? So say (somehow) "blue chicken" and "red dog" are there, but the reviewer wants "puce ducks"? Is this possible? Is this something that needs to be available - the reviewer putting something entirely different?

This is logic. These are the details we need to know.

That being said, it still sounds very complicated to try and pull off. How important is this? How often would this kind of switching happen? Is is always the drafter that makes the possible choices?

The reason I ask all this is because it could possibly be done (if I understand what you are asking), but developing it would likely not be trivial, and therefore the big questions is...is it worth it?

Gerry

 

[mintjulep]

I can envision a sequence of operation along these lines:

Drafter types. When he gets to a word or phrase with possible options, select it and fire a macro from a custom button or menu pick.

This would create a bookmark at the selection, high-light it, or change the color and insert a macro field and bring up a UserForm with input for one possible option and a "Done" or "More Options" buttons. The input would need to be stored somewhere - possibly in a Document Variable.

The reviewer would then be able to click on the highlighted text in the doc, and pick one of the options for replacement from another UserForm with a listbox or dropdown.

You'd have to do something to intercept the print commands and dehighlight things to get them to not show on prints. Of, if you will only be printing B&W make your indication as dark blue (will print essentially indistinguishable from black).

As Gerry wrote - non-trivial.

 

[fumei]

Thank you mintjulep, that was very well expressed, with good examples/explanations. That was pretty much how I envisioned it, at least as a starting point for development.

Just for fun, I started a small test document attempting to do this cleanly. It is not simple. Non-trivial indeed.

B, again, how important is this? You say you want something "simple" for your managers. It could end up being simple to use (for your managers), but it does not look simple to develop. You would need to really really really spec it out.

Gerry

 

[GSCaupling]

mintjulep,

Good idea about the dark blue ink. I once created a short Word template (~ 4 pages) where all the text that might possibly need to be changed was in dark blue to catch the user's eye. If no change was needed, it was left alone and looked black when printed.

Ben - you mentioned the doc might be a hundred pages. One thing I am not clear on - are the possible changes of a global nature? In other words, if the reviewer changes brown fox to blue chicken on page 1, do you need this to be a global replacement that occurs throughout the document?

GS

[small][navy]**********************^*********************
I always know where people are going to sit. I'm chairvoyant.[/navy][/small]

 

[fumei]

Exactly. The full logic has to be fully spec'd out before any real development can occur.

Gerry