Enabling Track Changes

If you want Flare to track your own edits as you make them, you must first enable the feature. When this feature is set, Track Changes is enabled globally throughout your Flare project. When reviewers open topics in Central or Contributor to review them, the track changes feature is automatically enabled. Therefore, you can see exactly what the reviewer modified in the returned document. You can then pick and choose which edits to accept or reject.

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How to Enable the Track Changes Feature

  1. Open the content file.

  2. Do one of the following, depending on the part of the user interface you are using:

    • Ribbon Select Review > Track Changes.

    • Keyboard Shortcut Press CTRL+SHIFT+E.

Note By default, tracked changes are visible only in the editor in MadCap Flare, as well as in Central or Contributor (depending on the review method you are using). Tracked changes that have not yet been accepted are not visible when previewing the topic in Flare or when viewing any output generated from it. You can preserve tracked changes in PDF and Word output so unaccepted changes will appear in these outputs. See Preserving Tracked Changes in PDF or Word Output.

Note The track changes setting is global in a project. For example, let's say you have two topics open. With focus on topic A, you enable the track changes feature. If you bring focus to topic B, the track changes option is now also enabled for that topic. If you then open other topics after that point, the track changes feature will be enabled in those topics as well.

What’s Next?

After enabling the track changes feature, you might want to do any of the following.

  • Hide and Show Tracked Changes You can hide or show tracked changes and annotations in the active document. See Hiding and Showing Changes and Annotations.
  • Change User Name and Initials When you first install and launch Flare, your login user name is captured and stored in the Review tab of the Options dialog (File > Options). The first two letters of the user name are also stored as your initials. This information is employed whenever you use the track changes and annotations features. For example, if you add some text in a topic with track changes enabled, your initials are displayed at the beginning of the tracked change so that other users know where the edit came from. You can always change your Flare user name or initials to something else. See Changing Your User Name and Initials.
  • Change Display You can change the way tracked changes are displayed in the interface (e.g., in balloons, inline). You can also enable or disable change bars. See Changing the Display of Tracked Changes.
  • Change User Color The tracked changes and annotations for each user can be shown in a separate color. You also have the option of choosing a specific color for all users. See Changing the User Color for Reviews.
  • Find Changes You can quickly navigate to the previous or next tracked change or annotation in the file. See Finding Changes.
  • Accept or Reject Tracked Changes You can right-click on tracked changes and use a context menu to accept or reject them individually. You can also use options in the interface to accept or reject each tracked change or all tracked changes in a file. The reject option also removes annotations. See Accepting or Rejecting Tracked Changes.