people out there who are stuck using Word?
use a free text editor, such as TextEdit on the Mac, to write all my text--book
chapters, white papers for high-tech companies, web pages, and email mes-
sages I want to compose at my leisure before sending.
RTF or Word doc format. The recipient can't tell that I used OOo Writer.
model--send out a Word draft with Track Changes turned on, so that people
can make changes and see other folks' changes. People can also add com-
ments that others can see. I can use OOo Writer to import a Word doc with
tracked changes, add my own changes, and save them back to another Word
doc, but I don't like doing it.
the wiser (unless they laboriously compared the text from the one version
to the next). Even if you trust everyone, if you forget to turn Track Changes on
for reviewers, they might make changes that aren't tracked without realizing
how much of a problem they may be causing. Heck, in Word, you can't even
track some of the changes made to tables (fortunately, it warns you). There is
no secure way to collaborate using the Word doc model.
from OOo Writer and invite comments. When I receive commented PDFs
back from reviewers, I make the changes myself, in OOo Writer, based on
the comments. This is a far more secure method of collaboration. It doesn't
require retyping--you can copy text from a PDF comment and paste it right
into a document without any trouble. (The next section provides more details
about using PDF.)
my book chapters this way. I send the first draft in the OOo Writer format
to my editors, who make changes and add comments (OOo Writer offers
tracked changes and commenting just like Word) and send them back to me.
You can even use OOo Writer to import Word docs with tracked changes and
comments and save a document back in the Word doc format with the same
tracked changes and comments (and your own ones added in).
everything from the way lines break to the pagination and placement of foot-
notes. You might be referring to page 10 while someone else opening the