This guide will explain how Office & Dragons handles documents with pre-existing tracked changes, and how to create cumulative tracked changes that include both those made in O&D and prior to uploading the document.
How O&D Handles Tracked Changes
When you upload a document with tracked changes to O&D, it treats the document as if all changes have been accepted. This means that you cannot "layer on" additional tracked changes while preserving the old ones. If you save your documents and redlines in O&D, only the changes made by O&D will appear in the tracked changes/redline, and previous tracked changes will appear as though they have been accepted.
Creating Cumulative Tracked Changes
To get an output with cumulative tracked changes, you need to compare the final output from O&D with the original version of the document before any tracked changes were made.
For a single document, the quickest way may be to do so offline using Word's built-in Compare feature or another redlining software.
For multiple documents, the quickest way to do so is using the Versions tab in O&D. Here are step-by-step guides on how to do this in connection with a Find & Replace or a Merge workflow.
Find & Replace
Create a New Matter: Start a new O&D matter with a Find & Replace workflow. Upload the original versions of all your documents to the matter (the versions before any tracked changes were made).
Add a Versions Tab: Add a Versions tab to your matter. You can learn more about how to do this here.
Batch Upload: Click the Batch Upload button and upload the latest versions of your documents, which include the tracked changes you've already made, and match them to their original versions.
Extract New Placeholder: Go back to the Find & Replace workflow and click the Extract button to extract any new placeholder. Complete the setup of your turnsheet and then save the updated documents.
Create Redlines: Return to the Versions tab and click the Redlines button. Set each of the redlines to compare version 1 and version 3, then click Save. Among the save options, choose to save the redlines in Word, then click Finish.
This will create cumulative redlines in Word, where each change will be a tracked change you can accept or reject. The files will be located in your file manager.
Merge
Create a New Matter: Start a new O&D matter with a Merge workflow. Upload the latest versions of your documents, including the tracked changes you've already made.
Save the Updated Documents: Complete the setup of your turnsheet and then save the updated documents. Go to your file manager and download the updated documents you've just made.
Prepare Original Documents: Take your original document versions (before you made any tracked changes) and make copies of them on your computer. Ensure there's one original document for each output document you just created in the Merge workflow. For instance, if you ran a Merge workflow with 10 rows on 3 documents, you'll need to make 10 copies of your set of 3 original documents.
Create a New Matter: Start a new O&D matter and upload all the original documents you just created. You can choose any workflow to start, you won't need it.
Add a Versions Tab: Add a Versions tab to this new matter. You can learn more about how to do this here.
Batch Upload: Click the Batch Upload button and upload all of the documents you created in your previous Merge workflow, and match them to their originals.
Create Redlines: Click the Redlines button, set each of the redlines to compare version 1 and version 3, then click Save. Among the save options, choose to save the redlines in Word, then click Finish.
This will create cumulative redlines in Word, where each change will be a tracked change you can accept or reject. The files will be located in your file manager.