I don’t happen to own or work in InCopy. However, I have always thought that I’d love to hijack features from it for InDesign, specifically the “Track Changes” functionality. The ability to visually be able to see what has been changed in my InDesign document has always been high on my wish list.
Well, my wish has been granted with the CtrlChanges plug-in for InDesign. With CtrlChanges, you always know what’s new in your document. In a workflow where more than one of you is working with a single document, it is vital that you know what is changed, and if you have invested in CtrlChanges, you won’t have to spend your valuable (and often too little) time trying to find out exactly what those changes are. The nifty plug-in tracks all text changes and displays both added or deleted text in your layout.
The plug-in offers an “easy to use” (and this was key to my considering it) solution that comes in 3 versions—Light ($73.00 or £44.00), Standard ($279.00 or £170.00) and Pro ($591.00 or £359.00). Features include the ability to keep track of any text changes, display added or removed text in the Layout view, and keep track of exactly who made what changes and even when those changes took place.
After you install CtrlChanges, a new menu item appears on your desktop called “Ctrl”. Under this pull down menu are various options for utilizing it exactly the way you want to. Choosing the Check for updates option lets you check to see if any updates are available for CtrlChanges. If you select the Track Changes in Document option under the menu, it will turn on tracking of changes. This must be enabled if want your changes to be documented in your current file. For any files that you do not need to use CtrlChanges with, you simply deselect this option. You can start and stop tracking changes at any time—also a plus if your project changes users or becomes your sole responsibility. A Show Tracked Changes option can be easily toggled on and off to hide and reveal changes made to your document.
Now here’s the one option I keep active— Include Tracked Changes in PDF can be selected whenever you are creating a PDF. All CtrlChanges markers will be included and deleted text will be appended as “sticky notes”, including information about a specific user and the time any text was removed. (This feature is not available in CtrlChanges Light, but is included in the Standard and Pro versions.)
If you want to be able to view a document’s tracked changes when printing, you can easily enable the Include Tracked Changes in Print option. On actual paper, changes appear exactly as they do on your screen. Again, keep in mind, this option is not available in CtrlChanges Light—only the Standard and Pro versions.
Once you are satisfied with any changes that have been made, you can choose to “accept” them by simply choosing the Accept All Changes in Document option from your menu. This will automatically remove them from the document and you will no longer be able to review them or revert to them, so make sure you are certain your project is complete.
If you elect to go with the Pro version, which I did, you will find that the CtrlChanges Pro palette behaves like any other palette in InDesign or InCopy. It unobtrusively floats over any of your screen content and can be docked with other palettes, or put wherever makes the most sense for your particular needs. The palette allows you to traverse changes made, accept and deny changes, and even sort them based on various criteria such as the user, date, page number and even reading order. Intelligently, the developer has provided the ability to apply keyboard shortcuts as well. I love when they think like we do!
To start tracking any changes, you begin by assigning yourself a user name and a particular colour. If no profile is assigned, the plug-in default colour is red. Keep in mind that the Light and Standard versions of CtrlChanges do not support multiple colours, so if this is a biggie for you, you definitely want to purchase the Pro version. To set up your user profile, choose “User” from the list of options under the menu. Then, just enter a User Name and select your colour from the colour list provided. Your profile will be used in the CtrlChanges Pro palette as well as for tracked changes markings throughout your document.
A triangle appears where text has been deleted and an underline denotes that text has been added. If you have the Show User Colour option active, these markers will appear in different colours where multiple users have made changes in the document. To begin the tracking changes process in a particular document, you just enable the Track Changes option located under the “Ctrl” menu located at the top of the screen and you are off and running. Simply select it and a check marker will appear to indicate that the CtrlChanges plug-in is now active and that changes made will now be tracked. All ensuing changes made to the document will be listed in your CtrlChanges Pro palette. It really is that easy–and convenient.
When and if you need to see other user’s changes they’ve made (using the colours they chose to set up as their user profile), you just click on the Show User Colour option in the menu. (Note: If this option isn’t selected, everyone’s changes will be in red.)
One of the appreciable features I loved, was the ability to hide the markings in the document at any time. I just deselected the Show Tracked Changes option and all the marks were hidden and out of the way. CtrlChanges does continue to track any changes, but you don’t have to constantly view them and can do so only when you need to take a “look-see”. You can still stop tracking changes entirely by deselecting the “Track Changes in Document” option whenever you want.
A key feature of working with the Pro version is that it gives you the ability to reject or accept changes that have been made to a document. Since the plug-in constantly lists all changes in the CtrlChanges Pro palette, you can easily revert back to previous edits until you pinpoint the version you decide to accept as the version you desire to use. The date in which changes were made, where they are found in the document and the type of change (such as deleted or added text) as well as the user who made those are all at your fingertips.
When you select a change that is listed in the CtrlChanges Pro palette, it immediately becomes highlighted in blue and you can just double-click it. Instantly, the portion of the text in the document which is affected will be selected and your cursor jumps to the location. Cool! You can easily and quickly cycle through all the changes in your document by using the handy icons provided on the bottom of your palette. Accepting or rejecting changes will effect the appearance of your document in different ways. If you reject a change involving deleted text, then that text will reappear and similarly if you reject a change involving added or new text, then it will be deleted. Accepting changes will finalise the current version of that text and will remove the tracked changes from your document.
Yeah, so there it is... the product of my dreams and I find myself silently giving thanks for it’s existence. Not only is it wonderful to have the capabilities that CtrlChanges offers, but it’s equally wonderful to have those capabilities exist in such an intuitive and easy-to-implement way. Puts an end to the old adage “Be careful what you wish for”, huh?
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