Swapping Manuals from Word to InDesign - but need to show changes

[Lorrieann]

I am in the process of putting user manuals for medical equipment into InDesign from (horribly frustrating untenable) MSWord.   I'm glad for this because I will make a much better document. 

The concern I have and am hearing from collegues, is about tracking changes.  They do not use ID, (they won't don't ask them).   For regulatory purposes on medical equipment, it is absolutely necessary to be able to show changes between revisions on demand. If an agency auditor shows up unexpectedly (which they do) I must be able wo show them a document with all the redlines done to the document.  This is a sticking point with InDesign. I must be able to show them in full detail where the changes happened.   So far, I have not found a way that pleases my collegues or the reg requirements.   

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

There's not really a good solution at the intersection of your needs. For all practical purposes, everyone editing a highly controlled doc has to use the same platform. InDesign does have InCopy, but it's not a very good tool outside of its core focus of allowing editors to rewrite magazine articles independently of the layout flow. It's definitely not a full-fledged word processor and I don't know if it supports ID"s kind of iffy tracking feature at all.

I'd say you have three options, plus a radical fourth:

• Stay with Word and 'clean up the mess' — Word is a very capable tool but allows, nay, promotes lousy, sloppy, bad usage. Set up template documents and beat your colleagues into using styles and following document rules, not hacking and slashing and using spot formatting and other poor practices. That might bring a tool everyone can use into a mode where you can accomplish your goals without moving (everyone) to a more complex tool and platform.
• Use InDesign's tracking to flag all changes you make. This puts a huge amount of work and responsibility on you, especially if you don't get your colleagues to 'use Word better' in the first place, making your job more streamlined.
• Move everyone to InDesign. Probably not going to happen.
• Move everyone to FrameMaker. That's the tool for this kind of doc workflow, not as daunting as ID, many tools for structured document writing and management, supports the various XML-based structured doc systems (which can only improve your overall doc management and production processes).

But, from considerable experience across this spectrum, and the midst of a battle with engineers who can't grasp their own limitations at the moment (sigh), there is simply no way to manage a structured, controlled document process or library without the contributors being brought up to necessary skill levels, not unless there's a dedicated buffer of "rewriters" between their work and the finished docs that are managed at a pro level.

[BobLevine]

InDesign, as you know, is not an editorial tool. You'll have a bit more ability to track changes and export them to PDF from InCopy but if you're thinking about Word, there's no way I know of to come close using InDesign.

Perhaps this might help?

Compare two versions of a PDF file in Adobe Acrobat

[Barb Binder]

I need to learn to be more succinct, like you, Bob! 😉

~Barb

[Barb Binder]

Hi @Lorrieann:

Here are two more options:

• You can enable track changes in InDesign so that as you edit the text, InDesign is adding mark-up in the background. You won't see the mark-up in Layout view, but if you choose Edit > Edit in Story Editor it will be visible to you. I know you want it visible to them, so for that you will need to include InCopy (which is inclulded in your CC subscription). You can export the stories from InDesign to InCopy with Edit > InCopy > Export > Export all Stories. You can then open the resulting .icml files in InCopy, and you can see the mark-up in Galley or Story View. If you print or create a PDF from InCopy, it will include the mark-up. If they decide they want to interact with mark-up, then they would need their own copy of InCopy (US$5/mo), which allows them to actually modify those documents for you.
• The other avenue is to explore Adobe Acrobat's robust Document Compare feature. You can pick and choose what features are included in the comparison. They will be able to see the changes as they look in the finished document—in InCopy they're looking at the raw text.

~Barb

[Pickory]

Hi,

There are some commercial PlugIns that do this sort of redlining / blacklining work:

Ctrl Changes

https://ctrlsoftware.com/home/products/

Blacklining

http://blacklining.com/

EditMarks

https://www.kerntiff.co.uk/products-4-indesign/editmarks

P.

[Lorrieann · Accepted solution]

Thank you everyone.  I had a team chat this morning with the stake holders.  I would be the only one to actually touch the InDesign file. I did a test run linking a  Word document and mapping the style names and saving that so when I update, styles know where to map.   That has worked very well.   Users are updating the the Word file with Track Changes on.  When I refresh the link their updates flowed in cleanly, leaving me the ability to print the Word file with updates.    InCopy is great, but not practicle in our circumstances.   Growing pains but at least I convinced them to allow me better control of the finished output, and the Translation people are far happier with InDesign than Word because they don't need to reformat anything.     

Mushing on! 🙂 

[James Gifford—NitroPress]

It can be a frustrating position to be in, as I think nearly all of us here can attest. But that's a good workflow. I'd double down on getting your sources/editors to follow very clean Word practices, and make sure they fully understand why. Word is frustrating in itself in that any fourth grader can sit down and write a report on bees in it... and way too many office and industry professionals never learn to use it any better than that.

So, with honey, a baseball bat, some instructional meetings, a training course, whatever... the better they do, the better (and easier) you'll be able to do.