Change bars in Framemaker

[Combs, Richard]

Rebecca.L.Frasure at aphis.usda.gov wrote:
 
> My framehating coworker requested that I send this question 
> in. We use automatic change bars every time we work on our 
> files. Big ones, 10 pt thickness, on the left side of the 

Why??

> column. When my coworker works on a file, it will add change 
> bars in areas he hasn't touched, such as chapter titles. He 
> gets very frustrated over it. And by the way, is having 
> automatic change bars turned on all the time a good idea?

Depends on your goal -- if you want to frustrate Frame-hating
co-workers, it seems to be working. ;-)

In the absence of such a goal, though, I'd say it's a really bad idea. 

I can't imagine working that way. Even if I needed to mark changes as I
worked, I'd do it manually so that only substantive changes get marked,
not automatically updated things like xrefs and trivial edits like
typos. 

A much better way to track changes, IMO, is to use FM's Compare
Documents function (File > Utilities > Compare Documents; check the
manual or help for info about the options available). Run the comparison
after you're finished updating the document, comparing it to the
previous version -- you did save the previous version before starting to
make changes, right? 
 
> Thanks for any answers, and have a pleasant weekend!

Likewise!

Richard 


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Richard G. Combs
Senior Technical Writer
Polycom, Inc.
richardDOTcombs AT polycomDOTcom
303-223-5111
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rgcombs AT gmailDOTcom
303-777-0436
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