Track changes - change user name (XP,2003)

[cathy@work]

I have a document with large amounts of 'tracked changes'. The changes were made with a user name of "John Smith". It is now necessary for the changes to be marked as added/removed by "Tom Jones". I understand that this can be changed in Tools, Options, User Information, but this will only update the name for new modifications. Is there a way to change all instances of changes marked by the user "John Smith" to "Tom Jones"?

I am proficient with VBA so don't mind a code solution.

[HansV]

You can't change the author of tracked changes directly - it's a read-only property (for obvious reasons, I think). But you can try the following workaround:
- Create two copies of the document..
- Reject all changes in one of the copies, and accept all changes in the other.
- Change your user name in the User Information tab of Tools | Options to Tom Jones.
- Open the document in which the changes have been rejected.
- Use Tools | Compare and Merge Documents... to merge with the one in which changes have been accepted.
- Save the document.
- Change your user name back to what it was.
All changes will now be by Tom Jones, but with the current date and time, not the original date and time.

[cathy@work]

That's a good work around Hans. Will give this a go. Thanks.

[HansV]

Just take care that you don't start singing "The green green grass of home" when you change your username to Tom Jones... <img src=/S/grin.gif border=0 alt=grin width=15 height=15>

[Andrew Lockton]

An alternative path to change the edits is to save the file out to either RTF or XML and then do a search and replace in that file using a text editor - the editor names should appear embedded there and easy to get at.

I seem to remember this suggestion somewhere on this forum in the past. It sounds like something Andrew Savikas suggested once. Like <post:=473,148>post 473,148</post:>