by Tami Stodghill

I don't happen to own or work in InCopy, but I've often thought that I'd like 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.

CtrlChanges	CtrlChanges

The Plug-in offers an easy-to-use (and this was key to my considering it) solution that comes in three 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 titled Ctrl. Under this pull-down menu are various options for utilizing it exactly the way you want. 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.

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