Many attorneys use the MS Word track changes feature when negotiating or drafting agreements. When using the track changes features, attorneys should be aware, especially in the latest version of MS Word, of the perils.
Highlighting changes from prior drafts by comparing versions of documents is clearly an important practice, but this function should be performed with other products such as DeltaView versus the MS Word track changes feature.
The track changes feature of MS Word creates what is called metadata that becomes part of the file. A recipient of a file with track changes is often able to see the changes from the previous version, even if the document he/she views on the screen appears clean of the prior comments. This is further disastrous when the user sending the document does not accept all the changes that might have been suggested by internal commenters and hits the Final feature prior to sending the document externally.
By allowing the recipient to see the changes prior to the version received, the sender gives away the document that may have been used as a sample for drafting the document to the recipient, or the internally discussions which may give insight on points to be negotiated.
If track changes is turned on, turn it off. It will not remove the metadata from the document, but this will stop MS Word from actively capturing change information.
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