General ⇒ Tracking Changes for Collaboration

[mssher]

Hey all,

Recent latex convert here. Trying to write a paper with my mentor in my thesis lab. Strange circumstances: he's willing to LOOK at latex code but not write it or do anything technical with it. In other words, for editing purposes he refuses to use something like the TrackChanges package which would require some 'coding'.

Looking for: a latex or very very elementary text editor that doesn't muck with latex code and has full featured track changes with visualization (ie, shows changes by author, has accept / reject changes as in microsoft word). Would very much prefer a true visual / track changes program, not a revisioning system. My search for a solution has been quite extensive, here's what I've tried.

1. LyX. didn't spend a long time with it admittedly, but it didn't like me writing in pure latex. Won't work.

2. Gobby. Seems great for real time editing but could not figure out if you could do editing without being logged onto a server. Anyone with gobby experience?

3. Google docs. So close! Pasted latex code in there, doesn't appear to mess with formatting. However, the 'track changes' in google docs is more like a revisioning system. In other words, you can see changes but you can't pick and choose what changes to accept or reject.

4. On my end I could use diff, and let my mentor edit whatever he wants. But then I can't suggest changes and let him accept/reject them because again, he refuses to do anything with latex besides look at the text.

There have been previous posts on this subject here and elsewhere, but the suggestions were to use SVN or the TrackChanges package. Neither does what I'm looking for.

My last idea, and so far best idea.. is to just use MS Word, paste my latex code into the document and edit it / track changes there. I'm just terrified that Word will 'autocorrect' something in my code at some point and I'll never find the changes it makes. So far that hasn't happened. I would be much obliged if someone is aware of a super basic text editor or latex editor with track changes.

Thanks,
-Marc

[meho_r]

Since .tex documents are in fact just plain .txt documents, I'm not sure if you'll ever find any kind of text/LaTeX editor with tracking changes capabilities, at least not those working on plain .tex/.txt files. Most apps either use a special document formats which are able to contain tracking data or they use locally stored settings. So, I personally would probably go with OpenOffice.org Writer or MS Word (but with autocorrect options disabled, just in case). Another option would be to send him PDF files on which he can highlight text and use annotations and comments (e.g. with PDF-XChange viewer), which is the safest way, but not very convenient since you'll have to manually enter every change your mentor makes.

[mssher]

Right, I was thinking that a text program w/ track changes would store the tracking changes in a new filetype wherein all changes would need to be "resolved" prior to being able to save as a .txt or .tex . Otherwise you'd save as a new filetype. Or perhaps an online program like google docs where the actual filetype is irrelevant (to the end-user at least).

I haven't used open office before, does it have a track changes system like Word? If so, does it have fewer / easily disabled autocorrect options?

Thanks for your response,

[meho_r]

...
I haven't used open office before, does it have a track changes system like Word? If so, does it have fewer / easily disabled autocorrect options?

It's similar to Word in many aspects, autocorrect mess being one of them.