cramer@iex.UUCP (Bill Cramer) (02/10/89)
We have recently converted our technical documentation platform from
Unix (vi/nroff) to the Mac (Word/Canvas). In the course of preparing
most documents, we go through a write->review->change cycle. On Unix
we made use of a filter called 'diffmk' which compared two documents
and added change marks as it created a third version. (Change marks
are the vertical bars which indicate lines where the two documents
differ.)
Is there such a beast available for the Mac?
Thanks,
Bill Cramer
IEX Corporation, Plano TX
{uunet,convex,killer}!iex!cramerkehr@felix.UUCP (Shirley Kehr) (02/14/89)
In article <578@iex.UUCP> cramer@iex.UUCP (Bill Cramer) writes:
<We have recently converted our technical documentation platform from
<Unix (vi/nroff) to the Mac (Word/Canvas). In the course of preparing
<most documents, we go through a write->review->change cycle. On Unix
<we made use of a filter called 'diffmk' which compared two documents
<and added change marks as it created a third version. (Change marks
<are the vertical bars which indicate lines where the two documents
<differ.)
<
<Is there such a beast available for the Mac?
Do you really want to mark every change? If a writer corrects a spelling,
do you want to call it to the attention of the reader? Rather than
blindly change bar every line that changed (including those that you
changed back the way they were), I prefer to use some discretion in
applying change bars.
True, the writer needs to remember to do it, but after all, that's part
of the job.
If you're using Word, you can use the bar format, but it applies to the
entire paragraph. It's not the way we used to do change bars, but the
only thing we can do with Word.
I know this doesn't answer your question, but I wanted to point out that
it may not be necessary to change bar individual lines (often the reader
can hardly tell which line they belong to).
Shirley Kehrpollock@usfvax2.EDU (Wayne Pollock) (02/14/89)
In article <578@iex.UUCP> cramer@iex.UUCP (Bill Cramer) writes: >We have recently converted our technical documentation platform from >Unix (vi/nroff) to the Mac (Word/Canvas). In the course of preparing >most documents, we go through a write->review->change cycle. On Unix >we made use of a filter called 'diffmk' which compared two documents >and added change marks as it created a third version. (Change marks >are the vertical bars which indicate lines where the two documents >differ.) > >Is there such a beast available for the Mac? The problem is that nroff is a text document; if I remember correctly diffmk was a shell script that compaired the text line by line and added some nroff stuff to print the vertical bar whenever it detected a difference. To get diff marks in a Word document, try saving the document in RTF or some other pure text format. Use diff (there is at least one for the Mac) to find the changes, and come up with something to add the vertical bars. Perhaps a phone call or letter to Microsoft will help. At the very least you can use this method to find the differences and add the change mark manually. Or you can download the two text version of your document and use the unix system to add the marks. If you get this solved automatically please le me know how you did it! Wayne Pollock (The MAD Scientist) pollock@usfvax2.usf.edu Usenet: ...!{uflorida, codas}!usfvax2!pollock GEnie: W.POLLOCK