Sharing a Word Document? Don't Make This Embarrassing Mistake
Yesterday I received a press release from a company eager to promote a special offer for legal services. So eager, in fact, that the PR flack sent the release as a Word document -- complete with in-house comments, corrections, and other markup changes on display the moment I opened the file.
That's a rookie mistake, but some of the comments were actually a potential liability to the company. (I won't go into specifics, but one commenter highlighted a passage and asked if it was permissible to use the term "legal.")
When you're sharing a document with co-workers, clients, or the general public, it's critical that you hide any and all markups. Here's how:
Make your changes "final." Assuming your Word document is ready for dissemination, make sure you've accepted all the changes and turned off the markup view. In Word 2007/2010, click the Review tab. In the Tracking section, click the button marked Final Showing Markup and choose Final from the drop-down list. Next, in the Changes sections, click the bottom half of the Accept button, then choose Accept All Changes in Document. Now you can save and share the file.
Distribute Word documents as PDFs instead. Unless you have a very specific reason for doing so, you should never distribute your final version of a document in Word format. Assuming each recipient has a compatible viewer for it, it's far too easy for someone to modify the document in ways you might not appreciate. Or, as my example illustrates, to reveal comments and changes made during the editing process. Instead, turn the document into a PDF, the universally accepted standard. (The save-as-PDF feature is built right into Word's Save As menu, seen below). Just make sure to complete the previous instructions first, as markups are visible in PDFs.
What's your take on sharing Word documents? Do you agree it's a no-no unless they're still being edited? Have you ever encountered a marked-up "final" document like the one I described? Let's hear from you!
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