Word editing question

["Van Boening, Tammy" <Tammy -dot- VanBoening -at- Fiserv -dot- com>]

Forgiveness is begged from the Word gurus and guru-esses on this list.
I am a Framemaker fanatic, but have had to work in the throes of Word
hell on a particular project. Basically, it was a round robin document
that got started by one person who hacked merrily away and added their
content, then passed it on to another person who hacked merrily away and
added their content, and well, you get the picture. This little
merry-go-round ensued among 6 of my SMEs. I was then handed back this
monstrosity of a Word document and expected to "work my magic." 

I have spent the last two days removing any, every, and all override to
Normal, creating and applying styles, setting up outlined numbering, and
so on (I have also spend the last two days doing a lot of cussing as
well, but that's beside the point.) This document also has many Visio
graphics and I have also set it up with live links to multiple excel
worksheets which really work! (Score one for me!)  It's now clean and
ready for public presentation; HOWEVER, and this is a big however,

The next round of editing is expected - the same kind of round robin
format (I don't know whether to laugh or to cry!). I want to supply this
document in its current pristine form and have track changes set;
however, I also don't want my SMEs to beat the living tar out of this
document again - like overrides, manual tabs - you know the drill.

In Framemaker, controlling the source is a no-brainer, but in Word, I am
at a loss. Do I set up this file with ALL of its current content as a
template and then what do I do or do I save a "back" copy for me and
just compare the god-awful monstrosity that I know will be returned to
me and manually compare the two to incorporate changes or ???

As you can see, I am fumbling in the musty hollows of this very beat to
death brain about how to handle this situation.

Any and all advice from you Word gurus and guru-esses out there is
sincerely appreciated.

TVB



Tammy L. Van Boening
Senior Technical Writer
Fiserv Insurance Solutions 
Property and Casualty Division
303-729-7733
tammy -dot- vanboening -at- fiserv -dot- com
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