I’ve written a little macro for Libreoffice Writer that:
- rejects track changes of deletions and formats the text with a strikeout and changes the font color to red
- accepts track changes of insertions and formats the text with an underline and changes the font color to blue
- accepts track changes of formatting i.e. italics and changes the font color to orange
It is directed at simple manuscripts that have no tables, footnotes, etc.
After the macro has been run, the document can be saved as an rtf for import to Scrivener. Track changes should still be done in Writer. This has only been tested on odt files, so I have no idea if it will work with a Word doc file that has been saved to odt.
As always, when trying something for the first time: backup and/or use copies.
Sub ConvertTrackChangesToFormatting
dim doc as object
dim viewCursor as object
dim redLines as object
dim redLine as object
dim document as object
dim dispatcher as object
dim count as long
dim args2(0) as new com.sun.star.beans.PropertyValue
dim args3(0) as new com.sun.star.beans.PropertyValue
dim args4(2) as new com.sun.star.beans.PropertyValue
dim args5(0) as new com.sun.star.beans.PropertyValue
dim args6(0) as new com.sun.star.beans.PropertyValue
args2(0).Name = "Strikeout.Kind"
args2(0).Value = 1
args3(0).Name = "FontColor"
args3(0).Value = 16711680
args4(0).Name = "Underline.LineStyle"
args4(0).Value = 1
args4(1).Name = "Underline.HasColor"
args4(1).Value = false
args4(2).Name = "Underline.Color"
args4(2).Value = -1
args5(0).Name = "FontColor"
args5(0).Value = 255
args6(0).Name = "FontColor"
args6(0).Value = 16744192
doc = ThisComponent
viewCursor = doc.CurrentController.ViewCursor
document = ThisComponent.CurrentController.Frame
dispatcher = createUnoService("com.sun.star.frame.DispatchHelper")
redLines = doc.Redlines
count = redLines.getCount() - 1
for i = 0 to count
redLine = redLines.getByIndex(0) 'does not work with getByIndex(i)
viewCursor.gotoRange(redLine.RedlineStart, false)
viewCursor.gotoRange(redLine.RedlineEnd, true)
if redLine.RedlineType = "Delete" Then
'Strikeout text, change font color to red, and reject track change
'dim args2(0) as new com.sun.star.beans.PropertyValue
'args2(0).Name = "Strikeout.Kind"
'args2(0).Value = 1
dispatcher.executeDispatch(document, ".uno:Strikeout", "", 0, args2())
'dim args3(0) as new com.sun.star.beans.PropertyValue
'args3(0).Name = "FontColor"
'args3(0).Value = 16711680
dispatcher.executeDispatch(document, ".uno:FontColor", "", 0, args3())
dispatcher.executeDispatch(document, ".uno:RejectTrackedChange", "", 0, Array())
elseif redLine.RedlineType = "Insert" Then
'Underline, change font color to blue, and accept track change
'dim args4(2) as new com.sun.star.beans.PropertyValue
'args4(0).Name = "Underline.LineStyle"
'args4(0).Value = 1
'args4(1).Name = "Underline.HasColor"
'args4(1).Value = false
'args4(2).Name = "Underline.Color"
'args4(2).Value = -1
dispatcher.executeDispatch(document, ".uno:Underline", "", 0, args4())
'dim args5(0) as new com.sun.star.beans.PropertyValue
'args5(0).Name = "FontColor"
'args5(0).Value = 255
dispatcher.executeDispatch(document, ".uno:FontColor", "", 0, args5())
dispatcher.executeDispatch(document, ".uno:AcceptTrackedChange", "", 0, Array())
elseif redLine.RedlineType = "Format" Then
'change font color to orange and accept track change
'dim args6(0) as new com.sun.star.beans.PropertyValue
'args6(0).Name = "FontColor"
'args6(0).Value = 16744192
dispatcher.executeDispatch(document, ".uno:FontColor", "", 0, args6())
dispatcher.executeDispatch(document, ".uno:AcceptTrackedChange", "", 0, Array())
end if
next i
End Sub
I googled over 4 hours to find a solution to my problem. I write on Scrivener, but my colleagues want to do edits on Google Docs, which I then convert to Libre Office, run your macro and copy back to Scrivener to take a snapshot. I then proceed to ‘accept’ or ‘reject’ the changes.