Yeah, actually, you can do this in Microsoft Word, even in Panther. I don't think the history is saved in the document. I agree it's probably cached somehow, and just not flushed until the application is quit or the document is closed.

I agree that most apps should preserve your Undo history *as long as the doc remains open, even if you've saved it*. The other day, MS Excel bit me when I discovered I lost all Undo history the moment I saved the file. I was counting on using Undo to make a movie showing changes over time.

On the other hand, it's important, as earlier posters noted, that you be sure your deletions and other changes don't get passed on to other users without your knowledge. Word's interface is just complex enough that plenty of users could get tripped up, and accidentally share a document with "Track Changes" enabled. "Track Changes" lets others see markup in the doc that shows what was changed [and by whom, if MS Word was configured with a username].

I can't be sure that I know how to disable "Track Changes", except via Word's menu, but I seem to recall seeing a rumour on the net that some earlier version of Word still saved the kind of info that "Track Changes" offers -- I think it was said that using "Allow Fast Save" would mean that deleted text remained in the doc, and someone with a hex editor could open the doc and extract such text. Not sure if that's still an issue with Word, or if it's even true.

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osxpounder