I believe kayodelycaon is saying change tracking IS critical - specifically Word's implementation of it (aka "Track Changes"). Many authoring workflows I've witnessed heavily rely on all parties being able to see the changes made in a Word document.
Change tracking is a second class citizen in Word.
My question is, if change tracking is so important, why use Word instead of any of the dozens of workflows where change tracking is a first class citizen? I used git as an example in my post; git takes change tracking seriously, (it does _literally_ nothing else) Word does not. Why prefer Word when change tracking matters? The argument of "Change tracking is priority #1 so I choose Word" sounds a lot like "Gas mileage is priority #1 so I choose the Dodge RAM with like the biggest engine ever" to me. If change tracking is priority #1, why not... buy a Honda Fit?
> My question is, if change tracking is so important, why use Word instead of any of the dozens of workflows where change tracking is a first class citizen?
The simple answer is, and always will be, that it is what your editor uses.
I would prefer to use LaTeX for most of my published works. It allows me to be more precise in layouts, and do things that are just downright convoluted in Word.
But if the editor uses Word, then you don't have a choice. You're not changing the publishing house.
I've seen what a self-published author who is proficient LaTeX can do. The physical book is absolutely beautiful. I don't think Word could replicate it and only a pdf could capture it on a digital device. Your basic Kindle ebook is a bit more limited.
In a perfect world, you would be right. But people in publishing houses are really not technology-savvy, most of them can barely use Word. They’ve been using it for 20 years and they will not use something different. I once worked for a magazine where they did not even use Words change tracking, you had to write the changes into the text with a different color, and they didn’t want to hear that this was a stupid workflow.
Git is a generalized change tracking system. A domain-specific system might easily do better. (I've used Word's change tracking a little and it seems fine, with domain-specific features.)
Word's Track Changes and git are entirely different tools for entirely different purposes.
Track Changes is equivalent to the github pull request workflow. It's not meant to be a permanent record. If you want a permanent record, store a copy of the file somewhere. The lazy versioning method is to use your email. If you need an old version, search for it. :D
Because the task at hand is "interoperate with dozens of other people whom you don't control and who are all using Microsoft Word Track Changes feature". In that (extremely limited but important) sense, Track Changes is first class citizen and git and all other systems that aren't exactly that are second-class.
