The Amendment Tracking System (ATS), in particular ATS Authoring (Keystone,) is used to author proposed changes to selected ordinance (content).

During the process of authoring content, every time a user edits and saves their changes, a new version of the content is saved. The user can then view past saved versions and can also compare between selected versions.

The following guides show how users can access the saved versions, show differences, view tracked changes on screen and choose to merge changes into content.The guide assumes that the user has knowledge of navigating ATS Authoring

Select the required guide:

Users can choose to view differences between saved versions on screen so long as they are not editing the content. The differences will show in colours as follows;

  • Red denotes items that have been deleted
  • Green denotes items that have been added
  • Blue denotes formatting changes

In the following steps, we are accessing content from the ‘EDIT’ tab, however users can access specific content using the ‘REVIEW’ tab if preferred.

1. With the amendment document open, select the content where you would like to see the changes.
2. Select ‘Versions’ from within the ACTIONS menu to expand the listing to see all the saved versions of the content selected.
3. Select the version that you want to compare from. In the below example the user has selected to compare from the latest saved version 2.9
open the versions view
4. Select SHOW DIFFERENCES.
5. Scroll through the available versions and select the version to compare to. In the below example, version 2.6 has been selected.
The screen showing the differences may take some time to load.
6. Scroll through the content to see differences on screen.
7. To finish viewing the differences, select CLOSE.

View the differences between content versions on screen

Users can use track change functionality in addition to merge mode whilst editing content. To access this feature, the content must be opened in editing mode. Users will need to determine which versions they want to compare to and then step through the noted changes to either accept or reject the change.

This functionality can be extremely useful after a ‘Refresh Amendment Workflow’ has been applied to the amendment document and where the content has been refreshed with a copy of the most recent ordinance from the planning scheme, overwriting previous changes made to content.

CAUTION: Take care when using the ‘Merge’ function!

If using this function after a ‘Refresh Amendment Workflow’ has been applied to your work, you should not be rejecting changes to the ordinance that has come about by a recent gazettal.

8. With the amendment document open, select the content where you would like to see the changes.
9. Select EDIT to open the content to edit.select content and open to edit

10. Select TRACK CHANGES to load the track change view. Note that this may take some time to load, especially where there are large sections of content and tables.

select track changes to view changes on screen

11. Select the version to compare to. In this example, version 2.6 is selected. The differences on screen are showing the changes that have been made since version 2.6.
12. Select MERGE MODE to see the functionality to step through the changes to either accept or reject them. use the merge mode functionality

13. Using the arrows located under the MERGE function (see ACTIONS menu), users can step through the changes.
14. The blue marker shows the changed item.
15. The ‘Change Detail’ field advises what change occurred where the blue marker is located.
16. Select the option of ACCEPT to agree with the change noted or to REJECT if the change is not wanted.
17. The user can step through each change noted or can choose to ACCEPT ALL OUTSTANDING OR REJECT ALL OUTSTANDING.step through tracked changes to reject or accept

18. In the below example, the first noted change was accepted and the second rejected which removed all text from the paragraph.
19. The user can then choose to ACCEPT ALL OUTSTANDING, REJECT ALL OUTSTANDING or UNDO ALL MERGED CHANGES.choose to accept or reject all outstanding changes

20. Once the outstanding changes have been either accepted or rejected, select to CONFIRM, CANCEL or UNDO ALL MERGED CHANGES to return to the editing screen. If confirm is selected, a new version of the content will be saved.  
21. Continue editing the content as required.

confirm cancel or undo all merged changes

Glossary of Terms

  • Amendment document - The file in ATS Authoring that is created after the instruction list form is submitted from ATS Tracking (Intelledox). It contains the ordinance that is being proposed to be changed. The document includes system notes advising what action is occurring for each ordinance. (Eg. Modify, Delete, Add, etc). Users will edit this document with their proposed changes to the selected ordinance.
  • Content – the text, images, table and/or other data that forms the ordinance being worked on.
  • Refresh Amendment Workflow – the process that is run after seeing the message ‘Master Content has changed since last synchronize’, where a recent gazettal has made a change to the ordinance. After running the workflow, the content will be refreshed with a copy of the ordinance from the current master and will overwrite any prior changes made to content. Changes will therefore need to be reinserted into the refreshed content.
  • Version – a saved copy of content at a particular point in time

More information

If you have any questions or need further assistance contact us:

☎  Phone: 1800 789 386 and press 1
✉  Email: planning.support@delwp.vic.gov.au

Page last updated: 19/06/23