trackchanges, \edit# tracking issue

[augustfly]

1. The editors request that authors only use bold or bold-similar to highlight changes from version to version. They do not want to see any strikeouts or colorized replacements. Manuscript revisions sent with such text will be sent back to be converted to bold-only even if the authors used previously supported mode in AASTeX. In other words if you use AASTeX <6.3.1 then don't use trackchanges at all -- use \edit#
2. Do not use \turnoffeditone, \turnoffedittwo, \turnoffeditthree \turnoffedit in AASTeX 6.3.1 -- they are completely broken as they delete text from the compiled PDF.
3. Use \edit1 \edit2 \edit3 sparingly or not at all until we stabilize the functionality and editor preferences.
4. This thread will track other concerns (including advocating for specific functionality).

[augustfly]

Some issues so far:

• authors want to use bold to highlight specific aspects of the text
• bold also used for trackchanges confuses this
• if the same command is used for all such bold then its hard to remove one kind of bold while not removing the other kind too.

[augustfly]

Relevant discussion threads:

• https://twitter.com/_astronomay/status/1490719447132385280
• https://twitter.com/mayorgalc/status/1491111330799316993

[parkus]

Building on this thread: I have also found that using \edit# will bold the text regardless of whether the trackchanges argument is specified in the class declaration.

A workaround in the interim is to redefine the command in your document header so that it does nothing

\renewcommand{\edit}[1]{}

(I'm not sure if this will work for any edit number or just \edit1.)

Here is an MWE:

\documentclass{aastex631}

\begin{document}
I wrote some stuff, and then the reviewer suggested I add \edit1{this other stuff.}

\end{document}

Despite the lack of trackchanges, "this other stuff" will still be bold in the output PDF.