Track Changes: paragraph split (Enter) and paragraph-style changes are applied directly, not recorded as tracked changes

[ohcedar]

Summary

In Suggesting mode (track changes enabled), pressing Enter to split a paragraph — or splitting one programmatically — applies the split directly to the document and is not recorded as a tracked change. In Microsoft Word, pressing enter in the middle of a paragraph results in a tracked change that the reviewer can accept or reject; in SuperDoc the structural break just happens, with no redline and nothing to accept/reject.

The same applies to paragraph style changes (e.g. converting a paragraph to Heading2): they cannot be made as tracked changes either.

Steps to reproduce

1. Open a document and enable Suggesting mode (documentMode: 'suggesting').
2. Place the caret in the middle of a body paragraph and press Enter (or call the split command — see below).
3. Observe the document and the tracked-changes list.

Expected

The paragraph split is recorded as a tracked change (a tracked paragraph-mark insertion), rendered as a suggestion, and can be accepted/rejected — matching Microsoft Word, where hitting Enter with Track Changes on creates a reviewable change.

Actual

The paragraph is split immediately and directly. No tracked change is created and there is no redline marker for the break — even though Suggesting mode is on. Accepting/rejecting other changes has no effect on it because it was never tracked.

Findings from investigation (v1.36.1, programmatic)

Reproduced via the editor API in Suggesting mode:

• editor.commands.splitRunToParagraph() (the command bound to Enter for run-wrapped paragraph text) splits directly — paragraph count increases by 1 and doc.trackChanges.list(...) shows zero new entries.
• Dispatching a real Enter keydown to the editor DOM behaves identically (direct split, 0 tracked changes).
• editor.commands.splitBlock() returns false at a mid-paragraph caret position (it does not split inside the run node), so it is not an alternative.
• doc.styles.paragraph.setStyle(...) with { changeMode: 'tracked' } fails with "styles.paragraph.setStyle does not support tracked mode." (doc.capabilities().operations[...] reports tracked:false / TRACKED_MODE_UNAVAILABLE for paragraph-style ops). A tracked setHeading editor command degrades to inline run formatting and drops the actual paragraph style.

This appears to be by design: the public tracked-change type is inline-only (TrackChangeType = 'insert' | 'delete' | 'format'), so structural edits (paragraph split/merge) and paragraph-style changes have no tracked representation.

Impact

For review workflows (especially programmatic / AI-assisted editing through the Document API), structural and paragraph-style edits can't be proposed as suggestions for a human to accept or reject — they must be applied directly. A common, concrete case: separating a heading sentence from following body text ("Heading. Body…" in one paragraph) and promoting it to a heading cannot be offered as tracked suggestions.

Request

Support tracked changes for at least:

1. Paragraph split / merge (tracked paragraph-mark insertion/deletion, like Word).
2. Paragraph style changes (styles.paragraph.setStyle) in tracked mode.

Environment

• @harbour-enterprises/superdoc 1.36.1
• Document loaded from .docx; body story; documentMode: 'suggesting'.

[linear-code]

IT-1136

[ohcedar]

Confirmed this still reproduces on @harbour-enterprises/superdoc 1.38.0 (latest):

• Paragraph split (Enter / splitRunToParagraph) in Suggesting mode still applies directly — paragraph count increases, 0 new tracked changes.
• doc.styles.paragraph.setStyle(..., { changeMode: 'tracked' }) still throws "styles.paragraph.setStyle does not support tracked mode."

(Note: a separate, unrelated issue we hit on 1.36.1 — multi-step tracked mutations.apply throwing Invalid content for node doc / Empty text nodes are not allowed — does appear fixed in 1.38.0.)

[ohcedar]

Broader surface: the same untracked behaviour applies to all paragraph-level property ops (and table-style ops), not just setStyle.

Working through the Document API on 1.38.0, I checked editor.doc.capabilities().operations[...] across the whole formatting surface. The untracked behaviour isn't specific to setStyle — every paragraph-level property op reports tracked:false (TRACKED_MODE_UNAVAILABLE), and forcing { changeMode: 'tracked' } throws "… does not support tracked mode":

operation	tracked
format.apply (inline: bold / italic / color / font / highlight…)	true
styles.paragraph.setStyle	false
format.paragraph.setAlignment	false
format.paragraph.setIndentation	false
format.paragraph.setSpacing	false
format.paragraph.setFlowOptions	false
format.paragraph.setDirection	false
tables.setStyle / tables.setStyleOption	false

So the tracked/untracked boundary is precisely inline mark steps (tracked) vs. block-/paragraph-property steps (not tracked) — consistent with the inline-only TrackChangeType already noted. In MS Word all of these (alignment, indentation, line spacing, paragraph style, table style) are reviewable tracked changes (the "Formatted:" revisions).

Concrete impact for review workflows: a Document-API / AI edit that centres a heading, changes line spacing, or restyles a table is applied silently — nothing for the reviewer to accept or reject — the same gap as the split/style cases above, just a wider surface. Our workaround is to apply these directly and snapshot/restore the block's node attrs ourselves so a reviewer can still reject them, but that lives outside SuperDoc's track-changes model.

Request (extends the two above): tracked representation — or, failing that, the explicit tracked:false contract via capabilities() (which is already exposed, and is genuinely useful) kept accurate — for all paragraph-level property changes and table-style changes, not just setStyle.

[ohcedar]

Partial fix landed in 1.39.0-next.7 (PR #3602): the paragraph-SPLIT half is now tracked; the paragraph-STYLE half is not.

Tested the two halves of this issue live against @harbour-enterprises/superdoc@1.39.0-next.7 (Document API, Suggesting mode):

✅ Paragraph split / newline — now tracked. Splitting a paragraph mid-text via the run-aware split command in Suggesting mode now records a tracked change (a format / paragraphSplit entry in doc.trackChanges.list) that's reviewable. On 1.38.0 the identical split applied directly with 0 tracked changes (paraDelta:1, trackedDelta:0); on 1.39.0-next.7 it's paraDelta:1, **trackedDelta:1**. This matches Word's "Enter creates a reviewable change" behavior — thanks!

❌ Paragraph style change — still not tracked. doc.styles.paragraph.setStyle({ target, styleId }, { changeMode: 'tracked' }) still throws "styles.paragraph.setStyle does not support tracked mode.", and doc.capabilities().operations['styles.paragraph.setStyle'].tracked is still false (same for format.paragraph.setAlignment/setIndentation/setSpacing/setFlowOptions/setDirection). PR #2705 added the w:pPrChange OOXML encode/decode translator, but the runtime apply path for paragraph-property tracked changes doesn't appear wired yet.

So the structural half of this issue is resolved on next, but the paragraph-style/property half (the original "convert a paragraph to Heading2 as a tracked change") remains open. Leaving this issue open for that half. (Related: #3594 — tables.insertRow reports tracked:true but applies directly with 0 marks — still reproduces on 1.39.0-next.7.)