What is the use of "\insrsid" command in an RTF document?  It seems to
be present in Office XP only.

Hello:

I have been looking for the information you want, and here are the
results:

Rich Text Format (RTF) Specification, version 1.6
http://msdn.microsoft.com/library/?url=/library/en-us/dnrtfspec/html/rtfspec.asp?frame=true

This specification doesn't documents the \insrsid tag, so I can assume
it's an Word XP extension to the format to store additional
information.

But there is another specification, version 1.7, which documents that
tag, download the following file:
http://www.wotsit.org/download.asp?f=rtf17

Is the RTF specification for Word 2002 and it documents the tag you
are looking for:

(Page 27 of previous document)
RSID
In Word 2002, a new style of revision tracking was established. RSIDs
(Revision Save IDs) indicate when text or a property was changed.
Whenever text is added or deleted or properties are changed, that text
or property is tagged with the current "Save ID," which is a random
number that changes each time the document is saved. They are
primarily used when merging or comparing two documents with a common
history but no revision marks. By looking at the RSID we can tell
which of the two authors made the change. Without the RSID we can only
tell that there is a difference, but we don't know if (for example) it
was an addition by author A or a deletion by author B. An RSID table
is placed after all other style definitions and before the <generator>
and <info> groups.

The syntax for an RSID table is as follows:
<rsidtable>    '{' \*\rsidtbl <rsidlist>+ ';' '}'
<rsidlist>     \rsidN

Control word   Meaning
\rsidN	       Each time a document is saved a new entry is added to
this table,
               with N being the random number assigned to represent
the unique session.
\insrsidN      An RSID is inserted to denote the session in which
particular text was inserted.
               Example: {\insrsid8282541 This is text.} 
               
For use in lists: 
{\insrsid8282541 Item  in List 
\par{\listtext\pard\plain\f3\insrsid8282541 \loch\af3\dbch\af0
\hich\f3 \'b7\tab}}
\rsidrootN      Designates the start of the document's history (first
save).
\delrsidN       RSID value identifying when text was marked as
deleted.
\charrsidN      RSID value identifying when character formatting was
changed.
\sectrsidN      RSID identifying when section formatting was changed.
\pararsidN      RSID identifying when paragraph formatting was
changed.
\tblrsidN       RSID identifying when table formatting was changed.

I hope this is the information you are looking for.

Regards and don't hesitate to ask for any clarification.

---

Request for Answer Clarification by mimosa-ga on 05 Aug 2002 01:36 PDT

In that case, is there any possible way for us to inhibit Word 2002 to
put those "RSID" things inside the generated RTF document?

---

Clarification of Answer by joseleon-ga on 05 Aug 2002 23:01 PDT

Hello:
   Yes, you can prevent Word XP to store that changes in an RTF file,
use the Tools | Options | Security | Store random number to improve
merge accuracy option, disable it and this information won't be
generated. But this only works with new documents, if you edit
previous saved documents, this option won't work.
   
I hope it helps!

Regards.