tracking changes shortcut needed

Hi. I am a new mac user and am use to some pc things that I am wondering if my mac can do. No one has been able to help me so far with this item.

Tracking changes. On my mac I have text edit and open office (edit>changes>record,show). I need a short cut to turn tracking 'changes' on and off. My old pc used "control shift E" but no one seems to be able to help me put a command like this on my mac.
When I edit I need to be able to mark some areas I have changed (track changes), but some changes do not need to be recorded, like removing extra spaces or a miss spelling, etc. and so I am use to simply using a short cut to turn on and off the 'track changes' function quickly and easily while editing the document. Karen

Welcome to the Mac Forums.

I don't believe there's a way to track changes in TextEdit, so you must be referring to Open Office Writer. It seems there are plenty of tutorials on how to track the changes (LINK) but none show how to setup a shortcut to turn it off or on.

You may be able to use a macro or another automation process to do it, but of that I'm not sure. Open Office is still a work in progress and according to what I've read, the track changes option does not work very well to begin with. You may wish to take a look at Office for the Mac 2011 to be released on Oct 27th.
Give a trial copy a go and see if that works for you any better.