Keeping the data for the ad (and all the ad lines), makes it easy in the future to see historical trends for ads based on taglines, dynamic insertion, etc.
Is there a way in Google, or does anyone have a clever way of managing deleted ads?...Right now I keep track of my old ads in Word...
Welcome to WebmasterWorld, helexia23!
Hey, I am a little bit unclear as to what you mean, exactly, when you say 'manage deleted ads'.
If you want to extract information from them, I think eWhisper's idea is brilliant.
On the other hand, if you just want to have a 'visual record' of them, that informatin is 'stored' in your account, and easily available.
Deleted ads are a permanent part of the database, and you can choose to see them at any time - by going to the Ad Group level of your account and selecting the check box that says "Include deleted items that were active in this date range". Your deleted ads will then appear at the bottom of the page. They'll be minus their stats, but you can certainly see the ad copy.
By the way, if you want to see all deleted ads, be sure to select the date range of 'all time'. ;)
AWA