Reviewing documents in word

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Introduction

Let’s say someone asks you to proofread a report. If you have a hard copy of the report, you might use a red pen to cross out sentences, mark misspellings, or add comments in the margins. However, you could also do all of these things in Word using the Track Changes and Comments features.

When you’ve finished reviewing the document, the other person can choose to automatically accept all of your changes, or decide whether to accept or reject each change one by one.

In this lesson, you’ll learn how to track changes, add comments, and compare two versions of a document.

Using Track Changes and Comments

When you need to collaborate on the content of a document or if you need someone to proofread your document, Word’s Track Changes and Comments features make it easier for you to collaborate with others.

Optional: You can download this example for extra practice.

About Track Changes

When you turn on the Track Changes option, all changes you make to the document show up as colored markups. If you delete some text, it won’t disappear but instead will have a visible strike through it. If you add text, it will be underlined. This allows another person to see which changes have been made before making the changes permanent.

A document with tracked changes

The color of the markups will vary depending on who is reviewing the document, so if there are multiple reviewers you’ll be able to tell at a glance who made each change.

To turn on Track Changes:

1. Click the Review tab.
2. Click the Track Changes command. It should now be highlighted in gold to show that it is active.

   The Track Changes command

3. Any changes you make to the document will be shown as colored markups.

   Tracked changes

4. Click the Track Changes command again to turn it off.

Adding and deleting comments

Sometimes instead of changing something, you may want to make a comment about part of the document. Comments show up in balloons in the right margin and can be read by the original author or by any other reviewers.

To add a comment:

1. Highlight some text, or place the insertion point where you want the comment to appear.
2. From the Review tab, click the New Comment command.

   The New Comment command

3. Type your comment.

   A comment

To delete a comment:

1. Select the balloon containing the comment you want to delete.

   A selected comment

2. From the Review tab, click the Delete command.

   Deleting a comment

To delete all comments:

1. From the Review tab, click the Delete drop-down arrow.

   The Delete drop-down arrow

2. Click Delete All Comments in Document.

Accepting and rejecting changes

Tracked changes are really just suggested changes. To become permanent, they have to be accepted. On the other hand, the original author may disagree with some of the tracked changes and choose to reject them.

To accept or reject changes:

1. Select the change you want to accept or reject.

   Selecting a change

2. From the Review tab, click the Accept or Reject command.

   The Accept and Reject commands

3. If you accepted the change, the markup will disappear, and the text will look normal.

   After accepting a change

For some tracked changes, you can reject the changes by deleting them as if they were normal text. For example, if a reviewer adds a word to a sentence, you can just delete the word.

To accept all changes:

1. From the Review tab, click the Accept drop-down arrow. A drop-down menu will appear.

   Accepting all changes

2. Select Accept All Changes in Document.

To reject all changes:

1. From the Review tab, click the Reject drop-down arrow. A drop-down menu will appear.

   Rejecting all changes

2. Select Reject All Changes in Document.

Accepting or rejecting all changes does not affect comments, so if you want to delete them you’ll have to do so separately.

Changing how markups appear

If there are a lot of tracked changes in a document, they can become distracting if you’re trying to read through the document. There are a few settings you can use to hide the markups or change how they appear.

To hide tracked changes:

1. From the Review tab, click the Display for Review command. The Display for Review command is located to the right of the Track Changes command, and it may not be labeled. It will probably say Final:Show Markup.

   The Display for Review Command

2. In the drop-down menu, there are four options:
• Final: Show Markup: Shows the final version along with the markup
• Final: Shows the final version and hides all markups
• Original: Show Markup: Shows the original version along with the markup
• Original: Shows the original version and hides all markups
3. Choose Final or Original from the drop-down menu to hide markups.

   Displaying the Final version (markups hidden)

Setting Display for Review to Final is not the same as accepting all changes. You will still need to accept or reject the changes before sending the final version of your document.

To show revisions in balloons:

By default, most revisions show up inline, meaning the text itself is marked. You can choose to show the revisions in balloons, which moves many of the revisions (such as deletions) to balloons in the right margin. This can make the document easier to read because there are fewer inline markups. Balloons also give you more detailed information about some markups.

1. From the Review tab, click Show MarkupBalloonsShow Revisions in Balloons.

   Showing revisions in balloons

2. Some of the revisions will move to the right margin.

   Revisions in the right margin

To go back to inline markups, you can select either Show All Revisions Inline or Show Only Comments and Formatting in Balloons.

Comparing two documents

If you edit a document without tracking changes, it’s still possible to use reviewing features such as Accept and Reject. You can do this by comparing two versions of the document. All you need is the original document and the revised document, and they must have different file names.

To compare two documents:

1. From the Review tab, click the Compare command. A drop-down menu will appear.
2. From the drop-down menu, click Compare.

   The Compare command

3. A dialog box will appear. Choose your Original document by clicking the drop-down arrow and selecting the document from the list. If your document is not on the list, click the Browse button to browse for the file.

   Choosing the Original document

4. Choose the Revised document the same way you chose the Original document, then click OK.

   Choosing the Revised document

At this point, Word compares the two documents to determine which changes were made, and it creates a new document that you can save if you want. The changes show up as colored markups, just like the ones that appear when using Track Changes. You can then use the Accept and Reject commands to finalize the document.

Comparing two documents

To the right of the new document, there’s a pane that displays the original and revised documents that you can use for reference (although you can’t edit them). If you don’t see the pane on the right, click CompareShow Source DocumentsShow Both.

Using the reviewing features safely

If there are any comments or tracked changes in your document, you should remove them before sending it to anyone you’re not collaborating with. Comments and tracked changes can reveal confidential information that could lead to embarrassment or make you or your company appear unprofessional—or worse.

Once you’ve removed all of the comments and tracked changes, it’s a good idea to double-check your document using the Document Inspector. The Document Inspector can tell you if there is any hidden data in your document that you may need to remove. It looks for data in many different places—not just comments and tracked changes.

To use the Document Inspector:

1. Save your document.
2. Click the File tab to go to Backstage view.
3. Select Info on the left side of the page.

   Selecting Info

4. Click the Check for Issues command. A drop-down menu will appear.
5. Select Inspect Document.

   Clicking Inspect Document

6. Click Inspect.

   Starting the inspection

7. The inspection results will show an exclamation mark for any categories where it found potentially sensitive data, and it will also have a Remove All button for each of these categories. Click Remove All to remove the data.

   Removing possibly sensitive data

8. Close the dialog box when you’re done.
9. From Backstage view, click Save to make the changes permanent.

Challenge!

1. Open an existing Word document. If you want, you can use this example.
2. Turn on Track Changes.
3. Delete some text.
4. Add some text.
5. Change some of the text formatting.
6. Experiment with the Display for Review command.
7. Accept all of the changes.
8. Use the Document Inspector to check the document.

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Microsoft Word allows the users to review the documents and provide their review comments inside the document. You can also enable tracking the changes in the document. So it will be useful later at the time of reviewing or finalizing the document.

Below are the steps to track changes in the Word document, Create/Delete the comments and Accept/Reject the changes made in the document.

This article applies to:

• Microsoft Word 2010

Step (1). Open your Word document into the Microsoft Word application.

Step (2). Click on the Review tab on Ribbon control. It will display review-related icons on Ribbon control.

Step (3). Check whether the Track Changes feature is already enabled or not. If it is not enabled, click on the Track Changes icon to enable Track Changes. Remember that before reviewing the document you must enable track changes. So this enables you to track all the changes you make to the document including insertions, deletions, and even formatting changes. This will be useful at the time of finalizing the changes in the document to accept or reject the changes you make to the document.

Step (4). Review the document and make any corrections to the document. The changes will be tracked and Word will create tracking entries in the document. So these tracking entries are useful to accept or reject while re-reviewing or finalizing the document.

Step (5). Insert the review comments by selecting the text or paragraph for which you want to provide your review comments and click on the New Comment icon. It will insert a comment and allow you to provide the text for your comment.

Step (6). Select the comment and update the text you want to provide into it or you can also delete the comment by clicking on the Delete comment icon. 

• You can also delete multiple comments at a time. Click on the arrow mark below the Delete icon. It will display a pull-down menu. Select Delete All Comments Shown to delete all displayed comments or click on Delete All Comments in Document to delete all the comments in the document.

Step (7). Usually, documents are on multiple pages and while reviewing the documents it is a bit difficult to navigate between the items which you want to review. You may not be required to review all the documents but may be required to review portions of the document or may be required to review particular reviewers’ changes in the document.

Step (8). Click on the Show Markup button which is under the Tracking group. It will display a pull-down menu. From Show Markup pull-down menu: 

• Select the items you want to review. Once you selected, those markups only showed in the document. For eg: You need to review only the comments made by reviewers, just select Comments and un-select the rest of the items. So in the document, it displays only the markups related to the comments.
• Select Reviewers menu item. It will display a sub-menu with a list of reviewers. Select the reviewers whose changes you want to track and un-select the rest of the reviewers. So in the document, it will show the markups related to the selected reviewers only.

Step (9). While reviewing the document, you may need to Accept or Reject the changes made in the document.

• Click on Accept button which is under the Changes group to accept the selected change.
• You can also accept multiple changes at a time:
  • Click on the arrow symbol under Accept button. It will display a pull-down menu.
  • From the pull-down menu, click on Accept All Changes in Document to accept all the changes in the document or click on Accept All Changes Shown to accept only the changes currently shown in the document.
• By clicking on the Reject button you can reject the selected change.
• You can also reject multiple changes at a time:
  • Click on the arrow symbol under the Reject button. It will display a pull-down menu.
  • From the pull-down menu, click on Reject All Changes in Document to reject all the changes in the document or click on Reject All Changes Shown to reject only the changes currently shown in the document.
• Navigate between the changes by clicking on the Previous or Next buttons.

Step (10). You can also see the summary of review changes by clicking on Reviewing Pane button which is under the Tracking group in Review ribbon control. This window is useful while reviewing the changes because it will display all the changes in one place in the respective section.

• Once you click on Reviewing Pane button it displays a Reviewing Pane either horizontal or vertical depending on your selection in Reviewing Pane pull-down menu. This menu will display when you click on the arrow button next to Reviewing Pane button from the Tracking group.
• Even you can Accept/Reject the changes from Reviewing Pane. Select the review item and right-click on it. It will display a pop-up menu. You can select Accept Deletion or Reject Deletion to accept or reject the selected change.
• On top of the Reviewing Pane, it displays a summary of revisions, types of changes along the count.

Once you are going to finalize the review of the document, you must review all the changes and you should not leave any of the changes left it either accepted or rejected before going to release the document.

Microsoft Office Word offers a Review Feature, which allows one to Track Changes in a document. In this guide, we are sharing how you can use the Review Feature or Track Changes feature in Microsoft Word.

I have broken down the Review Feature feature into multiple sections and explained how each of them is useful:

1. Enable Track Changes
2. Reviewing and Commenting
3. View Changes
4. Accepting and Rejecting Changes
5. Finalizing the document
6. Merging Comments and Changes into One Document
7. Compare two documents without Tracking

Merging and comparing documents are optional features, and you need to use it in different scenarios.

1] Enable Track Changes

Before you send a document that will go through a review, make sure to enable the Track Changes feature. Once it is turned on, changes made by any of the reviewers will be recorded with their name. Those changes can be approved or rejected by another person. The feature also offers a way to lock Track Changes so that nobody can disable it. Let’s learn both of them.

• Make sure the document is ready for review.
• Open the document, and then go to Review section > click on Track Changes, and then click on Track Changes menu again.
• Once enabled, you should notice that the button has a grey background.
• Next, click on Lock Tracking, and enter a password, confirm and click ok.
• After this, Track Changes will be disabled for you or anybody else unless disabled by using the same password again.

Note: If you lose or forget your password, Microsoft won’t be able to recover it for you. Make sure to note it somewhere regarding the document.

2]  Reviewing and Commenting

After this, whatever changes are made to the document will be recorded no matter where the document is shared and edited. Here is how the changes will be recorded:

• Deletions are marked with a strikethrough
• Additions are shown with an underline
• Every author gets its color for the changes
• Select a paragraph or set of words, and click on the comment button to add your comments

A red horizontal line will show up next to the line or paragraph, making it easier to identify. Click on it, and all changes and comments will be visible. Adding to this, you can further customize colors by clicking on the arrow on the right-bottom corner of the Tracking section.

Note: Even if you turn off tracking, the colored underlines and strikethrough will be visible in the document.

3] View Changes

Assuming a document has come back to you after review, and you need to find all the changes and comments. Go to Review > Tracking > Display for Review.

• Go to Review > tracking > change from Simple Markup to All Markup
• If you choose No Markup, then the document will display as the final version only
• If you select Original, you can view the original document without any changes

4] Accepting and Rejecting Changes

If you are ok with a difference, then click on Accept and move next, but if you do not like it, click on Reject and jump to next. It will undo the change to the previous revision. You should see that the difference is marked with an underline. You also have options to

• Accept All Changes in Document
• Reject All Changes in Document.

You also have the comments section, which can help you navigate through all the comments. You can reply to comments, mark it as resolved when you have made a change or delete it.

5] Finalizing the document

When you know everything is complete, follow these steps to remove any visible markups and comments.

• Delete all the comments by clicking on Comments > Delete > Delete all comments
• Click on Accept All changes and stop tracking
• You might be asked to enter the password if the tracking was locked.

Done this, the Review feature in Office Word document is complete. However, there are two more features that we have added to the guide. They can be handy in a different scenario.

6] Merge comments & changes from different documents into one Document

If you have given a document to be reviewed by multiple users, then you can combine them into one final document for review.

1. Open a blank Microsoft document, and go to Review > Compare > Combine
2. Select two documents, original on the left side, and edited on the right.
3. Click ok and repeat for all documents until it is over.

Change made by the authors will be visible in different colors. If you want to filter by author, you can click on Show Markup > Specific people and remove authors you don’t need.

When doing so, make sure to use the Protect feature to lock authors and setup editing restrictions. It is useful when a document is available on a shared location.

7] Compare two documents without Tracking

Lastly, if there was no tracking enabled, and changes were made, you can use the Compare tool to find the differences.

1. Open a blank document, and then go to Review > click on the Compare button, and then click on the Compare again.
2. It will show a similar dialogue box where you can select the original document, revised document, author name, and more.
3. You can also choose to compare comments, headers, footers, tables, and more.

That concludes our guide on how you can use the review features to track, comment, compare in Microsoft Word. It’s a powerful tool for companies where the documents are reviewed at different levels.

I hope the guide was easy to understand and follow.

Have you explored the Review tab on Microsoft Office’s ribbon beyond spell check and word count? Well Microsoft Word has more features to offer. In this blog, I will walk you through the Comments, Tracking, and Changes sections. Here there are features that help to review edits that have been made to a document. This is especially useful when a document is being passed back and forth between several people. I think you will find yourself using these features more often than you would expect.

Track Changes

Let’s begin with the largest button in the Track Changes section of the Review tab. If you click the icon above the words «Track Changes,» Word will begin recording your edits. You will either see your edits in a different color, or a vertical line will appear next to any section you edit. When there are several users, each users will have their own distinct color. To turn off Track Changes, simply click the same button you clicked to enable the feature.

Commenting

Not only can you record your edits, but you can also add comments pertaining to different sections of your document. To do this, simply highlight a portion of text and click «New Comment». You will see a box pop up where you can enter your thoughts. As before, different users will have their own colored comments. To delete a comment, click on the comment and find «Delete.» Users can also easily reply to comments, facilitating discussion about the changes.

If your Tracking settings are at their default, you should see a little comment icon wherever someone has added a comment. And of course you will see the edits of every user identified by a distinct color. If this is all you need then great! But some of you might want to see all the comments without having to click on them. Or maybe you need to see what the document looks like after or before the edits. This is all possible by changing the amount of markup you want to see.

Changing Viewable Markup

There are four options:

1. Simple Markup – this is the default. You will see a little bubble like icon for each comment that has been added. Also, any Track Changes will be shown by a vertical line in the margin section.
2. All Markup – as the name says, this option shows all the markup in the document.
3. No Markup – removes all the coloring but keeps the edits.
4. Original – this will show you what the document looked like before any of the edits were recorded.

Accepting and Rejecting Changes

The final thing you need to know is how to accept or reject any changes that have been tracked. All you need to do is find the «Changes» section in the Review tab. Here you can accept someone’s suggestions, or you can reject them. The «Previous» and «Next» will help you navigate through the document’s edits. You can also highlight more than one Track Change and then click «Accept.» If you want to accept or reject all Track Changes, you will find the options in the dropdown arrow beneath «Accept» or «Reject.»

Those are the basic reviewing features in Word. I would advise playing around with these tools and even the ones that are not mentioned in this blog. It’s good to be well-versed in Microsoft Word if you use it often. We hope you find the Track Changes capability useful as you edit documents. If you have any questions, feel free to contact us at Igniting Business.

Hi, Office Insiders! My name is Kimberley Chua, and I’m a Product Manager on the Word team. I’m excited to share that we’ve made it even easier to switch between editing, reviewing, and viewing your documents in Word for Windows.

Switch between editing, reviewing, and viewing

Have you ever been concerned about making unintended changes while reviewing a file written by a colleague? Use Viewing mode and be assured that you won’t be able to type on the canvas while reading the document. Switch to Reviewing mode to turn on Track Changes Just Mine and leave behind tracked changes in the document (or leave comments) when you want to offer suggestions.

We’ve updated Word for Windows so you can now easily change between modes with a couple clicks.

How it works

1. Open any Word document for which you have edit permissions.
2. Click the Editing button in the ribbon (in the top-right corner, next to the Share button), and then click Reviewing or Viewing to switch to a different way of working with your document. (NOTE: The button name will change based on the selected mode.)

3. To switch back to editing the document, select the button again and click Editing.

Tips and tricks

• Turning on Track Changes automatically sets the document to Reviewing mode.
• If you open a document that you don’t have edit or review permissions for, you can still access the document but you won’t be able to switch to either Editing or Reviewing mode. Any changes to the document will be blocked while you are reading the document in Viewing mode.

Availability

The feature is available to all users in Word for the web, and is rolling out to Beta Channel users running Version 2206 (Build 15314.10000) or later.

Don’t have it yet? It’s probably us, not you.

Features are released over some time to ensure things are working smoothly. We highlight features that you may not have because they’re slowly releasing to larger numbers of Insiders. Sometimes we remove elements to further improve them based on your feedback. Though this is rare, we also reserve the option to pull a feature entirely out of the product, even if you, as an Insider, have had the opportunity to try it.

Feedback

We are actively working on this feature, and your feedback is key to guiding future improvements. Please select Help > Feedback to tell us what you think. Thanks!

 Learn what other information you should include in your feedback to ensure it is actionable and reaches the right people. We’re excited to hear from you!

Sign up for the Office Insider newsletter and get the latest information about Insider features in your inbox once a month!

Revising a document with tracked changes in Word works just like revising a printed copy with a red pen. You can easily see the original text, and any additions, deletions, or changes made to the document are clearly marked.

Use Track Changes

In order for changes to be marked up, you need to first track the changes.

1. Click the Review tab on the ribbon.
2. Expand the Tracking group, if necessary.
3. Click the Track Changes button.

   

Now, any changes made to the document will be tracked and marked up.

Right-click the status bar and select Track Changes to toggle it on or off.

View Markup

Once changes are tracked, you can choose which changes appear marked up.

1. Expand the Tracking group, if necessary.
2. Click the Show Markup button.

   You can toggle whether or not tracking shows Comments, Ink, Insertions and Deletions, and Formatting changes. You can also toggle what appears in the balloons in the right margins, and hide revisions from certain people.

3. Select a type of markup to hide or show.

   

The selected type of markup is toggled on or off.

You can also use the Display for Review menu, directly above the Show Markup button, to control how detailed the markup that appears is.

• Simple Markup: Comments will appear, and text changes will be marked with a line in the margin.
• All Markup: Every change will be described in the margin, including what the change was and who made it.
• No Markup: No changes will be marked up.
• Original: The original document will be shown, without any of the changes that have been made.

Lock Tracking

To make sure that everyone’s changes get tracked, you can lock tracking so that it can’t be disabled without a password.

1. Click the Track Changes button’s list arrow.
2. Select Lock Tracking.

   A dialog box opens, where you can enter a password that will be required to turn Track Changes off.

   

3. Enter and confirm a password.
4. Click OK.

   

Track Changes is locked and can only be disabled with the password. Also, you cannot accept or reject changes while Track Changes is locked.

To unlock Track Changes, click the Track Changes button list arrow again, select Lock Tracking, enter the password, then click OK.

Review Revisions

Revising documents using Word’s revision features can save a lot of time, because the changes are already entered in your document. If you accept the changes, Word automatically incorporates the changes into your document. If you reject the changes, Word uses your original text.

1. Select a change, or use the Next Change and Previous Change buttons to move through changes.
2. Click Accept or Reject to accept or reject changes.

   

Changes that are accepted are incorporated into the document, removing the markup and moving on to the next change. Changes that are rejected are removed and replaced with the original text.

Right-click a revision and select Accept or Reject.

Review all tracked changes at once with the Reviewing Pane. Turn it on by clicking the Reviewing Pane button in the Tracking group.

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