Tracking tools in word

Track changes in Word

Note: If a document has been shared with you for review, you may not be able to turn off Track Changes. If you want to edit the document without tracking changes, you’ll need to either save a copy or ask the person who sent it to you to share it again with review mode turned off.

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Track changes drop down Off, For Everyone, Just Mine

Turn Track Changes on and off

On the Review tab, select Track Changes.

  • When Track Changes is on, the section is highlighted. Deletions are marked with a strikethrough, and additions are marked with an underline. Different authors’ changes are indicated with different colors.

  • When Track Changes is off, the section is not highlighted. Word stops marking changes, but the colored underlines and strikethroughs are still in the document.

Tip: You also can add a Track Changes indicator to the status bar. Right-click the status bar and select Track Changes.

View tracked changes 

Note: When a document is in Editing or Reviewing mode, you can select a tracked change to view a collaborator’s full, suggested change in a card that displays. Hover over the Accept or Reject button to see a preview of what that action would do to your final document.

Choose whose changes to track

You can choose to track only your own changes or everyone’s changes.

  • To track only your own changes — On the Review tab, select Track Changes > Just Mine.

  • To track everyone’s changes — On the Review tab, select Track Changes > For Everyone.

Tip: to use a password to keep others from turning off Track Changes — On the Review tab, select Track Changes > Lock Tracking.

Choose how you would like to see the changes in the document

You can choose the type of markup you want to see.

  1. On the Review tab, select Tracking.

  2. Select All Markup for the drop-down list to display.

  3. Select one of the following options.

  • Simple Markup displays tracked changes with a red line in the margin.

  • All Markup displays tracked changes with different colors of text and lines for each reviewer

  • No Markup hides the markup to show the document with changes incorporated

  • Original displays the original document without tracked changes and comments showing. However, any tracked changes or comments in the document that have not been accepted, rejected, or deleted remain in the document.

Choose the way track changes display

 You can choose the types of revisions that display and the way they display. If you choose to show revisions as balloons, they display in the margins of the document. If you choose to display them directly within the document in line. In line revisions display all deletions with strikethroughs instead of inside balloons.

  1. On the Review tab, select Track > Show Markup.

  2. Select Balloons and then select the type of display you want.

  • Show Revisions in Balloons

  • Show All Revisions Inline

  • Show Only Formatting in Balloons

Note: If you want to see tracked changes in balloons, you must be in Print Layout view or Web Layout view.

Display changes by type of edit 

  1. On the Review tab, select Track Changes > Show Markup.

  2. Select the type of edit.

  • Insertions and Deletions

  • Formatting

The check mark next to the item indicates that it’s selected.  

Note: Even if you hide a type of markup by clearing it on the Show Markup menu, the markup automatically displays each time the document is opened by you or a reviewer.

Display changes by reviewer(s)

  1. In Review > Tracking, select Show Markup.

  2. Select Specific People.

  3. Select to clear all check boxes except the ones next to the names of the reviewers whose changes you want to show.

Note: To select or clear all check boxes for all reviewers in the list, select All Reviewers.

Navigate tracked changes in Changes menu section

You can navigate from one tracked change to another.

  1. In Review > Changes, select Next to view the next tracked change.

  2. In Review > Changes, select Previous to view the previous tracked change.

Accept or Reject tracked changes

There are multiple ways to address tracked changes. The most proficient method is to identify the commentor and respond to the tracked change is through the card display when you click the marked change. The card displays the commentor name and the option to accept or reject the suggestion.

 Accept or reject tracked changes in sequence using the main menu

You can resolve teach tracked change from the beginning of the document to the end of the document in sequence. 

  1. Select Review Changes > Next.

  2. Select Accept or Reject. The next sequential tracked change is highlighted for your review and action.

Note: You can also accept or reject individual tracked changes using the main menus’ drop-down menus. This method is often used as a methodical approach to reviewing tracked changes.

Accept changes using the main menu

  1. In Review > Changes, select Accept.

  2. Select one of the options.

  • Accept and Move to Next

  • Accept This Change

  • Accept All Changes

  • Accept All Changes and Stop Tracking

Reject changes using the main menu

  1. In Review > Changes, select > Reject.

  2. Select one of the options.

  • Reject and Move to Next 

  • Reject This Change

  • Reject All Changes

  • Reject All Changes and Stop Tracking

Accept or reject changes within a document with a right click

Working within a document, you can right-click on a tracked change to accept or reject the change. Using the right-click method displays a banner menu option and a drop-down menu option.

Accept changes in-line with the right-click banner option

  1. Right-click a tracked change in the document to review a single suggestion.

  2. On the banner, select one of the following.

  • Accept Accept and Move to Next

  • Accept > Accept This Change

  • Accept > Accept All Changes

  • AcceptAccept All Changes and Stop Tracking

  • Accept and Move to Next

Accept changes in-line with the right-click drop-down menu option

  1. Right-click a tracked change in the document to review a single suggestion.

  2. In the drop-down menu, select one of the following.

  • Accept Insertion (or Accept Deletion)

  • Reject Insertion (or Reject Deletion)


Accept or reject all tracked changes at once on the main menu

Accept all tracked changes 

  1. In Review Changes, select Accept.

  2. Select one of the options.

  • Accept All Changes Shown

  • Accept All Changes

  • Accept All Changes and Stop Tracking 

Reject all tracked changes 

  1. In Review Changes, select Reject.

  2. Select one of the options.

  • Reject All Changes Shown

  • Reject All Changes

  • Reject All Changes and Stop Tracking 

Note: When Review>Tracking>Show Markup>Specific People>All Reviewers is selected, the Accept All Changes Shown and Reject All Changes Shown options do not display.

Hide tracked changes and comments when printing

Hiding changes doesn’t remove them from the document. You must use the Accept and Reject commands in the Changes group to remove markup from your document.

  1. Go to File > Print > Settings > Print All Pages.

  2. Under Document Info, select Print Markup to clear the check mark.

    Print Markup option

View all your changes in a summary list on the Reviewing Pane

  1. In Review Tracking, select Reviewing Pane.

  2. Choose if you want to see the Reviewing Pane next to or below your document.

  • Select Reviewing Pane Vertical to see a list of all changes next to your document.

  • Select Reviewing Pane Horizontal to see a list of all changes below your document.

You can use the Reviewing Pane as a handy tool for to check that all tracked changes have been removed from your document so that they show up to others who might view your document. The summary section at the top of the Reviewing Pane displays the exact number of visible tracked changes and comments that remain in your document.

The Reviewing Pane also allows you to review long comments that don’t fit within a comment bubble.

Note: The Reviewing Pane, unlike the document or the comment balloons, is not the best tool for making changes to your document. Instead of deleting text or comments or making other changes in the Reviewing Pane, make all editorial changes in the document. The changes will then be visible in the Reviewing Pane.

Important: Comments are no longer part of the Track Changes function.

Turn on Track Changes

You can set Word for the Web to track changes for all users who are collaborating on the document or to track only your changes. 

Track changes drop down Off, For Everyone, Just Mine

  1. On the Review tab, select Track Changes.

  2. In the Track Changes drop-down list, select one of the following:

    • To track only the changes that you make to the document, select Just Mine.

    • To track changes to the document made by all users, select For Everyone.
       

Turn off Track Changes

  1. On the Review tab, select Track Changes.

  2. In the Track Changes drop-down list, select Off.

Select the Markup view

  1. On the Review tab, select Markup view.

  2. Select one of the markup options.

  • Markup in margin (Simple Markup) — See suggestions in the margin

  • Markup on page (All Markup) — See suggestions on the page

Review, accept, or reject changes

Accept or reject tracked changes in sequence

You can review each tracked change in sequence and decide whether to accept or reject the change.

  1. Click or tap at the beginning of the document.

  2. On the Review tab, select Track Changes.

  3. Select Accept or Reject. As you accept or reject changes, Word will move to the next change.

    Tip: To move through changes in the document without accepting or rejecting them, select Next or Previous.

  4. Repeat until you’ve reviewed all of the changes in your document.

Accept or reject a single change

Rather than move through changes in sequence, you can accept or reject a single change. When you accept or reject the change, Word will not move to the next change in the document.

  1. Click the change.

  2. Select the option to accept or reject it.


When tracked changes are turned on, Word marks any changes made by any authors of the document. This is useful when you’re collaborating with other authors because you can see which authors made a particular change.

Turn Track Changes on

  1. On the Review tab, select Track Changes.

  2. Select to track only your own changes or everyone’s change.

  • To track only your own changes — On the Review tab, select Track Changes > Just Mine.

  • To track everyone’s changes — On the Review tab, select Track Changes > For Everyone.

    Note: To turn Track Changes off, select Track Changes again.

Accept or reject all tracked changes at once on the main menu

Accept all tracked changes 

  1. Select Reviewing Accept.

  2. Select one of the options.

  • Accept All Changes Shown

  • Accept All Changes

  • Accept All Changes and Stop Tracking 

Reject all tracked changes 

  1. Select Reviewing Reject.

  2. Select one of the options.

  • Reject All Changes Shown

  • Reject All Changes

  • Reject All Changes and Stop Tracking      

​​​ Track changes markup options

Word shows changes in the document by displaying a line in the margin. If you switch to All Markup view, you’ll see changes inline and in balloons.

Markup is highlighted near the margin

Anytime someone adds a comment, it’ll show up in a balloon.

A comment in the margin is highlighted

Review changes inline

To see changes inline instead of in balloons, do the following:

  1. On the Review Tab, select Markup Options

  2. Point to Balloons and select Show All Revisions Inline.

    Show all Revisions inline is highlighted

Keep Track Changes on

To prevent others from turning off Track Changes, lock Track Changes on with a password.

Important: Be sure to remember the password so you can turn Track Changes off when you’re ready to accept or reject the changes.

Lock Track Changes with a password

  1. On the Review tab, select Protect > Protect Document.

    Protection section is highlighted

  2. In the Password box, enter a password.

  3. Re-enter your password and select OK.

While tracked changes are locked, you can’t turn off change tracking, and you can’t accept or reject changes.

Unlock Track Changes

  1. On the Review tab, select ProtectProtect Document.

  2. Under Protection, uncheck Protect document for.

  3. Enter your password and select OK.

 For more info, see

remove the tracked changes and comments.

Turn Track Changes on or off (Word for iPad)

  1. Tap the Review tab.

  2. Tap the control next to Track Changes to turn Track Changes on or off.

    Turn Track Changes on or off

Show or hide markup (Word for iPad)

  1. On the Review tab, tap the Display for Review icon.

    Display for Review

  2. In the Display for Review list, tap the option you want:

    • All Markup (inline) shows the final document with tracked changes visible inline

    • No markup shows the final document without tracked changed

    • Original shows the original document with no tracked changes

Show tracked changes by type (Word for iPad)

  1. On the Review tab, tap the Display for Review icon.

  2. In the Display for Review list, tap Show Markup.

    Show Markup menu

  3. In the Show Markup list, tap the option you want:

    • Ink shows or hides any marks made by digital inking in the document.

    • Insertions & Deletions shows or hides inserted or deleted text.

    • Formatting shows or hides formatting changes.

    • Show Revisions in Balloons shows changes in balloons in the right margin.

    • Show Only Formatting in Balloons shows only formatting changes in balloons and keeps the other changes as inline tracking.

Show tracked changes by reviewer (Word for iPad)

If there are multiple reviewers for the document, Word will show all changes by default. However, you can choose to show only changes made by specific viewers.

  1. On the Review tab, tap the Display for Review icon.

  2. In the Display for Review list, tap Show Markup.

  3. In the Show Markup list, tap Reviewers.

  4. In the Other Authors list, tap the names of the reviewers whose changes you want to see or tap All Reviewers.

Accept changes (Word for iPad)

  1. Tap twice on a change in the document to select it.

  2. On the Review tab, tap the Accept icon.

    Accept Changes menu

  3. Do one of the following:

    • Tap Accept & Move to Next to accept the change and move to the next change in the document.

    • Tap Accept Deletion, Accept Insertion, or Accept Change to accept the selected change, identified contextually by type, and not move to the next change in the document.

    • Tap Accept All Shown to accept all changes that are visible, but not changes that are hidden. For example, if you’re viewing only changes made by a specific reviewer, tapping Accept All Shown accepts only the changes made by that reviewer.

    • Tap Accept All to accept all changes in the document.

    • Tap Accept All & Stop Tracking to accept all changes in the document and turn off Track Changes.

  4. To move to another change without accepting or rejecting it, tap the Previous or Next icon.

Reject changes (Word for iPad)

  1. Tap twice on a change in the document to select it.

  2. On the Review tab, tap the Reject icon.

    Reject Changes menu

  3. Do one of the following:

    • Tap Reject & Move to Next to reject the change and move to the next change in the document.

    • Tap Reject Deletion, Reject Insertion, or Reject Change to reject the selected change, identified contextually by type, and not move to the next change in the document.

    • Tap Reject All Shown to reject all changes that are visible, but not changes that are hidden. For example, if you’re viewing only changes made by a specific reviewer, tapping Reject All Shown rejects only the changes made by that reviewer.

    • Tap Reject All to reject all changes in the document.

    • Tap Rejects All & Stop Tracking to reject all changes in the document and turn off Track Changes.

  4. To move to another change without accepting or rejecting it, tap the Previous or Next icon.

Delete comments (Word for iPad)

  1. Tap twice on a comment in the document to select it.

  2. Tap the Review tab.

    Review tab comments menu

  3. Tap the Delete icon to delete the comment or press and hold the Delete icon until the Delete list appears, and then do one of the following:

    • Tap Delete to delete only the selected comment.

    • Tap Delete All to delete all comments in the document.

  4. To move to another comment without deleting it, tap the Previous or Next icon.

Turn Track Changes on or off (Word for iPhone)

  1. Tap the pen icon at the top to open the ribbon.

  2. Tap the Review tab.

    Review tab

  3. Tap the control next to Track Changes to turn Track Changes on or off.

    Turn Track Changes on or off

Show or hide markup (Word for iPhone)

  1. On the Review tab, tap Display for Review.

    Display for Review

  2. Tap the option you want:

    • All Markup (inline) shows the final document with tracked changes visible inline

    • No markup shows the final document without tracked changed

    • Original shows the original document with no tracked changes

Show tracked changes by type (Word for iPhone)

  1. On the Review tab, tap Display for Review.

  2. Tap Show Markup.

    Show Markup

  3. In the Show Markup list, tap the option you want:

    • Ink shows or hides any marks made by digital inking in the document.

    • Insertions & Deletions shows or hides inserted or deleted text.

    • Formatting shows or hides formatting changes.

Show tracked changes by reviewer (Word for iPhone)

If there are multiple reviewers for the document, Word will show all changes by default. However, you can choose to show only changes made by specific viewers.

  1. On the Review tab, tap Display for Review.

  2. Tap Show Markup.

  3. Tap Reviewers.

  4. In the Other Authors list, tap the names of the reviewers whose changes you want to see or tap All Reviewers.

Accept changes (Word for iPhone)

  1. Tap twice on a change in the document to select it.

  2. On the Review tab, tap Accept.

    Accept tracked changes

  3. Do one of the following:

    • Tap Accept & Move to Next to accept the change and move to the next change in the document.

    • Tap Accept Deletion, Accept Insertion, or Accept Change to accept the selected change, identified contextually by type, and not move to the next change in the document.

    • Tap Accept All Shown to accept all changes that are visible, but not changes that are hidden. For example, if you’re viewing only changes made by a specific reviewer, tapping Accept All Shown accepts only the changes made by that reviewer.

    • Tap Accept All to accept all changes in the document.

    • Tap Accept All & Stop Tracking to accept all changes in the document and turn off Track Changes.

Reject changes (Word for iPhone)

  1. Tap twice on a change in the document to select it.

  2. On the Review tab, tap Reject.

    Reject tracked changes

  3. Do one of the following:

    • Tap Reject & Move to Next to reject the change and move to the next change in the document.

    • Tap Reject Deletion, Reject Insertion, or Reject Change to reject the selected change, identified contextually by type, and not move to the next change in the document.

    • Tap Reject All Shown to reject all changes that are visible, but not changes that are hidden. For example, if you’re viewing only changes made by a specific reviewer, tapping Reject All Shown rejects only the changes made by that reviewer.

    • Tap Reject All to reject all changes in the document.

    • Tap Reject All & Stop Tracking to reject all changes in the document and turn off Track Changes.

Delete comments (Word for iPhone)

  1. Tap twice on a comment in the document to select it.

  2. One the Review tab, tap Delete, and then do one of the following:

    • Tap Delete to delete only the selected comment.

    • Tap Delete All to delete all comments in the document.

      Delete comments

  3. To move to another comment without deleting it, tap the Previous or Next icon

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This tutorial shows how to use Track Changes in Microsoft Word. Track Changes helps us edit documents by tracking insertions, deletions, replacements, and format changes. Word calls these edits markups.

This tutorial also includes an overview of Word’s new Modern comment tool.

We will cover twelve topics:

  1. How to Turn Track Changes On and Off
  2. How to Show and Hide Track Changes
  3. How to Delete Text with Track Changes
  4. How to Insert Text with Track Changes
  5. How to Replace Text with Track Changes
  6. How to Change Formatting with Track Changes
  7. How to Accept or Reject Track Changes
  8. How to Insert Comments
  9. How to Reply to Comments
  10. How to Resolve Comments
  11. How to Delete Comments
  12. How to Open and Close the Reviewing Pane

Watch all the steps shown here in real time!

Explore more than 200 writing-related software tutorials on my YouTube channel.

Let’s dive in…

How to Turn Track Changes On and Off

  1. Select the Review tab in the ribbon.

Review tab in Word 365

Figure 1. Review tab
  1. Select the Track Changes button in the Tracking group. The button will appear darker than the rest of the ribbon when Track Changes is turned on.

Track Changes button in Word 365

Figure 2. Track Changes button
  1. Select the Track Changes button (see figure 2) again to turn off tracking.

How to Show and Hide Track Changes

You can control how comments and edits appear by using the Display for Review and Show Markup menus in the Tracking group in the ribbon.

  1. Select the Display for Review drop-down menu to choose how edits and comments are displayed. The options are (A) Simple Markup, (B) All Markup, (C) No Markup, and (D) Original.

Display for Review menu in Word 365

Figure 3. Display for Review menu

(A) Simple Markup displays the edited version of the document without visible in-line edits. However, edits are indicated by a vertical line in the left margin.

For example, if you delete a sentence, that sentence won’t appear on screen. Instead, a vertical line will appear in the left margin showing that a change was made in that location.

If you want to see the edit, select the vertical line to switch to All Markup.

Simple Markup line in Word 365

Figure 4. Simple Markup line

Comments will be visible on the right side of the screen when in Simple Markup.

(B) All Markup displays all edits and comments.

A vertical line, like the one shown in Simple Markup (see figure 4), will appear on the left side of the screen indicating that a change was made in that location.

Select that line to switch to Simple Markup.

(C) No Markup displays the edited version of the document without any visible edits or comments.

(D) Original displays the original version of the document without any edits or comments.

  1. Select the Show Markup drop-down menu to choose what features Track Changes displays. (Note that this menu is called Markup Options in Word for Mac.)

I recommend showing markups for Insertions and Deletions and Formatting as well as choosing Show Only Formatting in Balloons so that your insertions and deletions will appear in the text and formatting changes will appear next to the text.

Show Markup menu in Word 365

Figure 5. Show Markup menu

Be default, comments will appear in balloons on the right side of the text.

Important note: The remaining sections show Track Changes in the All Markup view.

How to Delete Text with Track Changes

  1. Select the text you want to delete.
  2. Select the Delete key on your keyboard. The deleted text will appear with a strikethrough in the All Markup view.

Track Changes showing deleted text in Word 365

Figure 6. Deleted text

How to Insert Text with Track Changes

  1. Place your cursor where you want to insert new text.
  2. Type the new text. The insertion will appear with an underline in the All Markup view.

Inserted text with Track Changes turned on in Word 365

Figure 7. Inserted Text

How to Replace Text with Track Changes

  1. Select the text you want to replace.
  2. Type the replacement text. The original text will appear with a strikethrough, and the replacement text will appear with an underline in the All Markup view.

Replaced text with Track Changes turned on in Word 365

Figure 8. Replaced text

How to Change Formatting with Track Changes

Formatting includes the font style, font size, font color, italics, bold font, underlining, superscripting and subscripting, indentations, alignment, and margins.

  1. Select the text you want to reformat.
  2. Change the format. Track Changes will automatically display the change with your other markup if you have selected formatting in the Show Markup section of the Tracking group.

Format changes in Track Changes balloon in Word 365

Figure 9. Format change in balloon

How to Accept or Reject Track Changes

Edits created with Track Changes must be accepted before they become part of your document. You can accept or reject edits individually or all at once.

Accept or Reject Edits Individually

  1. Click on or select the insertion, deletion, or replacement text.
  2. Select the Accept or Reject button in the Changes group.

Accept and Reject markup buttons in Word 365

Figure 10. Accept and Reject buttons

Pro Tip: Use the Previous and Next buttons to navigate through all the edits in the document.

Previous and Next markup buttons in Word 365

Figure 11. Previous and Next buttons

Accept or Reject All Edits

Unless you are very confident in your reviewers’ expertise, I strongly caution against accepting or rejecting all edits without first checking the accuracy of each one.

  1. Select the Accept or Reject menu arrow in the Changes group.
  1. Select your preferred option: Accept/Reject All Changes or Accept/Reject All Changes and Stop Tracking.

Accept menu in Word 365

Figure 12. Accept/Reject menu in Word 365

This section covers the basics of using comments in Word. For a more in-depth look, please see my previous tutorial “How to Use Comments in Microsoft Word (Modern Comments).”

You can use the Comment tool with Track Changes turned on or turned off.

  1. Place your cursor near the text you want to comment on or select the text.
  2. Select the Review tab in the ribbon (see figure 1).
  3. Select the New Comment button in the Comments group.

New Comment button in Word 365

Figure 13. New Comment button
  1. Type your comment into the comment text box on the right side of the screen.

If you are part of an organization, you may be able to @ mention other users in your comments.

  1. Select the Post button or type the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + Enter (PC) or Command + Return (Mac) to post the comment.

Comment text box and Post button in Word 365

Figure 14. Comment text box and Post button
  1. If you need to edit your comment, select the Edit button (PC users see figure 15; Mac users see figure 16).

Word 365 Comment edit button (PC)

Figure 15. Edit button (PC)
Comment Edit button in Word for Mac 365
Figure 16. Edit button (Mac)
  1. Type your reply into the Reply text box in the other person’s comment.
  2. Select the Post button or type the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + Enter (PC) or Command + Return (Mac) to post the reply.

Reply text box and Post button in Word 365

Figure 17. Reply text box and Post button

You can mark a comment as “Resolved” to tell other people (or remind yourself) that an issue has been taken care of. However, you can also reopen a resolved comment, thereby turning it back to a regular comment.

  1. Select the three-dot menu in the comment.
  2. Select Resolve thread from the drop-down menu.

Resolve thread option in Word 365

Figure 18. Resolve thread option

The comment will no longer be visible in the contextual view on the right side of the screen.

How to Reopen Resolved Comments

  1. Select the Review tab (see figure 1).
  2. Select the Show Comments menu arrow.
  3. Select List from the drop-down menu.

Show Comments menu in Word 365

Figure 19. Show Comments menu
  1. Select the Reopen button in the comment.

Reopen comment button in Word 365

Figure 20. Reopen comment button

Here are two ways to delete comments.

Method 1: Select the three-dot menu in the comment and then select Delete thread from the drop-down menu.

Delete thread option in Word 365

Figure 21. Delete thread option

Method 2: Place your cursor in the comment or the text connected to the comment and then select the Delete menu arrow in the Review tab.

From there, choose Delete to delete the current comment, or Delete All Comments Shown, Delete All Comments in Document, or Delete All Resolved Comments (PC only).

Delete comment menu in Word 365

Figure 22. Delete comment menu

How to Open and Close the Reviewing Pane

The Reviewing Pane (labeled Revisions) shows all the comments and edits selected in the Show Markup drop-down menu in the Tracking group in the ribbon, along with the total number of those comments and markups in the document.

The Reviewing Pane isn’t necessary for using Track Changes, but it can be helpful when you need to find a specific edit or want to see how many edits or comments are in the document.

  1. Select the Review tab (see figure 1).
  2. Select the Reviewing Pane button in the Tracking group.

The Reviewing Pane will appear, normally on the left side of your screen.

Reviewing Pane button and Reviewing Pane in Word 365

Figure 23. Reviewing Pane button and Reviewing Pane
  1. Reselect the Reviewing Pane button to close the Reviewing Pane.

Related Resources

How to Copy and Paste Text with Comments and Track Changes in Word

How to Remove User Names from Existing Track Changes in Microsoft Word

How to Change Your User Name for Track Changes in Microsoft Word

How to Stop Microsoft Word from Calling You “Author” in Track Changes

How to Change the Color of Track Changes in Microsoft Word

Updated January 16, 2023

Learn what Track Changes is, how to track changes in Word, how to remove tracked changes in Word, and much more.

Track Changes in Word is a powerful feature that makes it possible to mark changes that are made to a document. The feature includes several tools you can use to control which types of changes to track, how to display the tracked changes, and finally how to accept or remove the tracked changes.

Word has included Track Changes functionality for decades. Microsoft has changed the Track Changes features in Word 2013 and later versions compared to earlier versions.

This article covers the Track Changes feature as it works in Word 2013, Word 2016, Word 2019, Word 2021, and Word for Microsoft 365.

If you are using an older version of Word, see Shauna Kelly’s article about Track changes, covering Word 2010 and earlier versions.

Word refers to both tracked changes and comments that are added using Word’s comment feature as revisions. Some of tools discussed in this article are also used in relation to comments. I have covered the Word comment feature in detail in the article How comments in Word work. Please refer to that article for help on comments in Word.

Below, you will find a Table of Contents showing all headings in the article. Click a heading to go to the section in question. When you scroll down, a Go to Info About list will appear to the left, showing the main headings. These headings also work as hyperlinks that let you quickly go to the relevant content. 

What is Track Changes in Word?

Track Changes in Word lets you keep track of the changes that are made to a document. This is useful in the editing process of a document and when you ask others for feedback.

Track Changes can be used to keep track of changes no matter whether only you or several people work on a document. Tracked changes can be displayed in a number of different ways in Word. You can also entirely hide the changes. All the different display options are explained later in this article.

Example of track changes in Word. In this example, inserted text is in red and underlined whereas deleted text is in blue and strikethrough

Figure 1. Example of text with tracked changes. In this example, inserted text is in red and underlined whereas deleted text is in blue and strikethrough.

You don’t need to accept all changes. You can select to either accept or reject the individual changes. You can also accept or reject all changes in one operation.

Track Changes need to be turned on for Word to mark the changes. If you email a document to somebody else for feedback, the other person can turn on Track Changes before editing the document. When the document is returned to you, you can see which changes have been made.

Don’t worry if Track Changes has not been turned on during editing. Word has a compare feature that lets you compare two versions of a document and show the differences as tracked changes. This means that you can quickly generate a copy showing all the differences between two versions of a document. For more details, see How to find the differences between two versions of a document below.

Where is track changes in Word?

The track changes tools are found on the Review tab in the Ribbon:

The Track Changes tools are found on the Review tab in the Ribbon. The tools are marked by a colored frame here

Figure 2. The Track Changes tools in Word are found on the Review tab in the Ribbon. The tools are marked by a colored frame here.

Terminology used in Word in relation to Track Changes

In the different commands related to Track Changes in Word, you will find a number of terms in use. It can be a bit confusing since some of the terms mean the same. Terms with the same meaning seem to be used more or less randomly. See the list below:

Terms

What the terms mean

Tracked changes

Changes

Markup

Revisions

The changes that have been marked by the Track Changes feature

Note that the terms markup and revisions in most cases also cover comments inserted using Word’s comment feature

Author

Reviewer

A person who has edited/made changes to a document

Balloons

Tracked changes or comments shown in the margin of a document

Accept

Incorporates a tracked change in the document, as if it belonged to the original document.

Reject

Removes (or deletes) a tracked change from the document, as if it had not been made

Display

Show

The way Word visually presents the tracked changes on the screen

In other language versions of Word than English, the confusion may be even worse since the translations may not be consistent. For example, I have found examples in Danish versions of Word where even more terms have been introduced due to inconsistent or incorrect translation.

Is Track Changes the same as redlining in Word?

You may see the terms redline, redlining, blackline, or blacklining used instead of Track Changes. I have found a number of definitions of these terms and the definitions do not say precisely the same.

Redline or redlining seems to be used in the same meaning as Track Changes. The terms indicate that red ink is used to mark changes in a document.

Blackline, blacklining, or legal blacklining seems to be used primarily if changes are marked in a separate document, showing the differences between two versions of a document, i.e. without making any changes in the source documents. You can create such document using Word’s Compare or Combine features. See How to find the differences between two versions of a document and How to create a new document that combines tracked changes from different authors while keeping existing tracked changes below.

Basic concepts – what you should know before you start using Track Changes

The are some basic concepts you should be aware of before you start using Track Changes. If you have never used Track Changes before, it can be a little confusing – but once you learn how it works, it is very powerful.

There are four steps to tracking changes

Tell Word to track changes.

If you want to track the changes you make to a document, you must first turn on Track Changes.

As long as Track Changes is turned on, information about the changes you make is registered in the document. If you turn off Track Changes, Word will stop registering new changes you make. You can turn on or of Track Changes whenever you want.

Even if Track Changes is turned off at the moment, a Word document can contain tracked changes from earlier.

Tell Word to display tracked changes.

Even if a document contains tracked changes, you may not see it. The display of tracked changes can be turned on so the changes are visible or turned off so the changes are hidden.

Even if you hide the tracked changes, they are still in the document until they are accepted or rejected.

Tell Word how to display tracked changes.

Word has a number of options you can use to control how the tracked changes are displayed

The display options let you determine both which types of changes you see and in which way you see them.

Tell Word to accept or reject the changes.

Tracked changes in a document will remain in the document until they are accepted or rejected. That is the only way to remove them.

How to enable track changes in Word

As explained above, you must turn on Track Changes to tell Word to track all the changes you make in your document.

How to turn on Track Changes in Word

You can use different methods to turn on Track Changes to start tracking your changes.

All methods work as toggles that alternately turns Track Changes on and off. This means that you can use the same methods to turn off Track Changes.

IMPORTANT
Turning Track Changes on or off doesn’t affect whether you can see the tracked changes. See How to display tracked changes in Word below.

METHOD 1 – Use keyboard shortcut

Press Ctrl+Shift+E to turn on Track Changes.

The shortcut works as a toggle. If already turned on, the shortcut turns off Track Changes. Note that this shortcut works in all versions of Word.

This is the fastest method.

METHOD 2 – Click Track Changes icon on the Review tab

To turn on Track Changes, select the Review tab and click the Track Changes icon.

The icon works as a toggle. If you click the icon again, you turn off Track Changes.

If you click the text below the icon, a menu appears from where you can select Track Changes to turn it on.

You can see on the color of the Track Changes icon whether it is turned on or off. The icon is highlighted when Track Changes is on.

Stop track changes. Track Changes if off

Figure 3A. Track changes is disabled: Track Changes is off.

Enable track changes. Track Changes if on

Figure 3B. Track changes is enabled: Track Changes is on (the icon is highlighted).

METHOD 3 – Use the Quick Access Toolbar (QAT)

TIP
You can add Track Changes to the Quick Access Toolbar (QAT) for easy access. The QAT is always visible. This also makes if easy to see whether Track Changes is on or off.

To add the icon to the toolbar, right-click the Track Changes icon on the Review tab and select Add to Quick Access Toolbar.

Track Changes has been added to the Quick Access Toolbar (QAT) for easy access

Figure 4. Track Changes has been added to the Quick Access Toolbar (QAT) for easy access. Here marked by a colored frame. The icon is highlighted when Track Changes is on.

METHOD 4 – Use the Status Bar

On the Status Bar (in the bottom of the Word window), click the text Track Changes.

The text in the Status Bar works as a toggle. If you click it again, you turn off Track Changes.

Enable track changes. Turn on Track Changes via the Status Bar. The text “Off” or “On” tells whether Track Changes is currently off or on

Figure 5. Turn on Track Changes via the Status Bar. The text “Off” or “On” tells whether Track Changes is currently off or on.

If Track Changes is not shown in the Status Bar, right-click in the Status Bar and select Track Changes from the Customize Status Bar

If you can’t see Track Changes, right-click in the Status Bar and select Track Changes from the Customize Status Bar menu that appears.

Figure 6. If Track Changes is not shown in the Status Bar, right-click in the Status Bar and select Track Changes from the Customize Status Bar.

How to stop tracking changes in Word

As explained above, you enable track changes by turning on Track Changes. To stop tracking changes so that Word no longer marks new edits you make, you must turn off Track Changes. Read on below.

How to turn off track changes in Word

You can turn off Track Changes using the same methods as you can use for turning it on. See How to turn on Track Changes in Word above.

IMPORTANT
Turning Track Changes on or off doesn’t affect whether you can see the tracked changes. See How to display tracked changes in Word below.

What is Track Changes Cards and how to get rid of them

Track Changes Cards are pop-up windows that may appear in Word for Microsoft 365 when you click in a change. I have written a separate article about those cards and how you can disable them using my free Word add-in DocTools StopSpellingPopUp. See the article How to disable Track Changes Cards in Word for details.

How to find out whether Track Changes is on or off

Note that tracked changes may not be visible in your document even if Track Changes is on. Tracked changes are only visible if you have set Word to display the changes. See How to display tracked changes in Word below.

IMPORTANT
Turning Track Changes on or off doesn’t affect whether you can see the tracked changes. See How to display tracked changes in Word below.

METHOD 1 – Look at the Status Bar

Look at the Status Bar at the bottom of the screen. Changes are currently being tracked if you see Track Changes: On in the Status Bar.

See METHOD 4 – Use the Status Bar above if you can’t see the text Tracked Changes: On or Tracked Changes: Off in the Status Bar.

METHOD 2 – Look at the Review tab in the Ribbon

If the Track Changes icon in the Review tab in the Ribbon is highlighted, Track Changes is on. See Figure 3 above.

METHOD 3 – Look at the Quick Access Toolbar (QAT)

This method is only relevant if you have added the Track Changes icon to the QAT. See METHOD 3 – Use the Quick Access Toolbar (QAT) above. If the Track Changes icon in the QAT is highlighted, Track Changes is on.

Displaying or hiding tracked changes

How to display tracked changes in Word

Word has a number of options that influence how tracked changes are displayed. All the options can be accessed from the Tracking group on the Review tab in the Ribbon. Below, you can learn how the individual options work.

The different options influence each other. It can be rather difficult to get an overview of all the relations. The result is determined by the combination of your settings in:

  • the Display for Review menu (see Figure 7 below)
  • the Show Markup menu (you can see the menu in Figure 14 below.)
  • the Advanced Track Changes Options dialog box (see Figure 22 below)

The Display for Review menu includes four display options. See the descriptions of the options below

Figure 7. The Display for Review menu includes four display options that determine how tracked changes are shown. See the descriptions of the options below.

Display option

How are tracked changes displayed

Simple Markup

Red vertical lines in the margin show where changes are found. See Example 1 – Simple Markup display below.

In the Advanced Track Changes Options dialog box > Markup section > Changed lines, you can determine how and where the red, vertical lines are shown.

TIP: You can click a red line in the margin to switch to All Markup display.

All Markup

Shows all changes with different colors and lines. The red lines from Simple Markup display turns into gray lines.

The exact display depends on your settings in the Show Markup menu and in the Advanced Track Changes Options dialog box.

  • If Track Changes is on, insertions and deletions are always tracked.
  • Insertions and deletions are only shown if Show Markup menu > Insertions and Deletions is turned on. This option can also be turned on or off from the Track Changes Options dialog box (see the dialog box in Figure 21 below).
  • Moves of content are only tracked if you have checked the Track Moves check box in the Advanced Track Changes Options dialog box (see the dialog box in Figure 22 below).
  • Formatting changes are only tracked if you have checked the Track Formatting check box in the Advanced Track Changes Options dialog box.
  • Formatting changes are only shown if Show Markup menu > Formatting is turned on. This option can also be turned on or off from the Track Changes Options dialog box.

For an illustration of the Advanced Track Changes Options dialog box, see Figure 22 below.

See Example 2 – All Markup display + Show Revisions in Balloons and Example 3 – All Markup display + Show All Revisions Inline below..

TIP: You can click a gray line in the margin to switch to Simple Markup display.

No Markup

Shows the document as if you had accepted all the tracked changes. This means that the document will look as if all the changes had been there always.

Note that the tracked changes are still there – they are just hidden.

Original

Shows the document as if you had rejected all the tracked changes. This means that the document will look as it did before any of the changes were added.

Note that the tracked changes are still there – they are just hidden.

Summary of the facts from above:

  • To see tracked changes, you must select either Simple Markup or All Markup from Display for Review menu.
  • In addition, you must make sure that a check mark is shown in the Show Markup menu for the types of tracked changes you want to see: Comments (not handled in this article), Insertions and Deletions, and/or Formatting.
  • In the Advanced Track Changes Options dialog box, set up how you want to see the tracked changes.

Example 1 – Simple Markup display

Track changes - Example of Simple Markup

Figure 8. Example of Simple Markup. Note the red lines in the right margin. The lines show where edits are made. You can have the lines shown in the left margin instead, if you want. You can click a red line in the margin to switch to All Markup display.

In Simple Markup display, any comments will appear as small comment icons in the margin.

Example 2 – All Markup display + Show Revisions in Balloons

Example of All Markup in combination with Show Markup > Balloons > Show All Revisions Inline

Figure 9. Example of All Markup in combination with Show Markup > Balloons > Show All Revisions Inline. Note the gray lines in the right margin. The lines appear in the same places as the red lines in Figure 8 above. You can click a gray line in the margin to switch to Simple Markup display.

Example 3 – All Markup display + Show All Revisions Inline

Track changes - Example of All Markup in combination with Show Markup > Balloons > Show All Revisions Inline

Figure 10. Example of All Markup in combination with Show Markup > Balloons > Show All Revisions Inline. Note the gray lines in the right margin. The lines appear in the same places as the red lines in Figure 8 above. You can click a gray line in the margin to switch to Simple Markup display.

IMPORTANT
Even if you have selected All Markup, you may not see all changes. You can define which types of changes you want to see.

How to hide tracked changes in Word without removing the changes

When working with tracked changes in a document, you may sometimes want to see the document without displaying the changes. You can hide tracked changes while keeping the tracked changes in the document.

If Track Changes is turned on, Word will continue to track the changes but just not show them as long as you are hiding tracked changes.

METHOD 1 – Select Review tab > Display for Review > No Markup

If you select Review tab > Display for Review > No Markup, Word will display your document as if you had accepted all the tracked changes in the document.

It hides the tracked changes but does not remove them. If another user opens the document, that user can easily display the changes.

METHOD 2 – Select Review tab > Display for Review > Original

If you select Review tab > Display for Review > Original, Word will display your document as if you had rejected all the tracked changes in the document.

It hides the tracked changes but does not remove them. If another user opens the document, that user can easily display the changes.

How to remove tracked changes in Word

As explained above, tracked changes remain in the document until they are accepted or rejected. Below, you will learn how to remove tracked changes individually or remove all tracked changes entirely from a Word document.

How to accept or reject a single tracked change

METHOD 1 – Use the right-click menu

To accept a tracked change, right-click in the change and select Accept Insertion or Accept Deletion or Accept Format Change.

To reject a tracked change, right-click in the change and select Reject Insertion or Reject Deletion or Reject Format Change.

The menu that appears when you right-click depends on the context. There are situations where the Accept or Reject commands are not available in the right-click menu. For example, that is most often the case if you right-click in text marked as a spelling error. In that case, use one of the other methods.

METHOD 2 – Click the Accept or Reject icon in the Review tab in the Ribbon

Click within the change, then click Accept or Reject in the Review tab in the Ribbon.

If you have selected text that includes more than one tracked change, all changes in the selection will be accepted or rejected.

METHOD 3 – Use the Accept or Reject menu in the Review tab in the Ribbon

To accept a change and automatically move to the next change, select Review tab > Accept > Accept and Move to Next. See Figure 11 below.

To accept a change without moving to the next, select Review tab > Accept > Accept This change. See Figure 11 below. Use this method if you want to be able to see the result before Word moves on to the next change.

To reject a change and automatically move to the next change, select Review tab > Reject > Reject and Move to Next.

To reject a change without moving to the next, select Review tab > Reject > Reject Change. Use this method if you want to be able to see the result before Word moves on to the next change.

The menu that is displayed if you click the arrow below Accept in the Review tab

Figure 11. The menu that is displayed if you click the arrow below Accept in the Review tab. A corresponding menu is found when you click Reject.

How to accept or reject all tracked changes in a Word document at once

To accept all tracked changes in the document in one operation, select Review tab > Accept > Accept All Changes. If you want to turn off Track Changes at the same time, select Review tab > Accept > Accept All Changes and Stop Tracking. See Figure 11 above.

To reject (delete) all tracked changes in the document in one operation, select Review tab > Reject > Reject All Changes. If you want to turn off Track Changes at the same time, select Review tab > Reject > Reject All Changes and Stop Tracking.

Formatting changes – how of get rid of them and stop marking formatting changes

In many cases, you may only be interested in keeping track of content changes in the form of insertions and deletions. Changes to formatting, such as style changes or applying bold font, may be irrelevant.

Read on below to learn how to accept existing formatting changes and stop marking new formatting changes you make.

How to accept formatting changes and keep all other tracked changes

  1. Select Review tab > Tracking group > Show Markup and make sure to set check marks as follows:

       Comments: Not checked
    Insertions and Deletions: Not checked
    Formatting: Checked

      Only Formatting must have a check mark.

  2. Select Review tab > Show Markup > Specific People and make sure All Reviewers is selected.
  3. Select Review tab > Changes group > Accept menu > Accept All Changes Shown.
    Since only formatting changes were shown, only formatting changes will be accepted.
  4. Select Review tab > Tracking group > Show Markup and turn on Comments and/or Insertions and Deletions again to show those types of changes when Track Changes is on.

See below if you want to stop tracking new formatting changes you make.

How to stop tracking formatting changes

When Track Changes is on, the types of changes that are tracked depend on your current settings in the Advanced Track Changes Options dialog box.

To stop tracking formatting changes:

  1. Open the Advanced Track Changes Options dialog box. See How to open the Advanced Track Changes Options dialog box below.
  2. Make sure to turn off the Track formatting check box.
  3. Click OK.

Note that the setting of the Track Formatting check box is document-specific. Turning on or off that setting does not influence other documents.

Turning off Track Formatting will not remove existing formatting changes that have been marked. You must accept those changes to get rid of them. See How to accept formatting changes and keep all other tracked changes above.

How to copy text with tracked changes

When copying and pasting text with tracked changed, the method to use depends on the result you want. See below.

In the following, I have used these terms:

  • Source document: the document you copy from
  • Target document: the document into which you paste

How to copy text to another document WITHOUT copying the track changes

  1. In the source document, turn ON
    Track Changes (ensure that the Status Bar shows Track Changes: On).
  2. In the target document, turn OFF
    Track Changes (ensure that the Status Bar shows Track Changes: Off).
  3. Now copy and paste.

How to copy text to another document WITH the tracked changes

  1. In the source document, turn OFF Track Changes (ensure that the Status Bar shows Track Changes: Off).
  2. In the target document, turn OFF Track Changes (ensure that the Status Bar shows Track Changes: Off).
  3. Now copy and paste.

Tracked changes and printing

How to print a document with tracked changes

If your document includes tracked changes, you can print it so the printout shows the tracked changes.

  1. Select File > Print.
  2. Under Settings, click the first button (shows Print All Pages or another text depending on your latest print settings).
  3. Select Print Markup in the menu that appears. See Figure 12 below.
  4. Make other selections as appropriate. Then click Print.

Select Print Markup to have the document printed with tracked changes

Figure 12. Select Print Markup to have the document printed with tracked changes. You can see the result in the preview that is shown in the window.

Note that my Word Add-in DocTools ExtractChanges Pro lets you extract tracked changes from Word documents incl. full context. If the primary goal of printing is to get an overview of the tracked changes in their context, the extracts you can make using this add-in gives a better overview of the tracked changes than the result you get by printing a document with Print Markup turned on, as described above. You can print such extract document if you want.

How to print a document without tracked changes

Even if your document includes tracked changes, you can print it so that the tracked changes are hidden in the printout. The document will print as if the changes had been accepted.

  1. Select File > Print.
  2. Under Settings, click the first button (shows Print All Pages or another text depending on your latest print settings).
  3. Make sure that Print Markup in the menu that appears does not have a check mark. See Figure 12 above.
  4. Make other selections as appropriate. Then click Print.

How to print a list of the tracked changes in a Word document

If your document includes tracked changes, you can print a list of tracked changes using Word’s built-in functionality:

  1. Select File > Print.
  2. Under Settings, click the first button (shows Print All Pages or another text depending on your latest print settings).
  3. Select List of Markup in the menu that appears. You can see List of Markup in Figure 12 above.
  4. Make other selections as appropriate. Then click Print.

The printout will include all the tracked changes, incl. formatting changes. You will see page number, date, and time for each change plus the change itself.

TIP: The free Word add-in DocTools ExtractData lets you automatically export all insertions and deletions in a document to a new document. The exported data is set up in a table. For each insertion and deletion, you will find the page number, line number, type of change, the revised text, author name and revision date.

The advanced Word add-in DocTools ExtractChanges Pro lets you export insertions, deletions and comments in full context, including headings and subheadings. In addition, the add-in includes several other features.

Printouts made from extract documents you create with ExtractData or ExtractChanges Pro do not include formatting changes. However, the extract documents include more details about each insertion and deletion and provides a better overview than the built-in feature.

Multiple authors and Track Changes

How to see who made the changes in a document in case of more than one author

Word use two terms for the people who make track changes to a document: author and reviewer.

METHOD 1 – Hover the mouse over the tracked change to see author name and more

If you have selected Display for Review > All Markup, Word displays a small screen tip, showing the change, the author name, and the date and time the change was made.

Example of screen tip shown when hovering the mouse over a tracked change

Figure 13. Example of screen tip shown when hovering the mouse over a tracked change.

If no screen tip is shown:

  • Check that Review tab > Display for Review > All Markup is selected.
  • Check that screen tips are set to be shown. To show screen tips on hover, turn on File > Options > Display > Show document tooltips on hover.

METHOD 2 – Show revisions in balloons

Works in Print Layout view and Web Layout view only.

Make sure that Review tab > Display for Review > All Markup is selected. Select Show Markup > Balloons > Show Revisions in Balloons. Then you will se information about each change in the balloon area.

If too many changes are found to show all information, you must click a change to see the details about that change.

The Show Markup menu with the Balloons menu displayed

Figure 14. The Show Markup menu with the Balloons menu displayed. The Highlight Updates and Other Authors commands are usually disabled unless for shared documents.

METHOD 3 – Show the Reviewing Pane

Works in all views except Read Mode. Also works even if tracked changes are hidden.

No matter how tracked changes are displayed, you can show the Reviewing Pane to see information about each tracked change. You can turn the Reviewing Pane on and off via Review tab > Reviewing Pane. Select Reviewing Pane Vertical or Reviewing Pane Horizontal as desired.

Colors and Track Changes

How to display tracked changes with the same colors no matter who made the changes

To use the same colors for each author’s changes:

  1. Open the Advanced Track Changes Options dialog box (see How to open the Advanced Track Changes Options dialog box below).
  2. In all color boxes, make sure to select a named color instead of By Author. For example, to see all insertions as Red, click the Color field next to Insertions and select Red.
  3. Click OK.

How to display each author’s changes in a different color

To display each author’s changes in a different color:

  1. Open the Advanced Track Changes Options dialog box (see How to open the Advanced Track Changes Options dialog box below).
  2. In all color boxes, select By Author.
  3. Click OK.

The Advanced Track Changes Options dialog box offers the colors shown below.

The lists of colors you can select from in the color fields in the Advanced Track Changes Options dialog box

Figure 15. The lists of colors you can select from in the color fields in the Advanced Track Changes Options dialog box.

The By Author color icon is sometimes two-colored, red and blue.

When using the By Author setting, one could think that Word would use the colors found in the lists above. However, that is not the case.

I created a macro to change the user name 100 times and for each user name insert the text User# with tracked changes in a document. I found the following:

  • If By Author is selected, Word seems to use the 20 different colors illustrated below for markup types that offer the left-most list of colors illustrated above.
  • However, if you have already previously added tracked changes using other settings in any document in that Word session (i.e. since you started Word), the allocation of colors seems to be random.
  • The 20 different colors used are not the same as the colors found in the left-most color list above.

Test of color allocation for different authors - 20 colors are used

Figure 16. Word seems to use 20 different colors if By Author is selected. This illustration is part of the result of adding text using 100 different user names. User no. 21, 22, etc. are allocated the same colors as User no. 01, 02, etc. However, if other color settings have been used in the same Word session, the allocation of colors seems to be random.

Read on below for more details about colors and tracked changes.

How to define which color to use for each author – you can’t

If you have selected to apply color By Author as explained above, you may think you can determine which colors to use. The answer to this is: You can’t. Word allocates the colors.

As explained and illustrated above in How to display each author’s changes in a different color above, Word seems to use a total of 20 colors for different authors. If more than 20 authors are involved, the colors are reused for other authors. However, as explained above, the color allocation sometimes seems random.

Do tracked changes made by a specific author always appear with the same color?

As explained in How to display each author’s changes in a different color above, Word allocates colors to tracked changes if you have selected to color By Author.

You can’t be sure that two different users see the same colors in the same document. Also, you can’t be sure that you see the same colors each time you open the same document yourself.

How to make sure that other users see tracked changes in the same way as you do

It is the individual users’ settings of track changes options that determine how they see track changes.

You can’t control their settings unless by using e.g. a macro (programming) to force the options to be set in a specific way. It would also be possible for an IT department in a company to force specific track changes settings via Group Policy.

Track Changes and author names

Word use two terms for the people who make track changes to a document: author and reviewer.

Where does the author name shown in tracked changes come from?

The name shown in tracked changes you make is determined by the current user name set up on your computer. You can change the user name and initials. This will influence new tracked changes you add. Read on to lean how.

How to change the name shown in new tracked changes you make

As explained above, the name shown in tracked changes you make is determined by the current user name set up on your computer. You can change the user name and initials from two places – they both lead to the same dialog box:

  • Select File > Options > General. Enter values in the User Name and Initials fields. Click OK.
  • Open the Track Changes Options dialog box (see Figure 21 below) Click the Change User Name button. Enter values in the User Name and Initials fields. Click OK.

IMPORTANT
The changed name will apply to new tracked changes you make. Existing tracked changes will remain unchanged.

The change of user name applies to all Office applications (Word, Excel, PowerPoint, etc.)

How to change the user name in existing tracked changes

Once you have made tracked changes, there is no built-in method in Word to change the author name to another name.

However, Word lets you remove personal information from a document. This will set the name of all comments and tracked changes to “Author”. For details, see my article about how comments in Word works.

The DocTools ExtractChanges Pro add-in (from version 6.0) includes a command, Change Author & Date, that lets you change the name in existing tracked changes and comments. In addition, the command lets you remove or change the date of the tracked changes and comments. You can select whether the name and/or date changes are to be applied to all tracked changes and comments or only tracked changes and comments added by a specific author. The changes are made in copy of the document so that the original document remains unchanged.

TIP: If you want to remove the name from tracked changes and comments, you can type e.g. a non-breaking space (Ctrl+Shift+Spacebar), a hyphen or an En dash as both the author name and initials in the Change Author & Date dialog box in DocTools ExtractChanges Pro.

How to remove the name from existing tracked changes

As explained above, Word has no built-in method to change the author name of existing tracked changes except from using the tools to remove personal information.

My add-in DocTools ExtractChanges Pro has a tool that lets you remove or change the name of existing tracked changes and comments. See the information above.

How to display only the tracked changes made by specific authors

Remember that tracked changes are also called revisionsauthors are also called reviewers.

To display only tracked changes made by specific authors:

  • Select Review tab > Show Markup > Reviewers > select or deselect the reviewers (authors) as desired. Only tracked changes added by reviewers with a check mark will be shown.

Compare or combine Word documents

Word lets you compare two documents to find the differences between the documents no matter whether the individual documents include tracked changes. Word also lets you combine – or merge – documents and, at the same time, preserve all tracked changes and comments from the individual documents. Read on the learn how. 

How to find the differences between two versions of a document

You can use Word’s Compare feature to find the differences between two versions of a document and mark the differences as tracked changes. This is also referred to a legal blackline.

You can use the feature no matter whether the documents already contain tracked changes.

The result of the compare is the same as if you had made all the changes. Your current user name will be shown as the author name on all changes.

compare two documents to find the differences between the documents

If one or both of versions you select to compare already includes tracked changes, Word will treat those changes as if they had been accepted.

If you want to preserve the changes made by individual authors so you can see who made the changes, you can instead use Word’s Combine command. See How to create a new document that combines tracked changes from different authors while keeping existing tracked changes below.

To compare two documents:

  1. Select Review tab > Compare > Compare to open the Compare Documents dialog box. If you can’t see all options in the dialog box, click the More >> button. See Figure 17 below.
  2. In the Compare Documents dialog box, select the original document and the revised document either from the two lists or by using the browse buttons besides the lists.
  3. Below Comparison settings, turn on check boxes as desired to specify which types of changes you want to be marked in addition to insertions and deletions, if any.
  4. Below Show changes, select whether to show changes at character level or word level. See the examples in Figure 18 below.
  5. Below Show changes in, select in which document to show the changes. The default is New document which I recommend in most situations. Then Word creates a new document with the changes, without making any changes in the existing documents.
  6. Click OK to execute the compare.

The Compare Documents dialog box with all options shown

Figure 17. The Compare Documents dialog box with all options shown.

The illustration below shows the difference between selecting Character level and Word level in step 4 above.

  • Character level will show changes in individual words by marking as few inserted or deleted characters as possible.
  • Word level will show changes in individual words by marking the original word as deleted and the revised word as inserted.

Example of the difference between selecting Character level and Word level when comparing documents

Figure 18. Example of the difference between selecting Character level and Word level in step 4 above.

TIP: The DocTools ExtractChanges Pro add-in lets you – in one operation – compare two versions of a document and extract all changes and comments from the compared version. The DocTools ExtractChanges Pro add-in also lets you do that with multiple documents at a time. You can batch compare one document with several other versions of the same document and extract the changes and comments. Or you can batch compare documents by pairs and extract the changes and comments.

How to merge track changes from two or more documents into one document

If two or more authors have added tracked changes and comments to two or more separate copies of a document, you may want to combine those tracked changes and comments in one document and still preserve the information about who made which change and when.

Word’s Combine feature can be used for that – follow the steps below. However, it only lets you combine two documents at a time. If you want to combine more than two documents, you need to repeat the procedure steps as described in Step 8 below.

To combine two versions of a document and retain existing tracked changes:

  1. Select Review tab > Compare > Combine to open the Combine Documents dialog box. If you can’t see all options in the dialog box, click the More >> button. See Figure 19 below.
  2. In the Compare Documents dialog box, select the original document and the revised document either from the two lists or by using the browse buttons besides the lists.
  3. When you have selected documents, the name defined as your user name will automatically be inserted in the Label unmarked changes with fields. Change the name, if you want. The name will be used to mark any differences between the two document what are not already marked as tracked changes.
  4. Below Comparison settings, turn on check boxes as desired to specify which types of changes you want to be marked in addition to insertions and deletions, if any.
  5. Below Show changes, select whether to show changes at character level or word level. See the examples in Figure 18 above.
  6. Below Show changes in, select in which document to show the changes. The default is New document which I recommend in most situations. Then Word creates a new document with the changes, without making any changes in the existing documents.
  7. Click OK to execute the combination of tracked changes.
  8. If you want to combine more documents, repeat Steps 1-7 above. As the original document, you must each time select the combined result from the last Combine operation and as the revised document you must select another edited document. Repeat until you have combined all the edited documents in one document that includes all tracked changes and comments from all the documents.

The Combine Documents dialog box. It is almost identical to the Compare Documents dialog box.

Figure 19. The Combine Documents dialog box. It is almost identical to the Compare Documents dialog box.

About the Advanced Track Changes Options dialog box

To manage the detailed setting for the display of tracked changes, you must use the Advanced Track Changes Options dialog box.

NOTE
Track Moves and Track formatting are document-specific settings that are saved in the document. All other options in the Advanced Track Changes Options dialog box apply to all Word documents.

A new Word document you create will inherit the settings of Track Moves and Track Formatting from the template.

How to open the Advanced Track Changes Options dialog box

To open the Advanced Track Changes Options dialog box:

  1. Select the Review tab in the Ribbon.
  2. Click the dialog box launcher in the Tracking group. See Figure 20 below.
    This opens the Track Changes Options dialog box.
  3. Click the Advanced Options button to open the Advanced Track Changes Options dialog box. See Figure 22 below.

On the Review tab, click the dialog box launcher in the Tracking group to open the Track Changes Options dialog box

Figure 20. On the Review tab, click the dialog box launcher in the Tracking group to open the Track Changes Options dialog box.

The Track Changes Options dialog box that opens when you click the dialog box launcher in the Tracking group on the Review tab

Figure 21. The Track Changes Options dialog box that opens when you click the dialog box launcher in the Tracking group on the Review tab.

The Advanced Track Changes Options dialog box, here shown with the default settings

Figure 22. The Advanced Track Changes Options dialog box, here shown with the default settings. All options except Comments and Show lines connecting to text are related to the display of tracked changes. See the descriptions below for details about the options.

Overview of all options in the Advanced Track Changes Options dialog box

These general rules apply to Advanced Track Changes Options:

  • You can set a specific type of markup out of function by selecting (none) from the related field.
  • The settings only come into play when tracked changes are shown.
  • Only the Track Moves and Track Formatting options are document-specific. All the other options apply to all Word documents.

For information about the color options (all fields with a color box), see the explanation and illustration in How to display each author’s changes in a different color above.

TIP
For an easy way to revert the settings in the Advanced Track Changes Options dialog box, you can use the ready-to-use macro found on my Word Macros & Tips website.

The table below shows information about all the options in the Advanced Track Changes Options dialog box. Where two options belong together, they are listed side by side with a +sign between.

Option

Default setting

What it does

GROUP: Markup

Insertions + Color

Underline + By author

Defines the formatting and color applied to insertions.

If you select (none), no formatting is applied.

Deletions + Color

Strikethrough + By author

Defines the formatting and color applied to deletions.

If you select (none), no formatting is applied.

Changed lines

Outside border

Shows vertical bars in the margin where lines with changes are found in the document.

The icon below the option shows the result of the currently selected setting.

The vertical bars are red in Simple Markup view and gray in All Markup view. You can switch between the displays by clicking a red/gray bar.

If Page Setup > Different odd and even is turned on, Outside border shows the lines in the left side of even pages and right side of odd pages. Otherwise, it shows the lines in the left side.

If you select (none), no vertical bars are shown.

Comments

By author

Defines the color applied to the text that was commented on (the comment scope) and to other comment marks.

GROUP: Moves

Track moves

Turned on

When turned on, content you cut and paste will be marked.

Document-specific option.

Moved from

Double strikethrough

Defines how cut text is formatted when you paste it elsewhere.

If you select (none), no formatting is applied.

Moved to

Double underline

Defines how pasted text that was cut from elsewhere in the document is formatted.

If you select (none), no formatting is applied.

GROUP: Table cell highlighting

Inserted cells

Light blue

Defines the color of new tables cells you insert.

If you select (none), no formatting is applied.

Deleted cells

Pink

Defines the color of deleted tables cells.

If you select (none), no formatting is applied.

Merged cells

Light yellow

Defines the color of cells that have been merged from multiple cells.

If you select (none), no formatting is applied.

Split cells

Light orange

Defines the color of table cells that have been split.

If you select (none), no formatting is applied.

GROUP: Formatting

Track formatting

Turned on

When turned on, changes to formatting will be marked.

Document-specific option.

Examples of formatting changes: Apply bold, underline, color, change font, change font size.

Formatting + Color

(none) + By author

Defines the formatting and color applied to formatting changes.

It seems counter-intuitive to mark formatting changes with further formatting – this may conflict. It seems most relevant to keep the default, (none).

GROUP: Balloons

Preferred width

Inches: 3.7″
Centimeters: 9.4 cm

Default depends on the default unit of measurement.

Defines the width of the balloons area.

Seems to be measured from the vertical bars showing changed lines and to the edge of the paper, provided the vertical bars are in the same side of the page as the balloons area.

Margin

Right

Defines whether balloons are shown in the left or right side of the page.

Show lines connecting to text

Turned on

Defines whether comments are connected to the texts that was commented on (the comment scope).

Paper orientation in printing

Preserve

Defines the paper orientation in print when printing with tracked changes.

Auto adjusts orientation based on content.

Preserve keeps the actual orientation of pages.

Force landscape prints all pages as landscape when printing with tracked changes.

Special tips about tracking changes

Tips on special situations where Track Changes may be helpful

Normally, it is relevant to track changes in the reviewing process of a document or when asking others for feedback on a document. For example, tracked changes are used a lot in relation to contract work.

It may also be useful to turn on Track Changes in other situations. For example, you may turn on Track Changes before you make a big change to your document. If you don’t like the result, you can quickly reject the changes.

How to get access to the Accept or Reject Changes dialog box from older versions of Word

Long ago, in Word 2000 and earlier versions, Word had a dialog box that worked well as the control center for accepting or rejecting changes. See the illustration below:

It is still possible to access the old Accept or Reject Changes dialog box. You can assign a keyboard shortcut to the command and/or you can add it to the Quick Access Toolbar (QAT)

Figure 23. It is still possible to access the old Accept or Reject Changes dialog box. You can assign a keyboard shortcut to the command and/or you can add it to the Quick Access Toolbar (QAT).

The dialog box still works but you can’t access it by default. However, you can easily assign a shortcut to the command or add it to the Quick Access Toolbar (QAT). Follow the instructions below:

  • To assign a keyboard shortcut to the Accept or Reject Changes command, follow the general instructions in the Microsoft article Customize keyboard shortcuts. In step 4 in the procedure, select All Commands, in step 5, select ToolsReviewRevisions.
  • To add the Accept or Reject Changes to the Quick Access Toolbar (QAT), follow the general instructions in the Microsoft article Customize the Quick Access Toolbar. See the section “Add a command to the Quick Access Toolbar that isn’t on the ribbon”. Select All Commands in the left-most list. The command to find in the list is:
    Accept/Reject Changes (ReviewAcceptOrRejectChangeDialog)

About the View options in the Accept or Reject Changes dialog box:

  • Changes with highlighting corresponds to selecting Display for review > All Markup.
  • Changes without highlighting corresponds to showing Display for review > No Markup.
  • Original corresponds to showing Display for review > Original.
  • If Display for review > Simple Markup is selected when you open the dialog box, click View option no. 2 or 3 and then click back to option no. 1 to have All Markup displayed.

Balloon settings are found in two places – how are they related?

Some the Track Changes commands and options can be rather confusing. Some are found in more that one place and identical options are not always named identically. This is the case for the Balloons options.

You can set Balloons options in two different places:

  • In Review tab > Show Markup > Balloons menu
  • In the Track Changes Options dialog box

To open the dialog box, click the dialog box launcher in Review tab > Tracking group. See Figure 20 above.

See the illustrations below:

The options marked no. 1, 2, and 3 in the Show Markup > Balloons menu are the same as the options marked no. 1, 2, and 3 in the Track Changes Options dialog box in Figure 25 below

Figure 24. The options marked no. 1, 2, and 3 in the Show Markup > Balloons menu are the same as the options marked no. 1, 2, and 3 in the Track Changes Options dialog box in Figure 25 below.

The options marked no. 1, 2, and 3 in the Balloons in All Markup view show list in the Track Changes Options dialog box are the same as the options marked no. 1, 2, and 3 in the Show Markup > Balloons menu in Figure 24 above

Figure 25. The options marked no. 1, 2, and 3 in the Balloons in All Markup view show list in the Track Changes Options dialog box are the same as the options marked no. 1, 2, and 3 in the Show Markup > Balloons menu in Figure 24 above.

If you select one of the options marked no. 1, 2, and 3 in Figure 24, the corresponding option marked no. 1, 2, or 3 in Figure 25 will automatically be selected and vice versa.

Security issues in relation to Track Changes

Make sure that you don’t email or publish Word documents that include tracked changes (or comments) that are not meant to be seen by others.

You can reduce the risk of revealing tracked changes unintentionally if you take the precautions described below.

How to avoid sending Word documents to others with tracked changes that should not be shared

There are many examples out there about Word documents that have been distributed to others or published with tracked changes that were indeed not meant to be seen be others.

IMPORTANT
Be careful not to distribute Word documents containing tracked changes unless the receiver needs to see the changes.

It is the Track Changes settings on the individual Word user’s computer that determine how that user sees tracked changes. Your own settings only apply to what you see on your computer.

Remember that tracked changes remain in the document until they are accepted or rejected. Even if you hide tracked changes, they are still in the document. This means that they can easily be turned on by another user who opens your document.

To make sure that you are automatically warned before printing, saving, or sending a Word document to somebody else:

  1. Select File > Options > Trust Center.
  2. Click the Trust Center Settings button to open the Trust Center dialog box.
  3. Click Privacy Options.
  4. Turn on the options:
    Warn before printing, saving, or sending a file that contains tracked changes or comments
    Make hidden markup visible when opening or saving
  5. Click OK to close the dialog boxes.

See Figure 26A below. When these options are on, you are warned so you can take your precautions before you continue.

If you save often (which I recommend), you may not want to turn on the option Warn before printing, saving, or sending a file that contains tracked changes or comments since a message will open, warning you each time you save a document that includes tracked changes or comment (see Figure 26B below). You may find that too annoying.

Trust Center settings that can help you avoid problems with tracked changes that are distributed to others unintentionally

Figure 26A. Trust Center settings that can help you avoid problems with tracked changes that are distributed to others unintentionally. See also Figure 26B below.

Figure 26B. The warning that appears when saving if Warn before printing, saving, or sending a file that contains tracked changes or comments is turned on.  The text in the message varies depending on the types of revisions found in the document.

How to lock tracking so Track Changes can’t be turned off

Word lets you lock Track Changes so it can’t be turned off. This way, you can make sure that the document will be shown with tracked changes and that users can’t accept or reject existing changes. User’s can only add new changes.

To lock tracking, select Review tab > click the arrow below the Track Changes icon > select Lock Tracking > enter a password > Click OK.

The Lock Tracking icon is highlighted when tracking is locked.

To unlock tracking, select the Lock Tracking command again > enter the password > click OK.

Other operations and commands, in addition to Track ChangesAccept, and Reject, may be unavailable or disabled in a document when tracking is locked.

How to find out whether there are tracked changes in your document

METHOD 1 – Try to click Previous or Next on the Review tab

To easily find out whether there are any tracked changes (or comments – another type of revision) in your document, select the Review tab and click Previous or Next in the Changes group. The message below is shown if no comments or tracked changes are found in the document.

This message is shown if you click Previous or Next and if no comments or tracked changes are found in the document

Figure 27. This message is shown if you click Previous or Next and if no comments or tracked changes are found in the document.

If revisions are found, Word will instead move to the previous or next revision.

METHOD 2 – Use Document Inspector

Note that this method may remove more data from your document than you like and it is not always totally clear what Word does.

If you use the tools on the Review tab with care and are aware of the importance of accepting or rejecting changes before you distribute documents to people who shouldn’t see the changes, you should be safe.

Personally, I never use Document Inspector to remove information.

  1. Select File > Info > Inspect Document > Check for Issues > Inspect Document.
  2. In the Document Inspector dialog box, make sure the option Comments, Revisions, and Versions is selected.
  3. Click Inspect.
  4. If comments and/or tracked changes are found, a dialog box lets you click Remove All. If you do so, Word will accept all tracked changes and remove all comments.

       Note that Word doesn’t tell but “Remove All” means “Accept” in relation to tracked changes.

  5. Click Close.

For more details, see the Microsoft article Remove hidden data and personal information by inspecting documents, presentations, or workbooks.

How to make sure that Word always displays tracked changes when you open a document

To make sure that Word always displays tracked changes when you open a document, turn on the Trust Center setting Make hidden markup visible when opening or saving. For details, see How to avoid sending Word documents to others with tracked changes that should not be shared above.

IMPORTANT
The fact that traced changes are shown doesn’t mean that Word tracks changes when you start editing the document. To do that, you must make sure to turn on Track Changes.

How to make sure that Word warns you before emailing a document that contains tracked changes

To make sure that Word shows a warning if you attempt to email a document with tracked changes, turn on the Trust Center setting Warn before printing, saving, or sending a file that contains tracked changes or comments. For details, see How to avoid sending Word documents to others with tracked changes that should not be shared above.

I want to send my document outside the company – I want to leave tracked changes in the document, but I don’t want anyone to see who made the tracked changes or when they were made – how can I do that?

To neutralize tracked changes both as regards author names and time information, you can use the Document Inspector.

NOTE
This method may have undesired side-effects. See the CAUTIONS below.

  1. Select File > Info > Inspect Document > Check for Issues > Inspect Document.
  1. In the Document Inspector dialog box, make sure the following option is selected:
    Document Properties and Personal Information
    (You can leave other options checked as well – the first step will not make any changes to the document but only inspect it).
  2. Click Inspect.
  • A new dialog opens. A Remove All button is shown next to Document Properties and Personal Information. If you click the Remove All button, the name “Author” will be assigned to all tracked changes in the active document instead of the current author name(s). In addition, date and time will be removed from tracked changes.
  1. Click Close.

CAUTION 1

The Remove All button for Document Properties and Personal Information turns ON the Trust Center option Remove personal information from file properties on save for the document.

This means that the removal of name and properties will continue to take place also each time you save the document. That is most likely not what you want. To prevent this setting from being saved in the document, select File > Info again and click the text Allow this information to be saved in your file (shown below Inspect Document) to turn off the setting – the text you clicked disappears and the setting has now been turned off (not very intuitive, in my opinion…).

You can also turn off the setting via Trust Center: Select File > Options > Trust Center > Trust Center Settings > Privacy Options and remove the check mark from Remove personal information from file properties on save.

CAUTION 2

The Remove All button also removes all custom document properties and clears all data from built-in properties. If you have DocProperty fields in the document, they will show errors unless you have locked or unlinked the fields first.

For more details about the Document Inspector, see the Microsoft article Remove hidden data and personal information by inspecting documents, presentations, or workbooks.

What other kinds of hidden information might be saved in my Word document?

Your Word documents might contain various kinds of hidden information that could compromise your security or reveal information that you don’t want to share. The term metadata (that is, data about the data) is used to refer to this kind of information.

For details about how to reduce or remove different types of metadata from your documents, see the Microsoft article Remove hidden data and personal information by inspecting documents, presentations, or workbooks.

Troubleshooting in relation to Track Changes

PROBLEM 1 – I have turned on Track Changes but I don’t see any changes

  • CHECK 1 – Make sure that you have selected either Simple Markup or All Markup in the Display for Review menu on the Review tab in the Ribbon.

If you still can’t see any changes:

  • CHECK 2 – Make sure at least one of the following options in the Show Markup menu is checked: Insertions and Deletions, Formatting.

If you still can’t see any changes:

  • CHECK 3 – Open the Advanced Track Changes Options dialog box and check the settings. If a setting is set to (none), that setting is put out of action.

If you still can’t see any changes:

  • CHECK 4 – The reason may be that the document contains no tracked changes. To easily find out, click Previous or Next in the Changes group on the Review tab. The message below is shown if you click Previous or Next and if no comments or tracked changes are found in the document.

This this message is shown when you click Previous or Next if there are no comments or tracked changes in the document

Figure 28. This message is shown when you click Previous or Next if there are no comments or tracked changes in the document.

PROBLEM 2 – I have turned on balloons but no balloons are shown

Make sure that you have selected All Markup in the Display for Review menu on the Review tab in the Ribbon. Balloons are only shown in All Markup view.

Also, Balloons can only be shown in Print Layout view and Web Layout view.

TIP
You can switch from Simple Markup to All Markup display by clicking a red vertical line in the margin.

PROBLEM 3 – No screen tips are shown when I hover the mouse over a tracked change

  • Check that Review tab > Display for Review > All Markup is selected.
  • Check that screen tips are set to be shown. To show screen tips on hover, turn on File > Options > Display > Show document tooltips on hover.

PROBLEM 4 – Why are Accept All Changes Shown and Reject All Changes Shown disabled?

In the Accept and Reject menus, the commands Accept All Changes Shown and Reject All Changes Shown are disabled if comments and all types of tracked changes by all people are already selected to be shown. The commands are only enabled if not all comments and tracked changes are selected to be shown.

If, for example, you turn off display of Formatting changes, the commands will be enabled. The commands will also be enabled if Review tab > Show Markup > Specific People isn’t set to All Reviewers.

PROBLEM 5 – I want to define which color to use for each author – how can I do that?

You can’t define which color is used for which author. Word allocates the colors. See How to define which color to use for each author – you can’t above.

PROBLEM 6 – Other users don’t see the same colors used for the individual authors as I do – how can we be sure to see the same colors?

You can’t define which color is used for which author. Word allocates the colors. See How to define which color to use for each author – you can’t above.

PROBLEM 7 – When I use Track Changes, many fields appear as both deleted and inserted – how do I fix that?

A Word document can include many types of fields. Fields include instruction to Word about which content to show. Examples of fields are tables of contents (TOC), numbers in captions, DocProperty fields that show values of custom document properties.

If tracked changes are shown, and if the All Markup display option is selected, you may see many fields twice, both as deleted and inserted. This happens for fields whose results are affected by tracked changes. This influences the layout and it may look confusing. However, Word will fix the fields as soon as you accept or reject the changes and update fields (Ctrl+A to select all, F9 to update fields).

PROBLEM 8 – When I use Track Changes, the automatic numbering of headings and lists look wrong – how do I fix that?

If you view tracked changes inline and if you have added or deleted numbered items, Word will show changes to all numbers that are affected by the changes. This may influence the layout and it may look confusing. However, Word will fix the numbering as soon as you accept or reject the changes. See the example below.

 Example of automatic numbering with tracked changes

Figure 29. Example of automatic numbering with tracked changes.

PROBLEM 9 – When I open a document, Word automatically shows tracked changes – why?

Word automatically opens with tracked changes displayed if the Trust Center setting Make hidden markup visible when opening or saving is turned on. See How to avoid sending Word documents to others with tracked changes that should not be shared above.

You may turn off the setting. However, having it turned on helps you avoid security issues.

PROBLEM 10 – How can I determine how other users see tracked changes when I share my documents?

It is the Track Changes settings on the individual Word user’s computer that determine how that user sees tracked changes. Your own settings only apply to what you see on your computer.

For more details, see How to make sure that other users see tracked changes in the same way as you do above.

PROBLEM 11 – The Track Changes, Accept, and Reject commands are disabled – how can I fix that?

The problem is most likely that track changes has been locked with a password. Only users who know the password can unlock tracking. See How to lock tracking so Track Changes can’t be turned off above.

PROBLEM 12 – How to get rid of track changes in Word?

To get rid of track changes in Word, you need to remove the changes by accepting or rejecting them. See How to remove tracked changes in Word above.

PROBLEM 13 – I can’t change the user name – how to fix that?

If you can’t change the user name as described in How to change the name shown in new tracked changes you make above, the problem is most likely that your IT department has locked the user name via Group Policy. You may contact the relevant people to find out whether you will be allowed to change the name.

PROBLEM 14 – The author names of tracked changes and comments keep changing to “Author” – why does this happen and how to fix it?

If you use Word’s Inspect Document feature to remove Document Properties and Personal Information from a document, Word remembers this in that specific document by automatically turning ON the Trust Center option Remove personal information from file properties on save for that document.

As long as the Remove personal information from file properties on save option is turned ON, Word will continue to run the removal procedure each time you save the document. As a result, the author name (and date) of every tracked change and comment in the document will change to «Author» each time you save.

To prevent Word from changing the author name to «Author», you must turn OFF the Remove personal information from file properties on save option. Note that any tracked change and comment that has already been changed to show «Author» will not be changed back to show the original author name, but Word will stop changing the author name of new tracked changes and comments. To turn off the option, use one of the following two methods:

METHOD 1: Stop changing to «Author» via File > Inspect Document

Select File > Info > click the text Allow this information to be saved in your file (shown below Inspect Document) to turn off the setting – the text you clicked disappears and the setting has now been turned off (as also mentioned in “CAUTION 1” above, this is not very intuitive). See the illustration below.

How to turn off Remove personal information from file properties on save via Inspect Document

Figure 30. How to turn off Remove personal information from file properties on save via Inspect Document. To close the Backstage view, press the Esc key or click the circled arrow in the top-left corner of the window.

METHOD 2: Stop changing to «Author» via Trust Center > Privacy Options

Select File > Options > Trust Center > Trust Center Settings > Privacy Options and remove the check mark from Remove personal information from file properties on save. See the illustration below.

Figure 30. How to turn off Remove personal information from file properties on save via Trust Center

Figure 31. How to turn off Remove personal information from file properties on save via Trust Center.

PROBLEM 15 – How to merge Word documents with comments and track changes?

If different authors have added tracked changed and comments in separate copies of a Word document, you may want to merge all those documents into one document. You can do that using Word’s Combine feature as explained in this step-by-step-procedure.

PROBLEM 16 – The Advanced Track Changes Options dialog box is smaller than normal and is missing the group headings – how to fix that?

I experienced some time ago that the Advanced Track Changes Options dialog box looked too small. I found out that it was missing the headings that are normally used to group the options.

The dialog box has a lot of options. For any user who is not familiar with all the options, the missing group headings would make it really difficult or impossible to find out what the individual options refer to.

The problem with the missing headings in the dialog box seemed to appear randomly. Sometimes the headings were there, sometimes not.

I reported the problem to Microsoft. The answer from Microsoft, after some troubleshooting, was that this specific dialog box has a minimum vertical resolution requirement. This means that the headings will not be shown if the screen resolution is below a certain level.

Even if my screen resolution was more than sufficient to allow the headings to be shown, they sometimes were not shown. I found out that zooming up in Word was what made the headings in the dialog box disappear even if zooming has nothing to do with the size of the dialog box or the screen resolution. Zooming above a certain percentage (131 % on one monitor, 151 % on another monitor) made the headings in the dialog box disappear. Microsoft is not going to fix this problem.

If you run into the problem with disappearing headings in the Advanced Track Changes Options dialog box, the solution is the following:

  1. Close the Advanced Track Changes Options dialog box.
  2. Zoom down in Word.
  3. Open the Advanced Track Changes Options dialog box again.
  4. If the headings still don’t appear, repeat the steps above.

The illustration below shows how the dialog box looks when the group headings are missing:

The Advanced Track Changes Options dialog box is missing headings due to too high zoom in Word

Figure 32. The Advanced Track Changes Options dialog box is missing headings due to too high zoom in Word. The headings Markup, Moves, Table cell highlighting, Formatting, and Balloons are missing here. You can compare it to Figure 22 above.

Acknowledgment

Thanks to Shauna Kelly who wrote an article about Track changes, covering Word 2010 and earlier versions. Shauna’s article has been visited by thousands of Word users. It is still visited many times a day. However, since that article was written and last revised when Word 2010 was the newest version of Word, it does not cover all the changes that have been made to the features since then.

This article is written in recognition of Shauna Kelly’s work. It covers all the areas that Shauna covered in her article, however updated to match newer versions of Word. This article also covers all the new and changed Track Changes features added after Word 2010.

Related information

My Word Add-ins DocTools ExtractData and DocTools ExtractChanges Pro both let you extract tracked changes from Word documents. See a comparison of the two add-ins.

For detailed information about how comments in Word work, see my article How comments in Word work.

For a ready-to-use macro to revert the settings in the Advanced Track Changes Options dialog box to default plus several VBA code snippets for handling track changes, see this article on my Word Macros & Tips website.

This article has explained how Track Changes in Word works. I hope this article helps you in your future work with tracked changes in Word.

Track Changes is a key tool for proofreading in Microsoft Word. And if you want to work as a proofreader, you’ll need to know how it works. In this post, then, we’re going to run you through the basics of how to use Track Changes when editing a document in Microsoft Word.

How to Turn on Track Changes in Microsoft Word

Track Changes is an editing tool you can use to record revisions to a document. As a proofreader, this offers a simple way to mark up edits for your client when editing in Microsoft Word. To do this, though, you’ll need to turn on Track Changes by

  1. Going to the Review tab on the main ribbon.
  2. Clicking the Track Changes

That’s it! Once you’ve done that, Word will record all changes made to the document. And to stop tracking changes, all you need to do is click the Track Changes button again.

The Track Changes button on the Review toolbar.

You can also toggle the Track Changes tool with the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + Shift + E in Microsoft Word for Windows (or Cmd + Shift + E in Microsoft Word for Mac).

Markup Options for Tracked Changes

You can control how Microsoft Word displays tracked changes via the markup options. You’ll find these on the Review tab in a dropdown menu just next to the Track Changes button.

The markup options available here in recent versions of Microsoft Word are:

  • Simple Markup – Shows you the edited text, with changes marked via red marks in the left margin. Clicking these red marks will switch you to All Markup.
  • All Markup – Shows edits in red, with deleted text also formatted with the strikethrough effect (e.g. deleted text). Formatting changes are recorded via bubbles in the right margin.
  • No Markup – Displays the edited version of the document with no changes marked.
  • Original – Shows the document prior to any edits being made.

We suggest using Simple Markup as a default. This lets you proofread without being distracted by red marks in the text, but you can quickly switch to All Markup to review your changes.

You can also customise how edits are displayed (e.g. the colour of highlighted edits, the types of changes shown) via the Show Markup menu, which is just below the main markup options.

The Show Markup menu.

Reviewing Tracked Edits

As a proofreader, you may need to review existing edits in Microsoft Word (e.g. if your client wants you to check changes they made while redrafting). And even if you don’t need to use the review options yourself, you may need to explain how they work for a client.

Good news, though! Reviewing edits is quite simple in Word. All you need to do is go to the Changes section of the Review tab. Your options here are:

  • Previous and Next – Cycles through tracked changes.
  • Accept and Reject – Accepts or rejects a selected edit.

When you accept an edit, it no longer shows up as a tracked change in the document. And when you reject an edit, the text reverts to how it was in the original version.

There is also an option to accept or reject all changes in a document at once, accessed by clicking the down arrow on the relevant button and selecting the option from the menu.

Reviewing edits in Microsoft Word.

However, you should only use Accept All Changes if you’ve already checked the tracked edits.

Leaving Comments

The other key tool in Microsoft Word that you may need to use as a proofread or editor is the commenting tool. You can use this to explain changes you’ve made, suggest further edits, or pose questions for your client.

To leave a comment in Microsoft Word, you have three options:

  1. Go to the Review tab on the ribbon and click New Comment.
  2. Right click and select New Comment from the contextual menu.
  3. Use the shortcut Ctrl + Alt + M.

The

After this, type your comment in the bubble in the right margin. If you need to edit a comment, simply select it and make any changes required.

You can also reply to existing comments in a document by clicking Reply in the comment itself.

A comment and a reply to a comment in a Microsoft Word document.

To delete a comment, meanwhile, you can either right click and select Delete from the contextual menu or select the comment and go to Review > Comments > Delete on the main toolbar. You will also find an option to delete all comments in a document here, so make sure not to click this by accident!

The comment deletion options on the main toolbar in Microsoft Word.

Becoming A Proofreader

For more about how to use Track Changes in Microsoft Word, as well as everything else you need to know as a freelance proofreader, why not give Knowadays a try? You can sign up for a free trial of our Becoming A Proofreader course today to see how it works.

Содержание

    • 0.1 Часть 1 Как включить функцию «Исправления»
    • 0.2 Часть 2 Как отредактировать документ
  • 1 Советы
  • 2 Предупреждения

Часть 1 Как включить функцию «Исправления»

  1. Откройте документ, который нужно отредактировать.

    Для этого дважды щелкните по документу Microsoft Word или откройте программу Microsoft Word, а затем выберите документ на странице «Последние документы».

    • Прежде чем вносить изменения в документ, сделайте его копию и редактируйте ее, а не исходный документ (на случай, если что-то пойдет не так).
  2. Перейдите на вкладку Рецензирование. Она находится на синей ленте в верхней части документа. Откроется панель инструментов, которые помогут отредактировать документ.

  3. Нажмите Исправления. Эта опция находится посередине верхней панели инструментов. Так вы включите функцию «Исправления» в Microsoft Word.

  4. Откройте выпадающий список рядом с Исправления.

    В списке находятся следующие опции:

    • Исправления: добавленный или удаленный текст будет обозначен красными линиями на полях; другие изменения не отображаются.
    • Все исправления: все изменения, внесенные в документ, будут обозначены красным шрифтом и комментариями на полях.
    • Без исправлений: обозначения исправлений будут скрыты, а документ отобразится в финальном виде (после внесения всех изменений).
    • Оригинал: отобразится исходный документ без изменений.
  5. Нажмите Все изменения. Будут обозначены все изменения (красным шрифтом), которые были внесены в исходный текст (черный шрифт).

Часть 2 Как отредактировать документ

  1. Удалите текст.

    Если удалить один символ или целый абзац, они исчезнут из документа. На полях справа появится красное поле с примечанием « Удалено: ».

    • Если вы измените формат всего документа (например, поменяете шрифт), это также будет обозначено на полях справа.
  2. Введите новый текст.

    Любой текст, который вы добавите в документ, будет отображаться красным шрифтом.

    • Если вы перейдете на новую строку (для этого нажмите ↵ Enter или ⏎ Return), на полях слева появится серая вертикальная черта, обозначающая новую строку.
  3. Нажмите Создать примечание, чтобы добавить примечание к выделенному тексту.

    Значок этой опции выглядит как текстовое облачко со знаком «плюс» и находится в верхней части окна. На полях справа откроется поле, в которое можно ввести примечание.

    • Щелкните по любой точке документа вне поля для примечания, чтобы сохранить примечание.
  4. Примите или отклоните исправления.

    Для этого нажмите «Принять» или «Отклонить», чтобы согласиться или не согласиться с обозначенными исправлениями; также можно нажать «▼» под опцией «Принять» или «Отклонить», а затем нажать «Все исправления», чтобы согласиться или не согласиться со всеми изменениями, внесенными в документ. При этом будут удалены все обозначения исправлений, такие как красный шрифт и поля с примечаниями.

    • Также документ можно сохранить с обозначениями исправлений; в этом случае пропустите этот шаг.
  5. Сохраните документ. Для этого зажмите Ctrl (или ⌘ Command в Mac OS X), а затем нажмите S. Документ будет сохранен с внесенными изменениями.

Советы

  • В некоторых почтовых клиентах удаленный текст отображается черным шрифтом с перечеркивающей красной линией.

Предупреждения

  • Если перед редактированием документа вы не сделаете его копию, это может привести к потере содержимого исходного документа.

Информация о статье

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Была ли эта статья полезной?

Текстовый редактор Microsoft Word — это не только отличный инструмент для набора и форматирования текста, но и удобнейшее средство его дальнейшего исправления и правки. Об этой истинно «редакторской» функции знают немногие, поэтому мы решили раскрыть вам этот секрет.

Проще всего править текст на бумаге — возразят мне многие читатели. Действительно, взяв красную ручку всегда можно зачеркнуть несуразную фразу, а сверху написать что-то получше. Можно оставить злорадные комментарии, показав автору текста его неправоту. А самое главное: при такой правке исходный текст не меняется, и автору самому решать, принимать исправления или нет. Но такие исправления не отправишь по электронной почте, и существуют они в единственном виде.

Воспользовавшись инструментами рецензирования текстового редактора Word, вы сможете точно так же вставлять комментарии практически красной ручкой на полях и исправлять то, что написал автор, зачеркивая исходный текст. Но при этом документ со всеми исправлениями и пометками будет существовать в электронном виде, а значит, будет доступен для пересылки по электронной почте. А автор документа, изучив исправления, буквально одним нажатием кнопки может их принять, а не исправлять каждую пометку вручную, или же, наоборот, отклонить, оставшись при своем мнении.

Инструменты для вставки пометок и исправлений размещены на панели инструментов «Рецензирование». Отобразить ее можно, выбрав «Вид (View) -> Панели инструментов (Toolbars) -> Рецензирование (Reviewing)».

Если вдруг, читая текст, у вас возникло желание прокомментировать особо понравившийся или наоборот, неудачный момент, вы можете воспользоваться инструментом «Примечание». Для этого выделите нужный фрагмент текста и нажмите кнопку «Добавить примечание» (Insert Comment) на панели инструментов. В поле справа от основного текста появится окно для ввода примечания. После того, как вы набрали текст, нажмите мышкой в стороне от окна для ввода примечания.

Поле для ввода примечания отобразиться справа от текста документа.

После сохранения и повторного открытия текста, на экране фрагмент, у которого есть примечание, будет выделен другим цветом. А если навести на него мышку, можно увидеть текст примечания, его автора и время его добавления. Перемещаться между добавленными примечаниями удобно с помощью специальных кнопок, размещенных на панели инструментов «Рецензирование».

Просмотр текста примечания

Следующим инструментом, доступным для редактирования, является режим исправления.

При включении этого режима записываются все изменения, вносимые в документ. Причем, как изменения, касающиеся его содержимого (будет записано удаление и добавление текста), так и изменения формата документа (изменение шрифтов, параметров страниц и т. д.). Перейти в режим записи исправлений очень просто — достаточно дважды щелкнуть мышкой по кнопке с надписью «ИСПР», которая размещена в строке состояния текстового редактора. Второй способ: нажать на кнопку «Исправления» (Track Changes) на панели инструментов «Рецензирование».

В зависимости от настроек Word, исправления будут либо отображаться другим цветом, либо не отображаться вовсе, но обязательно рядом с каждым исправлением будет размещено примечание, в котором и будет указано, какие именно изменения были внесены в документ.

Все исправления и примечания наглядно отображаются на правом поле документа

Для просмотра всех исправлений следует отобразить на экране окно просмотра изменений. Для этого необходимо нажать кнопку «Окно просмотра» на панели инструментов «Рецензирование». В нижней части экрана отобразятся все внесенные в документ исправления и примечания. Используя это окно можно по очереди выделять в тексте документа добавленные примечания и исправления. Для этого надо дважды щелкнуть мышкой на линии, отделяющей одно примечание от другого.

Следующим шагом после просмотра внесенных изменений будет принятие решения относительно их сохранения. Для этого предназначены списки «Принять выделенное исправление» и «Отклонить выделенное исправление». Нажав соответствующую кнопку можно раскрыть список и выбрать нужный пункт, с помощью которого можно принять или отклонить это конкретное исправление. А выбрав пункт «Отклонить все изменения» или «Применить все изменения» можно принять решение относительно правки всего документа.

как сделать track changes в word

Инструмент «Исправления» в Word нужен для отслеживания изменений, сделанных в документе. Он особенно полезен при совместной работе над документом с другими пользователями. Иногда необходимо скопировать текст в другой документ, сохранив историю исправлений. Эта задача кажется простой, но на деле она сложнее, чем просто скопировать и вставить текст.

Сперва выделите текст с изменениями.

как сделать track changes в word

Первый секрет копирования исправлений вместе с текстом: нужно обязательно отключить опцию Track Changes (Исправления). Для этого откройте вкладку Review (Рецензирование). Если в разделе Tracking (Запись исправлений) кнопка Track Changes (Исправления) подсвечена синим, это значит, что опция включена. Нажмите нижнюю часть этой кнопки и выберите из выпадающего меню пункт Track Changes (Исправления). Теперь, когда опция отключена, у кнопки нет подсветки.

Примечание: Если не отключить функцию Track Changes (Исправления), Word решит, что Вы хотите скопировать текст в таком виде, как если бы все изменения были приняты, и исправления применятся.

как сделать track changes в word

Нажмите Ctrl+C, чтобы скопировать текст. Создайте новый документ, в него мы вставим скопированный текст.

Примечание: Текст можно вставить в любой существующий документ Word.

Откройте вкладку File (Файл).

как сделать track changes в word

В левой части окна нажмите New (Создать).

как сделать track changes в word

В разделе New (Создать) кликните по Blank document (Новый документ).

как сделать track changes в word

Второй секрет успешного сохранения исправлений в скопированном тексте: отключите опцию Track Changes (Исправления) в том документе, куда собираетесь вставить скопированный текст. Затем нажмите Ctrl+V, и скопированный текст вставится вместе с исправлениями.

как сделать track changes в word

Для копирования текста можно воспользоваться инструментом «Копилка», что особенно удобно, если Вы копируете несколько несмежных блоков текста и/или изображения.

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Источник: /> Перевела: Ольга Гелих

Правила перепечаткиЕще больше уроков по Microsoft Word

Оцените качество статьи. Нам важно ваше мнение:

  • You can use Track Changes in Word to record every edit made in a document, either by yourself or others.
  • Word’s Track Changes feature lets users suggest changes, leave comments, and more.
  • To turn on Track Changes, select it from the «Review» tab.

Track Changes is a feature built into Microsoft Word that keeps track of all the edits made to your document and lets you make comments. When Track Changes is turned on, the edit you make are highlighted, appearing in different colors or styles to separate them from the original text.

This is particularly useful for documents with multiple authors or editors, who can review and approve (or reject) each other’s changes.

How to turn on Track Changes in Microsoft Word

To turn Track Changes on, click on the «Review» tab, then click on the icon above «Track Changes.» To turn Track Changes off, just click this icon again. You can also toggle Track Changes on and off by clicking on the «Track Changes» menu arrow and then clicking «Track Changes» in the list. 

Track_changes_in_Word_ _1

Track Changes can be toggled on and off in the «Review» tab.

Chrissy Montelli/Insider


When Track Changes is on, you can leave changes in the document simply by typing or editing as you would normally. The changes will be formatted differently than the rest of the document, and will contain a mark in the margin to indicate that a change has been made.

For example, if you delete a paragraph with Track Changes on, the paragraph you deleted will remain visible, but will appear in red font with strike-throughs so you don’t confuse it with the remaining text. 

Track_changes_in_Word_ _2

Text you’ve edited or deleted will appear in a different color and format than the rest of the document.

Chrissy Montelli/Insider


How to make and remove Track Changes comments

To make comments in the document without adding to the text, use your mouse to highlight the text you want to comment on, and then click «New Comment» in the «Review» tab. A bubble will appear in the margin of the document, containing your name and a color assigned to you. Once the comment bubble appears, type your comment.

To reply to a comment, just click «Reply» on the comment you want to respond to, and type your response. You can click anywhere outside of the comment bubble when you’re finished. 

Track_changes_in_Word_ _3

Each of your comments in the document will be the same color, allowing you to differentiate between your own comments and someone else’s.

Chrissy Montelli/Insider


There are two ways to remove a comment. Click on the comment you want to remove. If you want to keep the comment in the document for the time being, but want to indicate that it’s already been addressed, click «Resolve» in the comment bubble. The comment will still be visible in the document’s margin, but will now appear grayed out, distinguishing it from other comments.

If you want to remove a comment completely, leaving no trace of it in the document, click on the comment and then click the icon above «Delete» in the «Review» tab. It’s located right next to the «New Comment» icon. 

Track_changes_in_Word_ _6

When a comment has been resolved, it’ll appear slightly grayed out.

Chrissy Montelli/Insider


How to accept or reject changes

After changes have been made to your document, you can either accept or reject the changes. To do this, right-click on the part of the document that’s been changed. In the menu that appears, click on «Accept» if you want to keep the change, or «Reject» if you want to reject it.

The appearance of the section may change depending on your choice, but it will be consistent with the rest of the document once you’re finished working and turn Track Changes off. 

Track_changes_in_Word_ _4

You can accept or reject a change by right-clicking on it and choosing the preferred option in the menu that appears.

Chrissy Montelli/Insider


How to hide all the changes and comments

You can control which changes and comments you see by adjusting the markup options. 

In the «Review» tab, next to «Track Changes,» there’s a drop-down menu with four options that show different levels of changes made to the document. 

  • «All Markup» will show all changes and comments that have been made since Track Changes was turned on. 
  • «Simple Markup» will show a simplified version of changes and commentary, represented by notes in the document’s margins rather than visible formatting. 
  • «No Markup» will hide all change markings and comments but retain the changes. 
  • «Original» will show the document as it originally appeared before Track Changes was turned on. 

Track_changes_in_Word_ _7

The markup options allow you to view all changes, simplified changes, no changes, or the document’s original format.

Chrissy Montelli/Insider


You can also customize the types of changes you see by clicking on «Show Markup.» This will open a menu with checkmarks next to the various options. If an option is checked, it’ll be included in the markup. To check or uncheck an option, simply click on it.

This allows you to customize which changes are visible to you, including specific users’ comments and the visual appearance of the comment bubbles (or «balloons,» as they’re called in the list). 

Track_changes_in_Word_ _8

The «Show Markup» menu lets you customize what changes you see.

Chrissy Montelli/Insider


How to use the reviewing pane

If you want to review all the changes made to the document in sequence, you can do so using the Reviewing Pane. Next to the Track Changes button, click «Reviewing Pane.» If you want the pane to appear on the side of your screen, click on the «Vertical» option; if you prefer it at the bottom of your screen, click on the «Horizontal» option.

Whichever your preference, the Reviewing Pane will appear, containing all changes and comments made on the document. The total number of changes will also appear at the top of the Reviewing Pane. To close the Reviewing Pane, just click «Reviewing Pane» again. 

Track_changes_in_Word_ _9

The Reviewing Pane shows you all of the changes and comments made on the document, so you can scroll through them in sequence.

Chrissy Montelli/Insider


Chrissy Montelli is a writer and content creator originally from Long Island, NY. She is the author of two poetry chapbooks, Heart Float (Bottlecap Press) and Going to Ithaca (Ghost City Press), as well as various online publications.
Read more from her at chrissymontelli.wordpress.com.

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How to Track Changes in Word

Make sense of Microsoft Word’s collaborative editing feature

What to Know

  • Word 2007: Select Review > Track Changes > Track Changes to turn tracking on.
  • Word 2003: Select View > Toolbars > Reviewing to turn on change Track Changes.

This article explains how to use the Track Changes feature in Microsoft Word 2007 and 2003.

Turn On Track Changes

The Track Changes option appears within the Tracking section.

Here’s how to turn on Track Changes in Word 2007 and later versions:

  1. Click the Review menu option.
  2. Click Track Changes in the ribbon.
  3. Click Track Changes in the drop-down menu.

If you have Word 2003, here’s how to enable Track Changes:

  1. Click the View menu option.
  2. Click Toolbars.
  3. Click Reviewing in the drop-down menu to open the Reviewing toolbar.
  4. If the Track Changes icon isn’t highlighted, click on the icon (second from right in the Reviewing toolbar). The icon is highlighted with an orange background to let you know the feature is on.

Now when you start tracking, you’ll see change lines in the left margin of all your pages as you make changes.

Accept and Reject Changes

The Accept and Reject icons appear in the Changes section.

In Word 2007 and later versions, you see the Simple Markup view by default when you track changes. This means that you’ll see change lines in the left margin next to text that’s been changed, but you won’t see any changes in the text.

When you decide to accept or reject a change in the document that you or someone else has made, here’s how to mark the change as accepted or rejected in Word 2007 and later:

  1. Click on the sentence or block of text that contains the change.
  2. Click the Review menu option, if necessary.
  3. Click Accept or Reject in the toolbar.

If you click Accept, the change line disappears and the text stays. If you click Reject, the change line disappears, and the text is deleted. In either case, Track Changes moves to the next change in the document and you can decide if you want to accept or reject the next change.

If you use Word 2003, here’s what to do:

  1. Select the edited text.
  2. Open the Reviewing toolbar as you did earlier in this article.
  3. In the toolbar, click Accept or Reject Changes.
  4. In the Accept or Reject Changes window, click Accept to accept the change or click Reject to reject it.
  5. Click the right-arrow Find button to go to the next change.
  6. Repeat Steps 1-5 as needed. When you’re done, close the window by clicking Close.

Turn Lock Tracking On and Off

Click Lock Tracking to keep people from modifying or deleting someone else’s changes.

You can keep someone from turning off Track Changes by turning on Lock Tracking and then adding a password if you want. A password is optional, but you may want to add it if other people who review the document who mistakenly (or not) delete or edit other commenters’ changes.

Here’s how to lock tracking in Word 2007 and later:

  1. Click the Review menu option if necessary.
  2. Click Track Changes in the ribbon.
  3. Click Lock Tracking.
  4. In the Lock Tracking window, type the password in the Enter Password box.
  5. Re-enter the password in the Reenter to Confirm box.
  6. Click OK.

When Lock Tracking is on, no one else can turn off Track Changes and can’t accept or reject changes, but they can make any comments or changes of their own. Here’s what to do when you’re ready to turn off Track Changes in Word 2007 and later:

  1. Follow the first three steps in the instructions above.
  2. In the Unlock Tracking window, type the password in the Password box.
  3. Click OK.

If you have Word 2003, here’s how to lock changes so no one else can delete or edit anyone else’s changes:

  1. Click the Tools menu option.
  2. Click Protect Document.
  3. In the Restricting Formatting and Editing pane on the right side of the screen, click the Allow only this type of editing in the document check box.
  4. Click No Changes (Read only).
  5. Click Tracked Changes in the drop-down menu.

When you want to turn off lock changes, repeat the first three steps above to remove all editing restrictions.

After you unlock Track Changes, note that Track Changes is still on, so you can continue to make changes to the document. You’ll also be able to accept or reject changes from other users who have edited and/or written comments in the document. 

Turn Off Track Changes

Accept all changes and stop tracking by clicking the option at the bottom of the Accept menu.

In Word 2007 and later, you can turn off Track Changes in one of two ways. The first is to perform the same steps as you did when you turned Track Changes on. And here’s the second option:

  1. Click the Review menu option, if necessary.
  2. Click Accept in the ribbon.
  3. Click Accept All Changes and Stop Tracking.

The second option will cause all markup in your document to disappear. When you make changes and/or add more text, you won’t see any markup appear in your document.

If you have Word 2003, follow the same instructions you used when you turn on Track Changes. The only difference you’ll see is that the icon isn’t highlighted any longer, which means the feature is off.

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