Word display for review

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Introduction

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

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

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

Using Track Changes and Comments

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

Optional: You can download this example for extra practice.

About Track Changes

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

A document with tracked changes

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

To turn on Track Changes:

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

   The Track Changes command

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

   Tracked changes

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

Adding and deleting comments

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

To add a comment:

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

   The New Comment command

3. Type your comment.

   A comment

To delete a comment:

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

   A selected comment

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

   Deleting a comment

To delete all comments:

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

   The Delete drop-down arrow

2. Click Delete All Comments in Document.

Accepting and rejecting changes

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

To accept or reject changes:

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

   Selecting a change

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

   The Accept and Reject commands

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

   After accepting a change

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

To accept all changes:

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

   Accepting all changes

2. Select Accept All Changes in Document.

To reject all changes:

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

   Rejecting all changes

2. Select Reject All Changes in Document.

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

Changing how markups appear

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

To hide tracked changes:

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

   The Display for Review Command

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

   Displaying the Final version (markups hidden)

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

To show revisions in balloons:

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

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

   Showing revisions in balloons

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

   Revisions in the right margin

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

Comparing two documents

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

To compare two documents:

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

   The Compare command

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

   Choosing the Original document

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

   Choosing the Revised document

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

Comparing two documents

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

Using the reviewing features safely

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

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

To use the Document Inspector:

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

   Selecting Info

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

   Clicking Inspect Document

6. Click Inspect.

   Starting the inspection

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

   Removing possibly sensitive data

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

Challenge!

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

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Show or Hide Comments in Microsoft Word Documents

by Avantix Learning Team | Updated January 10, 2021

Applies to: Microsoft^® Word^® 2010, 2013, 2016, 2019 or 365 (Windows)

You can show and hide comments using the Review tab in the Ribbon in Microsoft Word. If you add comments in a Word document, they will appear in a markup area on the right side of pages by default. If you want to show or hide comments, you’ll need to control the display of markup. Keep in mind that comments that are hidden could be displayed by a colleague or client.

The markup area appears in Print Layout View (the default view in Word) whenever a document includes comments and its appearance can be controlled using settings on the Review tab in the Ribbon. The default markup is set to Simple Markup with comments displayed. If the markup area is not appearing on the right, click Show Comments in the Comments group. Tracked changes also appear in the markup area.

In this article, we’re assuming that the default markup options are being used (although you can change the display of markup using Track Changes Options).

Recommended article: How to Remove Comments in Word (3+ Ways to Delete Comments)

Do you want to learn more about Microsoft Word? Check out our virtual classroom or live classroom Word courses >

Hide comments using Display for Review

To hide comments in the markup area using Display for Review:

1. Click the Review tab in the Ribbon.
2. In the Tracking group, click Display for Review. A drop-down menu appears.
3. Select No Markup or Original to hide the markup area, including comments.

The following drop-down menu appears when you click Display for Review:

When you click Display for Review, you have the following options:

• Simple Markup which displays the markup area with comments and revisions. If you select Simple Markup and then click Show Comments in the Comments group, the markup area appears or disappears (if there are no tracked changes). If no markup area appears on the right, comments appear as speech bubbles that you can click to display the comment.
• All Markup which displays the markup area with all comments or revisions as well as lines to their locations in the text.
• No Markup which hides the markup area so that comments and revisions are hidden.
• Original which hides the markup area as well as any revisions made to the document. In regard to comments, this option is the same as No Markup.

In the following example, Simple Markup is selected as well as Show Comments in the Comments group (Print Layout View in Word 365):

In the next example, Simple Markup is selected and Show Comments is not selected  in the Comments group (Print Layout View in Word 365):

Comments appear in different ways depending on the selected view. Typically, you would change views using the View tab in the Ribbon. If you select Draft View, comments appear as the initials of the reviewer with square brackets and are highlighted with a background color. You can position the mouse pointer on the text to view the comment in a pop-up bubble. In Read Mode View, comments appear as speech bubbles to the right of the text. Simply click a bubble to view a comment.

Hide comments using Show Markup

To hide comments using Show Markup:

1. Click the Review tab in the Ribbon.
2. In the Tracking group, click Show Markup. A drop-down menu appears.
3. Select Comments to deselect comments.

The Show Markup drop-down menu includes the following options:

Show comments in the markup area

To show comments in the markup area:

1. Click the Review tab in the Ribbon.
2. In the Tracking group, click Display for Review. A drop-down menu appears.
3. Select Simple Markup or All Markup to show the markup area, including comments.
4. Click Show Markup. A drop-down menu appears.
5. Ensure Comments is selected.
6. If you selected Simple Markup, in the Comments group, select Show Comments in the Comments group.

View all comments using the Reviewing Pane

To view all comments regardless of view:

1. Click the Review tab in the Ribbon.
2. In the Tracking group, click Reviewing Pane. A drop-down menu appears.
3. Select either the horizontal or vertical display. The Reviewing Pane  appears and will displays comments and revisions.

You can click the Reviewing Pane button again in the Ribbon to hide the Reviewing Pane.

Hiding markup is not the same as accepting changes or deleting comments. You should accept or reject changes and delete comments in your Word document before you send out the final version.

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July 24, 2015 at 1:54 pm

People who use Track Changes sometimes find the Display for Review options confusing.  For one thing, some users don’t realize that changing the Display for Review option to “Final” (or, in Word 2013 and Word 2016, “No Markup”) doesn’t actually remove the revision marks – for insertions, deletions, formatting changes, moves, etc. – from the document.  Rather, it merely lets you preview the document as it would look if you accepted all of the changes.[1]

For another thing, the wording of the options isn’t particularly easy to understand.  And the wording has changed between Word 2010 and Word 2013 / 2016, but remains somewhat obscure.

This post is intended to help clarify the various Display for Review options available in Word 2010 and Word 2013 / 2016.

Display for Review Options in Word 2010

In Word 2010, the Display for Review options are as follows:

Original

This option shows the document as it appeared before any insertions, deletions, moves, formatting changes, etc.

Original: Show Markup

This option shows the original document, along with revision marks for any insertions, deletions, formatting changes, and moves[2].

Note that this option appears different from the Final: Show Markup option only if you have chosen to display changes in balloons.[3]  If so,  you’ll see the following differences:

• Original:  Show Markup displays deletions (including moved text in its original location, i.e., before it has been moved) inline, with insertions (as well as formatting changes and comments) displayed in balloons in the right margin – as if the revisions are planned, but not completed yet.
• Final:  Show Markup displays insertions (and moved text in its new location, after it has been moved) inline, with deletions (as well as formatting changes and comments) displayed in balloons in the right margin – as if revisions have been completed.

If you don’t show balloons, or show them only for comments / formatting, there is no apparent difference between the two options.

Final:  Show Markup

This option shows revision marks for all insertions, deletions, moves, formatting changes, etc. that have been made in the document.

Final

This option shows the document as if all proposed revisions have been accepted.

Display for Review Options in Word 2013 and Word 2016

The Display for Review Options in Word 2013 and Word 2016 are somewhat different from those in Word 2010. They are as follows:

Original

This option shows the document as it appeared before any insertions, deletions, moves, formatting changes, etc.

Simple Markup

Choosing Simple Markup means that the document appears as if all of the changes have been accepted – that is, as if insertions and deletions have been made – but with vertical lines in the margins next to portions of the document to indicate where text has been inserted, deleted, reformatted, and/or moved.

• Red vertical lines indicate that markup exists, but is hidden.  To display the markup, left-click any of the red lines (or click the Display for Review drop-down and choose All Markup).
• Gray vertical lines appear when the markup is displayed (similar to the All Markup option).  To hide the markup again, left-click any of the gray vertical lines (or click the Display for Review drop-down and choose Simple Markup).

All Markup

This option shows revision marks for all insertions, deletions, moves, formatting changes, etc. that have been made in the document.  If you have chosen to display revisions in balloons, insertions appear inline, whereas deletions (along with moves, formatting changes, and comments) appear in balloons in the margin.[4]

No Markup

Like the “Final” option in Word 2010, this option shows the document as if all proposed revisions have been accepted.

Remember, this option does not mean that revision marks have been removed from the document.  It’s just a way of previewing what the doc would look like if all of the proposed edits – insertions, deletions, moves, and formatting changes – had been accepted.

___________________________________________________________

[1]  The only way to remove the revision marks is to accept or reject each and every change, and to delete each comment.  Then you must save the “cleaned” document before closing it.  If you close the cleaned document without saving, the revision marks remain in the document.

NOTE: It’s always a good idea to run the Document Inspector – from the File tab, Check for Issues, Inspect Document – after accepting / rejecting the changes and deleting the comments just to make sure that you didn’t miss anything.  (TIP:  I always uncheck “Headers, Footers, and Watermarks” even before running the Document Inspector so that I don’t inadvertently delete headers and footers from the document.)  Again, be sure to save the doc after running the Document Inspector.

[2]  You can disable revision marks for moved text and/or formatting changes if you like.  In Word 2010, click the bottom portion of the Track Changes button (in the Tracking group on the Review tab), then choose “Change Tracking Options…”  When the Track Changes Options dialog opens, you can uncheck (disable) Track Moves and/or Track Formatting.  If you prefer to show revision marks for moved text and/or formatting changes, you can choose from among several different display options.

In Word 2013 and Word 2016, click the dialog launcher and when the collapsed Track Changes Options opens, click “Advanced Options” to disable or configure revision marks for moved text and/or formatting changes.

[3]  There are two ways to enable balloons in Word 2010.  From the Tracking group on the Review tab, do one of the following:  (1)  click the Track Changes drop-down and choose Track Changes Options…., then under Balloons> Use Balloons (Print and Web Layout), choose “Always”; or (2) click the Show Markup drop-down, Balloons, and choose Show Revisions in Balloons.

[4]  There are two ways to enable balloons in Word 2013 and Word 2016.  From the Tracking group on the Review tab, do one of the following:   (1)  click the dialog launcher to open the Change Tracking Options dialog and, from the drop-down labeled “Balloons in All Markup view show,” choose “Revisions”; or (2) click the Show Markup drop-down, Balloons, and choose Show Revisions in Balloons.

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