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.
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.
T able of contents GO TO INFO ABOUTTrack 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.
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.
The track changes tools are found on the Review tab in the Ribbon:
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.
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
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
A person who has edited/made changes to a document
Tracked changes or comments shown in the margin of a document
Incorporates a tracked change in the document, as if it belonged to the original document.
Removes (or deletes) a tracked change from the document, as if it had not been made
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.
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.
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.
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.
As explained above, you must turn on Track Changes to tell Word to track all the changes you make in your document.
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.
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.
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.
Figure 3A. Track changes is disabled: Track Changes is off.
Figure 3B. Track changes is enabled: Track Changes is on (the icon is highlighted).
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.
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.
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.
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" width="336" height="615" />
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
If the Track Changes icon in the Review tab in the Ribbon is highlighted, Track Changes is on. See Figure 3 above.
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.
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:
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
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.
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.
For an illustration of the Advanced Track Changes Options dialog box, see Figure 22 below.
TIP : You can click a gray line in the margin to switch to Simple Markup display.
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.
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:
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Comments: Not checked
Insertions and Deletions: Not checked
Formatting: Checked
See below if you want to stop tracking new formatting changes you make.
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.
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:
If your document includes tracked changes, you can print it so the printout shows the 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.
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.
If your document includes tracked changes, you can print a list of tracked changes using Word’s built-in functionality:
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.
Word use two terms for the people who make track changes to a document: author and reviewer.
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.
Figure 13. Example of screen tip shown when hovering the mouse over a tracked change.
If no screen tip is shown:
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.
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.
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.
To use the same colors for each author’s changes:
To display each author’s changes in a different color:
The Advanced Track Changes Options dialog box offers the colors shown below.
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:
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.
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.
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.
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.
Word use two terms for the people who make track changes to a document: author and reviewer.
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.
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:
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.)
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.
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.
Remember that tracked changes are also called revisions – authors are also called reviewers.
To display only tracked changes made by specific authors:
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.
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.
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:
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.
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.
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:
Figure 19. The Combine Documents dialog box. It is almost identical to the Compare Documents 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.
To open the Advanced 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.
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.
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.
These general rules apply to Advanced Track Changes Options:
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
Underline + By author
Defines the formatting and color applied to insertions.
If you select (none), no formatting is applied.
Strikethrough + By author
Defines the formatting and color applied to deletions.
If you select (none), no formatting is applied.
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.
Defines the color applied to the text that was commented on (the comment scope) and to other comment marks.
GROUP: Moves
When turned on, content you cut and paste will be marked.
Defines how cut text is formatted when you paste it elsewhere.
If you select (none), no formatting is applied.
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
Defines the color of new tables cells you insert.
If you select (none), no formatting is applied.
Defines the color of deleted tables cells.
If you select (none), no formatting is applied.
Defines the color of cells that have been merged from multiple cells.
If you select (none), no formatting is applied.
Defines the color of table cells that have been split.
If you select (none), no formatting is applied.
GROUP: Formatting
When turned on, changes to formatting will be marked.
Examples of formatting changes: Apply bold, underline, color, change font, change font size.
(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
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.
Defines whether balloons are shown in the left or right side of the page.
Show lines connecting to text
Defines whether comments are connected to the texts that was commented on (the comment scope).
Paper orientation in printing
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.
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.
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:
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:
About the View options in the Accept or Reject Changes dialog box:
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:
To open the dialog box, click the dialog box launcher in Review tab > Tracking group. See Figure 20 above.
See the illustrations 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.
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.
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.
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:
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.
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.
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 Changes, Accept, and Reject, may be unavailable or disabled in a document when tracking is locked.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 .
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.
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.
If you still can’t see any changes:
If you still can’t see any changes:
If you still can’t see any changes:
Figure 28. This message is shown when you click Previous or Next if there are no comments or tracked changes in the document.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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).
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.
Figure 29. Example of automatic numbering with tracked changes.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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:
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.
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.
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 31. How to turn off Remove personal information from file properties on save via Trust Center.
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.
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:
The illustration below shows how the dialog box looks when the group headings are missing:
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.
