Track Changes Guidelines

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Using Track Changes

Using Track Changes in Word allows you to do electronically what you used to do manually. No more red marks on a printed document; no more circled text with arrows indicating moves.

Track Changes is composed of two parts. The first is viewing edits in a document as you make changes and the second is comparing two documents, frequently called “redlining.”

Track Changes Options

Double-clicking the TRK button on the status bar or selecting Tools > Track Changes > Highlight Changes will access Track Changes. You may also access this by turning on the Reviewing toolbar.

To set the options you want for revisions, select Tools > Options > Track Changes tab.

Type of Edit	Options
Inserted Text	The default is an underline. You may change this to Bold, Italics or double underline. A specific color may be chosen. The default, “By Author” marks the first eight reviewer’s comments with different colors. Selecting “Auto ” or a specific color, marks all inserted text in that color.
Deleted Text	The deleted text default is Strikethrough. You may select Hidden. Then deleted text can be shown or hidden with the Show/Hide button on the Standard toolbar. If you do not want the deleted text to appear on the screen, you may select the ^ or # symbol.
Changed Formatting	The default is none. If you want to show the differences in formatting, select bold, italic, underline, or double-underline formatting. This will not pick up the difference in font color if it is changed.
Changed Lines	The default is outside border. Every paragraph that has a change shows a revision mark next to that paragraph. These marks can be shown on the left, right, or outside borders.

Practice: Set Options and Track Changes

1. Open a document for editing.
2. Double click TRK in the Status bar.
3. Select Tools > Options > Track changes, and select the options of your choice and click OK.
4. Delete some text.
5. Add some text.
6. Change the formatting of a word or paragraph.
7. Pause the cursor over the changes in the document to see when and by whom they were made.
8. Save the document.

Viewing Tracked Changes

When you receive a document with changes, you have several options for viewing the changes and accepting or rejecting them.

To access these options, turn on the Reviewing toolbar by alternate-clicking any toolbar and selecting Reviewing.

Pause the cursor over any marked change and a ScreenTip appears.

TIP

If you do not see the tip, make sure that they are activated by clicking Tools > Options > View tab > Screen Tips.

You can view the original document (before the changes were made) by clicking Tools > Track changes > Accept or Reject Changes > Original.

Reviewing Marked Changes

To review the changes in a document, click Next Change or Previous Change on the Reviewing toolbar. As each change is selected, click Accept or Reject.

If you prefer to accept or reject all changes, select Tools > Track Changes > Accept or Reject Changes. Select the appropriate choice. You will receive a message asking whether you want to accept/reject all remaining changes without reviewing them. If you select No, you will continue reviewing the changes one at a time.

If you do not want your changes marked, turn Track Changes off by double-clicking the TRK on the Status bar. If you cannot turn it off, the document has been protected with a password.

To assure that all reviewers have their changes tracked, protect and add a password to the document.

Protecting a Document for Tracked Changes

1. Open a document you want to protect.
2. Select Tools > Protect Document.
3. Select Tracked Changes, type a password that you are sure to remember in the Password box, and click OK.
4. Confirm the password by typing it in the Confirm Password dialog box.
5. Click OK.

Trouble Shooting Track Changes

Why is Track Changes on when I just opened a document to edit?

It had been turned on when the document was last closed. To turn it off, double-click TRK on the Status bar. If this does not turn it off, there is probably a password attached and it is protected.

Four people have edited the document. How can I tell who did which edits?

Pause the cursor over the edit and it will show you the author, date, and time of the edit. Each new editor (up to 8 people) gets a new color, so once you find out which person goes with which edit color, you can quickly tell who edited what.