When Track Changes is off, Word stops marking changes, but the colored underlines and strikethrough from your changes remain in the document until they're accepted or rejected. Note: If the Track Changes feature is unavailable, you might need to turn off document protection. Go to Review Restrict Editing, and then select Stop Protection. The tracked changes in a document remain even after you have turned off Track Changes. To remove all tracked changes from a document, be sure that all changes are showing, and then do the following: Click the Review tab on the ribbon. Click the Accept down arrow in the Changes Group. To accept all changes, click Accept All Changes in Document. The Track changes option prevents other Word users from creating untracked changes in the document. If a change is made, it will be tracked. If a change is made, it will be tracked. The Comments option allows other Word users to leave comments but not to use the Track Changes editing tools.
Track Changes in Microsoft Word
(Applies To: Word 2016Word 2013Word 2010Word 2007 )
90% of people with Microsoft Office are using 10% of it, and everyone uses a different 10%. What 10% are you using?
For this month’s Tech Tips we would like to make you aware of potentially another 10% that you are currently not using: stay tuned to learn about a few really helpful and time-saving features in Microsoft Word! Let’s get started!
When you want to see who has been making changes to your document, turn on the Track Changes feature. You can also choose which changes to accept or reject, and you can view and delete comments. This is the perfect feature for reviewing a document!
1. Turn “Track Changes” on/off:
- On the Review tab, in the Tracking group, choose Track Changes.
- When you turn on Track Changes, Word marks up new changes made to the document.
- When you turn off Track Changes, Word stops marking up new changes. Any changes that were already tracked remain marked up in the document until you remove them.
2. Show changes (revisions) in document:
When you turn on Track Changes, Word marks up and shows any changes that anyone makes to the document.
- On the Review tab, in the Tracking group, in the Simple Markup list, chose a view option:
- Simple Markup is the default option and indicates where changes are with a red line in the margin.
- No Markup hides markup to show what the incorporated changes will look like.
- All Markup shows all edits with different colors of text and lines.
- Original shows the document in its original form.
- In the Show Markup list, choose the revisions you would like to see – Comments, Ink, Insertions and Deletions, Formatting, Balloons, Specific people.
3. Remove Tracked Changes
The only way to remove tracked changes in a document is to accept or reject them.
Word Track Changes Microsoft Office User
- Accept/Delete a single tracked change:
- Open your document.
- On the Review tab, in the Changes group, choose Next or Previous.
- Choose Accept or Reject.
- Accept/Delete all tracked changes:
- Open your document.
- On the Review tab, in the Changes group, do one of the following:
- In the Accept list, choose Accept All Changes, or
- In the Reject list, choose Reject All Changes.
Word then either accepts the change or removes it, and then moves to the next change.
Get additional tips for Word, like how to use keyboard shortcuts, sort and employ advanced math here.
Turn on change tracking
On the Review tab, in the Tracking group, click the Track Changes image.
To add a track changes indicator to the status bar, right-click the status bar and click Track Changes. Click the Track Changes indicator on the status bar to turn Track Changes on or off.
Note If the Track Changes command is unavailable, you might have to turn off document protection. On the Review tab, in the Protect group, click Restrict Editing, and then click Stop Protection at the bottom of the Protect Document task pane. (You might need to know the document password.)
Turn off change tracking
When you turn off change tracking, you can revise the document without marking what has changed. Turning off the Track Changes feature does not remove any changes that have already been tracked.
Important To remove tracked changes, use the Accept and Reject commands on the Review tab in the Changes group.
Microsoft Word Track Changes Won't Turn Off
On the Review tab, in the Tracking group, click the Track Changes image.
To add a track changes indicator to the status bar, right-click the status bar and click Track Changes. Click the Track Changes indicator on the status bar to turn track changes on or off.