How to Use Track Changes
What Is Track Changes?
Microsoft Word's Track Changes is a tool that allows one person to insert corrections (called "changes") and another person to "accept" or "reject" these. OpenOffice, a free alternative to Word, has a compatible tool. Click here to download OpenOffice.
Table of Contents
Microsoft Word
How to Accept/Reject Changes
How to See All the Changes Applied
Have You Overlooked Any Small Changes?
Can You See the Comments?
Common Problems
OpenOffice
How to Accept/Reject Changes
How to See All the Changes Applied
Can You See the Comments?
Common Problems
Microsoft Word
This tutorial is geared toward 2007-2016 versions of Word. If your version is different, or if you're having trouble, search online for "Track Changes Word [Version Year]" and you should get helpful results.
How to Accept/Reject Changes
You can accept/reject the changes in a few ways. While these two tend to be easy, read on to discover other methods.
Option 1
Right-click on an individual edit and either or .
Option 2
Under the tab (in the area) click either or .
Time-Saving Tip
Go through and reject the edits you don't want. At the end, accept the wanted changes in one swoop by clicking and then (refer to image under Option 2).
How to See All the Changes Applied
Seeing how the document would look if all the changes were applied is helpful when dealing with convoluted markup. There are a few ways to see all the changes applied. One of them is to click on (in the area) and then uncheck . By checking and unchecking this, you toggle between hiding and showing the markup.
Don't worry: Seeing all the changes as if they were applied doesn't mean the changes have actually been applied. You have to accept or reject them for that to happen.
Have You Overlooked Any Small Changes?
Little changes (such as the addition of a missing period) can make quite a difference, but they're easily overlooked. To ensure no changes are missed:
Option 1
In the area under the tab, click . Look for any remaining changes in the pane that appears (e.g., anything that says "Inserted" or "Deleted"). You'll also see the comments within this pane, so remaining changes will be easier to spot if you've deleted most of the comments by this point.
Option 2
Once you believe you have accepted/rejected all the changes, in the area under the tab, click (or ). If you've accepted everything, you will get a message saying there are no more changes. Otherwise, you will be brought to changes (and comments) you overlooked.
Comments
Can You See the Comments?
I almost always leave comments, so to make sure comments are visible, under the tab (in the area), click on the drop-down menu, and ensure has a checkmark next to it.
Note that sometimes I comment on deleted text (explaining why it's deleted) and if the changes are hidden (as explained above), the comment will be hidden too. So to see all the comments in a document, in the area's drop-down menu, make sure the option to show all markup is selected (the exact wording varies by Word version). In other words, to make sure you're seeing all comments, it's best if the changes are showing.
How to Easily Navigate the Comments
Under the tab (in the area) click on either or .
How to Delete a Comment
Right-click on the comment and select , or you can refer to the area in the toolbar up top (under the tab) and delete it there. With this tool, usually more than one way to do something exists.
Common Problems
If a word is underlined in red (spell check sometimes thinks correct words are misspelled), the option to or won't show upon right-clicking. To resolve this, right-click and select (or ) to get rid of the red underline. Then right-click again and choose whether to accept or reject the change.
For a small edit, it helps to place your pointer directly before the change before right-clicking so the correct menu shows up.
OpenOffice
How to Accept/Reject Changes
Option 1
Right-click on an individual edit and or .
Option 2
Click → → and decide what to do.
How to See All the Changes Applied
Seeing how the document would look if all the changes were applied is helpful when dealing with convoluted markup. When you go to and then , will be checked. Uncheck it to see your document with all the changes applied. By checking and unchecking this, you toggle between hiding and showing the markup.
Don't worry: Seeing all the changes as if they were applied doesn't mean the changes have actually been applied. You have to accept or reject them for that to happen.
Comments
Can You See the Comments?
I almost always leave comments, so to make sure comments are visible, under , ensure (which appears more than halfway down the menu) has a checkmark next to it.
How to Delete a Comment
Click on the small tab in the bottom right-hand corner of the comment and decide what to do.
Common Problems
If a word is underlined in red (spell check sometimes thinks correct words are misspelled), the option to or won't show upon right-clicking. To resolve this, right-click and select (or ) to get rid of the red underline. Then right-click again and choose whether to accept or reject the change.