Tech Tip Tuesday - Word - Track Changes and Markups

Have you ever been sent a document where all the comments and changes were within the text of document? (Or maybe you are the one that sends them.) How annoying is that? Now you have try to track down every little change comment that is embedded in the text? Track changes has been around for over 10 years, we should all be using them to communicate revisions. Using track changes lets you create suggestions without the author having to accept each and every one of them. 

​All these features are under Review tab. Below is a detailed description of each feature:

Sorry to those that have been using track changes effectively for years, however there may be a couple new tips below. And as we move more to cloud documents using the commenting and track changes features becomes more important to help us collaborate more effectively. Here is a great 4-minute video that takes you through everything.

As always if you have any questions, feel free to send them my way.

Keep commenting,
​Ralph

Comments

• Comments: Used to make a general note. Often use them to communicate where I need more information. Also works great for instructions on forms.
• New Comment: Creates a new comment. To create a new comment you can also right click on selected text and click New Comment. Word also put a comment button in the upper right corner.

• Delete: Deletes the active comment or hit the down arrow to delete all the comments from the document for you send it. You can also delete the comment by right-clicking on the comment and selecting delete
• Previous: Jumps to previous comment in document
• Next: Jumps to next comment in document
• Show Comments: Toggles commenting viewing pane on right-side of document.
• Ink Comment (New Feature): Lets you handwrite your comments
• Reply (On Comment): Lets you reply to the comment directly. Using this tool helps with organization of the comments.
• Resolve (On Comment): Lets you say that the comment has been addressed, but keep the comment for record.

​Tracking

• Tracking: Make changes with allowing the author to make final approval
• Track Changes: Toggles whether or not changes are being redlined
• Markup (Simple Markup by default): Decide what markup you want to see
  • Simple: Just see meaningful changes
  • All: Shows every little change
  • No: Turns off all markup
  • Note: This does not approach all changes. If you send this file markup is still in the file if receiver changes the markup options
  • Original: Shows the version before the changes.
• Show Markup: Lets you decide what types of markup you want to see. Under here you can also select which reviews comments you want to see.
• Reviewing Pane: See all comments in list format

​Changes

• Changes: Use this area to accept and reject reviews comments
• Accept: Approves change and moves to the next change. Note you can also approve all changes by click the down arrow and selecting "Accept all changes" or "Accept all changes and stop tracking"
• Reject: Declines change and moves to the next change.  Note you can also reject all changes by click the down arrow and selecting "Reject all changes" or "Reject all changes and stop tracking"
• Previous and Next: You got this one.

Compare

• Compare: Lets you compare or combine two version of a document.