How to use Track Changes in Microsoft Word

When your editor returns your manuscript with changes to review, the first thing you see is red. That’s normal. But, this red isn’t figurative. If you sent your manuscript as a Microsoft Word document, your editor likely used Track Changes, which is an efficient way to identify issues and keep them listed where the author can review each change and make changes of your own. You, as the author, can also read the editor’s comments.

Tracked Changes looks intimidating at first, but don’t fret. With a few pictures and tips, navigating your marked-up document can be easy.

Turning on/off Track Changes

For these examples, we’ll use my old WIP, Rescued. At the top of your ribbon in MW (today’s acronym for Microsoft Word) you’ll see the tabs: File, Home, Insert, etc. Look for Review. That tab has all sorts of goodies, not just for editing but for your writing too. In the Tracking section, which is almost directly under the Review tab in your ribbon, click the button labeled: “Track Changes” (the words, not the pictures). You’ll get a drop-down menu with options to track changes or lock tracking. Clicking the image will turn on the change feature, but if you click the arrow instead, you’ll have that lock tracking option, too.

So it’s on. Awesome. Now, turn it off the same way. When your editor returns your manuscript, it’s likely to be on, so you won’t need to worry about this part unless you’re supposed to do otherwise.

Just so you know, when you do want to turn off Track Changes, you won’t remove the comments, but we’ll get into that part later. Comment bubbles stick around until you remove those in a different part of the ribbon.

But, how do you accept or reject changes? That’s next.

Accepting/rejecting changes

You likely won’t be accepting or rejecting changes if you’re working with an editor (they do that), but editors work differently, so I’m showing you how. If you look back up at your ribbon beside that Track Changes button, you’ll see three options to the right.

You can play with it, but all we’ll need is that first one with the drop-down menu. You can choose Simple Markup, All Markup, or No Markup. The Simple Markup option allows you to see where changes were made, but you’ll have to click on the small red line or go to All Markup to see what changes were made.

When you look at All Markup, it’s a bit messy, and that’s where you see all the red. It shows you words deleted (with a strikethrough) and words added in (underlined). You’ll also see where words may have been moved (double strikethrough/underline). Below is what the All Markup option looks like.

It doesn’t look like it with the few changes I made, but when it comes back from an editor, your work (and mine, because the changes I made were for an example; another editor will send me more red), will be beautiful and bloody with corrections. Yes, it’s a beautiful thing. It means once you clean it up, it will be better than it was before. The more red, the more learning. The more learning, the better you become.

Track Changes in Microsoft Word

Wherever your cursor is clicked on the page, that’s where your changes will start being noticed by the software. If you click on Accept, it’ll take you to the first change made after your cursor. So, I suggest clicking on the first sentence on Page 1 before doing this.

Whether you click accept or reject, you’ll go to the first change and have to click it again. This is fine. Look at the change; if you want it, accept it. If you don’t, reject it. This is the part that will cause you the most grief because now you have to choose what you want. This is your manuscript. If you want to reword something, reword it before accepting/rejecting a change. Don’t speed through this process. You don’t want to accidentally leave a space somewhere or link two words together because you accepted a change without reading. If you mess up, go back. Ctrl + Z or Command + Z.

Take your time, take breaks, and do not click the drop-down menu and press Accept All Changes. Not unless you choose the path where you review all changes, fix what you think needs fixing, then accept all changes when you’re done. Same with rejecting. Otherwise, what did your editor do all that work for? It helps some to make a copy of the document so you can review the change in one and find it in the other. From there, you can see how it reads in the clean document. If you need to change something, change it in the cleaned one with Tracked Changes still on. By doing this, you prevent yourself from accidentally deleting a necessary space or adding one too many periods. Another option is simply to view Simple Markup when you’re making changes and All Markup when viewing changes.

Quick trick: click the red line on the left side of the screen for a quick on/off.

If you don’t know whether you want to keep something yet, simply click Next or Previous to go to another change. Simple. It will circle back around to the change when you’re done and ready to return to it.

Take a breath. It’s time for the comments

If you haven’t noticed already, you have a section next to Tracking labeled: “Comments.” This is pretty self-explanatory. You can write your own comments, delete a comment you’ve clicked on, go to the next one, or go back. You will also notice the gray box labeled: “Show Comments.” If this isn’t already clicked, click it. You’ll want to see them all.

And this is what your comments will look like. NOTE: I’m having fun with this, so understand that I (and hopefully whoever you choose as your editor) will never tell you something like this. If any editor does, I’ll tell you now that your writing is never “all wrong.” The comments you see are for the sake of this example and because we all know who our worst critic is.

And, yes, I did that stuff on purpose. I broke rules. O.O The font thing is just for me, though.

Remember, if Track Changes is on, your changes will be tracked. Also, if your editor requires the manuscript for a final edit, please make sure all your changes are made and your document is free of comments, notes, and any tracked changes unless they say otherwise. With all comments, make sure you click on the comment or inside the box of the comment to delete it. MW needs to know what it’s deleting.

Play with it a little to understand the other features of the Review tab and the other little parts and pieces that make up the Track Changes and Comments sections. This is a great tool for those who want to keep track of what changes are made, but it’s a tool most editors use to ensure efficiency during the process.

Good luck and happy revising!