MORE INFORMATION
When you share your documents with others, you can track
changes to see exactly what additions and deletions they made. Then, you can
accept or reject their revisions one at a time or all at once. If reviewers
return their changes in separate documents, you can merge all their revisions
into a single document and then review them. If you want a record of changes
made to a document, you can save different versions of a document within the
same document.
Tracking changes in a document allows you to make
revisions to a document without losing the original text. When you track
changes, Word shows changed text in a different color from the original text
and uses revision marks, such as underlines, to distinguish the revised text
from the original text. To preserve the layout of your document, Word also
identifies the change and its type, such as a deletion, in a balloon that
appears in the margin of the document.
When you open a document that contains tracked changes, the document appears in the Final Showing Markup view to show that the document contains track changes. This is the default behavior. Word underlines and changes the color of inserted text. Word also includes a vertical changed line in the margin to the left of any changed text to help you locate changes in the document.
To turn on change tracking, right-click any
toolbar, click
Reviewing on the menu to display the
Reviewing toolbar, and then click the
Track Changes button. Any changes that you make are now indicated by revision
marks.
NOTE: To turn off change tracking while you are editing, click the
Track Changes button on the
Reviewing toolbar. When the Track Changes feature is turned on, "TRK"
appears on the status bar at the bottom of your document. When you turn off
change tracking, TRK is dimmed.
If the revision marks are
distracting, you can track changes without highlighting them on the screen. To
hide the revision marks, click the
Track Changes button on the
Reviewing toolbar, if necessary, to start tracking changes. Click the
Display for Review down arrow, and then click
Final. When you're finished working on a document, click the
Display for Review down arrow, and then click
Final Showing Markup to see the changes identified in the document. While the
Display for Review list changes whether you see the revisions identified, you also
use the
Show list to choose the types of revisions that you see in the
document window.
As you review the tracked changes, you can accept or
reject them one at a time, or you can accept or reject all the changes at once.
When you accept a change, Word removes the typographical revision marks. If you
have deleted text, it also removes the text from the document. If you have
inserted text, it leaves the new text in the document. When you reject a
change, Word restores the original text.
To review changes, you use
the
Reviewing toolbar. You can review changes one at a time by using the
Next Change and
Previous Change buttons. Then use the
Accept Change or
Reject Change buttons to respond to the revisions. To accept all the changes at
once, click the
Accept Change down arrow, and then click
Accept All Changes in Document. To reject all the changes at once, click the
Reject Change down arrow, and then click
Reject All Changes in Document.
If you want a record of changes made to a document,
you can save different versions of a document within the same document. When
you save different versions within Word, you also save disk space because Word
saves only the differences between versions, not an entire copy of each
document. After you've saved several versions of the document, you can go back
and review, open, print, and delete earlier versions. You can also have Word
save a version of your document each time the document is closed, which is
useful when you need a record of who made changes and when, as in the case of a
legal document. To save a version every time that you close a document, use the
Versions command on the
File menu to open the
Versions in DocumentName dialog box, and then select the
Automatically save a version on close check box.
To track changes in a Word document
- Start or switch to Word.
- On the Standard toolbar, click Open.
The Open dialog box appears. - In the Open dialog box, locate and select the file in which you want to track
changes. Click Open.
- On the View menu, point to Toolbars, and then click Reviewing.
The Reviewing toolbar appears. - On the Reviewing toolbar, click Track Changes.
Any changes that you make will now be tracked.
TIP: When track changes is turned on, the
Track Changes button has a blue border, and the letters TRK are highlighted on
the status bar; when track changes is turned off, the
Track Changes button has no border, and TRK is gray on the status bar.
To make changes and add comments
To make changes in and add comments to a document after you turn
on track changes, follow these steps:
- If you have text you no longer want in your file, select
the text and press DELETE.
Word inserts a callout that describes the
type and content of your change. For example, if you deleted the text, the
quick brown fox, you will see a callout that says: Deleted: The quick brown fox.
Note If you do not see the callout, you may be viewing your document
in normal view. Switch to print layout view to see the callouts. To do this,
click Print Layout on the View menu. - Rest the mouse pointer over the text that you deleted. In
addition to the callout, Word marks the deletion with a ScreenTip. If you rest
the mouse pointer over the deletion, the ScreenTip tells you the name of the
person who made the change, when the change was made, and the type of change
that was made. In this case, the ScreenTip displays Deleted.
- If you have text you want to add to your file, click where
you want the text to appear and type the text.
Word inserts the new
text in a different color font. The color differs for each person who makes
changes to a document when track changes is turned on. - Rest the mouse pointer over the text that you added.
A ScreenTip tells you the name of the person who made the change,
when the change was made, and the type of change that was made. In this case,
the ScreenTip displays Inserted. - On the Insert menu, click Comment.
If you selected text and then inserted a comment,
Word marks the selection with large colored parentheses. If no text was
selected when you inserted a comment, the location is marked by a colored
vertical bar. A callout appears in the margin of the document. The callout
describes the type and content of your change. For example, if you add a note
or an annotation to your document, the callout says, Comment: followed by the note or annotation text. - Rest the mouse pointer over the comment that you added.
A ScreenTip tells you the name of the person who made the change, when
the change was made, and the type of change that was made. In this case, the
ScreenTip displays Commented. - On the Reviewing toolbar, click Show, and then click Reviewing Pane. The Reviewing pane appears at the bottom of the Word window and has the
caption, Main Document Changes and Comments. For each addition, deletion, or comment, you will see the name
of the person who made the change, when the change was made, the type of change
that was made, and the content of the change.
To review and accept or reject changes
To review and accept or reject changes that you or other
reviewers made to a document, follow these steps:
- Press CTRL+HOME to move the insertion point to the
beginning of the document.
- On the Reviewing toolbar, click Next.
The first change in the document is selected.
- On the Reviewing toolbar, click Accept Change.
Word accepts the change. If the change was a
deletion, Word removes the text and the revision marks. Also, Word removes the
callout and the change information from the Reviewing pane. If the change was a deletion, Word adds the text and
removes the revision marks. Word also removes the change information from the Reviewing pane.
TIP: To accept a change, you can also right-click the change and then
click Accept Insertion or Accept Deletion on the menu that appears. - On the Reviewing toolbar, click Next.
- On the Reviewing toolbar, click Reject Change/Delete Comment. Word restores your text to the way it was before the insertion
or deletion and removes the callout. Word also removes the change information
from the Reviewing pane.
TIP: When you point to a change on the screen, the name that appears
in the ScreenTip is the user name that was entered when the operating system
was installed. If no name was entered, the ScreenTip shows User as the name. You can change the user name in the Options dialog box. On the Tools menu, click Options, click the User Information tab, type a user name in the Name box, and then click OK.
To review an earlier version of your document
- On the File menu, click Versions.
- In the Existing Versions box, select the version you want to review, and click Open.
The currently selected version opens and appears tiled along
with the most recent version of the document. To revert to an earlier version,
open it and then click
Save As on the
File menu to replace the current version of the document. If you don't
want to revert to an earlier version, close the version you opened without
saving changes.
To delete version information
- On the File menu, click Versions.
- In the Existing Versions box, select the version you want to delete and click Delete.
Note This action is not undoable. You will not be able to restore the
deleted version information.