Microsoft Word 2003/2004

Working with the Track Changes Feature

Microsoft Word's tracking and editing features are designed to make collaborative work run more smoothly. The key feature, Track Changes, records all revisions to a document and registers who made which changes at each point in the revision process.

The Reviewing Toolbar Buttons
Viewing Options
Inserting Comments
Editing and Deleting Comments
Accepting and Rejecting Changes

The Reviewing Toolbar Buttons

Using the Reviewing toolbar will provide you with quick access to many tracking and editing operations.

Button	Name	Action
	Display for Review	Specifies the document view
	Show	Specifies the editing features to be displayed
	Previous	Shows the previous change/comment in the text
	Next	Shows the next change/comment in the text
	Accept Change	Accepts a change permanently
	Reject Change/ Delete Comment	Rejects a change and deletes the selected comment
Windows: Macintosh:	Insert Comment	Adds a comment to the selected area
Windows only:	Highlight	Accesses the text highlighting tool
	Track Changes	Enables and disables the Track Changes feature
	Reviewing Pane	Shows and hides the Reviewing pane

Displaying/Hiding the Reviewing Toolbar

From the View menu, select Toolbars » Reviewing
The Reviewing toolbar appears.

Viewing Options

While viewing your document, you can select the desired viewing option and the desired Track Changes features.

Open the document to be reviewed

On the Reviewing toolbar, from the Display for Review pull-down list, select a view:

View	Description
Original	Displays the text of the original document
Original Showing Markup	Displays the text of the original document with changes noted as markups
Final	Displays the document after it has been revised
Final Showing Markup	Displays the final version of the document with changes noted as markups

On the Reviewing toolbar, from the Show pull-down list, select the editing features to be displayed:

Editing Feature	Description
Comments	Shows comments that were added to the document
Insertions and Deletions	Shows what reviewers added and deleted from the original
Formatting	Shows what changes have been made to the formatting of the document
Reviewers	Shows which reviewer a particular edit or comment
Macintosh only: Reviewing Pane	Shows the complete text of all the comments in the document
Macintosh only: Preferences...	Shows a color difference between reviewer's marked changes

Inserting Comments

Word allows users to create comments within documents. Comments can be used to guide a reviewer's attention to areas where special input is needed. The writer or reviewer can insert comments by using the Insert menu or the Reviewing toolbar.

Select the text to which you want to add a comment
From the Insert menu, select Comment
OR
Windows: On the Reviewing toolbar, click INSERT COMMENT
Macintosh: On the Reviewing toolbar, click NEW COMMENT
A Comment box appears with brackets around the selected text.
In the Comment box, type a comment
When finished, click outside the Comment box

Editing and Deleting Comments

Once you add comments, you can edit or delete them. You cannot make changes to comments made by other reviewers.

Editing Comments

Select the comment to be edited
In the Comment box, type your changes
When finished, click outside the Comment box

Deleting Comments

Select the comment to be deleted
On the Reviewing toolbar, click REJECT CHANGE/DELETE COMMENT
The comment is deleted.

Accepting and Rejecting Changes

When you have finished editing your document, you will want to review and accept or reject the changes and comments that have been made. Accepting and rejecting changes works much like the Spell Check feature. By cycling through the changes made to a document, the reviewer can accept or reject any or all changes.

WARNING: It is critical to perform these steps prior to sharing the final version of your document. If you do not do this, others will be able to turn on Track Changes and see early mistakes and edits.

Open the document to be reviewed
On the Reviewing toolbar, click NEXT
The first change is displayed.
To accept the change, click ACCEPT CHANGE
To accept all changes, click ACCEPT CHANGE » select Accept All Changes in Document
To reject the change, click REJECT CHANGE/DELETE COMMENT
To reject all changes, click REJECT CHANGE/DELETE COMMENT » select Reject All Changes in Document
Repeat steps 2-3 until all changes/comments have been reviewed
When finished, save your document