Working with Microsoft Word Track Changes (2002/XP)

February 02, 2004
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hen you review your sample or final electronic edit, your document will contain "redline markings." These redline markings may also be referred to as Track Changes (so called because the program "tracks" the changes made to a document) and are a method used to edit your manuscript while still maintaining the document's original integrity.

When an editor edits a hard copy or paper manuscript of your book, then proofreader's marks are used. These are very similar to what you see with redline markings; however, they can be a great deal easier to view, understand, and incorporate into your electronic document.

Though you will be able to see these changes, they are not actually a part of your document; in other words, they are not text that has simply been formatted with a color or strikethrough function.

Consider the following: If you were to place a piece of tracing paper over a page of your text and then mark upon the tracing paper, you would still be able to see the original text, but you would not be marking on the original page. This means that if you were to pick up the piece of tracing paper, your document would be as it was. The Track Changes function works much like a piece of tracing paper. This enables you to view the suggested changes, disable them, or accept and reject them into your original document without having to type the changes yourself.

Track Changes can be altered to appear in your document in a number of ways, but most often, they will appear as follows:

Example of additions.
Example of deletions.

You may also see a black, vertical line at the left or right margin of your document. These lines indicate where a change has been made. You may occasionally see a line where no obvious marking exists. This could indicate a change made to the formatting of your manuscript. (Formatting can refer to things such as letter or word spacing, paragraph marks, and Italics versus Roman type.)

Accepting and Rejecting Changes in a Document

This is the main function you will be working with when reviewing an edit of your manuscript. There are two main ways to accept and reject changes.

Option 1. Select Tools >>Track Changes from the menu on your Toolbar.

This will open a toolbar within your document, allowing you to choose from a number of editing and viewing options.

The first drop-down menu you see should include the following Reviewing options:

Final Showing Markup: Choosing this view option will enable you to see the deleted text in a “balloon” located in the right or left margin (user’s choice), while inserted text will appear within the text itself.

Final: Choosing this view option will enable you to see your text as if all suggested changes have been accepted into the document. You will no longer see deleted text, and inserted text will appear as normal. (Although you will see the document without editorial markings, the track changes are still there until accepted or rejected from the file.)

Original Showing Markup: Choosing this view option will enable you to see all inserted text in a “balloon” located in the right or left margin (user’s choice), while deleted text will be shown with a strikethrough within the text itself.

Original: Choosing this view option will enable you to see your document in its original state, as it was prior to any editorial corrections. Again, although you will see your document without editorial markings, the track changes are still there until accepted or rejected from the file.

Show Function: The Show button next to the view options is a drop-down menu, which allows users to “show” or “hide” comments, insertions and deletions, and formatting changes. In most cases, you will want to make sure that these items are selected (appear with a checkmark next to them) in order to see the changes made to your document. The show menu also allows you to choose between reviewers if multiple users have edited your file.

A Note Regarding “Balloons”: You may choose to enable or disable the “balloons” function, in which case, Final Showing Markup and Original Showing Markup will appear the same in your document. With “balloons” disabled, both of these view options will show all editorial markings within the text itself rather than off to the side. (We recommend disabling the “balloons” function, as it can often be easier to accept and reject your changes in this format.) If you would like to disable the balloons function, go to Tools >> Options and deselect the checkbox beneath the Balloons heading. You may also access the Options menu through the Show button.

Once the balloons are disabled, editorial changes will appear in your document as follows:

Once you have chosen a view that works best for you, you may begin to accept and reject the changes in your document. To do this, you may use the navigation menu options provided on the toolbar.

Previous: The left arrow button will move you to the previous editorial correction made within your document.

Next: The right arrow button will move you to the next editorial correction within your document.

Accept Change: This button is a drop-down menu, where users may choose between the following options:

Reject Change: This button is a drop-down menu, where users may choose between the following options:

Option 2. The second, and perhaps easiest, way to accept and reject changes is to simply find an editorial marking, highlight the text, and then right-click over the highlighted area. A menu should appear, which will include an option to accept or reject the change.

The downside to this method is that you must deal with one change at a time; however, if you are already reading back through the entire document (which is always highly recommended), this should be no problem. You can always choose to go back through using the more extensive function later to ensure that you did not miss a change.

Additional Functions: The track changes menu also includes the following functions:

New Comment: This drop-down menu allows users to create or delete comments within the document.

Track Changes: This button allows you enable/disable the track changes function. This means that with track changes turned on, any text you add or delete from your document will appear as an editorial correction. When accepting or rejecting changes from your document, the track changes function should be disabled.

Reviewing Pane: The reviewing pane will open an additional screen at the bottom of your page, allowing you to see the main changes and comments made in your document.

In most cases, these additional functions will not be necessary. The primary tools you will need for accepting and rejecting your changes will be the Previous, Next, and Accept/Reject buttons.

If you need help working with track changes for Microsoft Word 97 or 2000, review Working with Microsoft Word Track Changes (97/2000).

If you need help working with Corel WordPerfect Annotations, review Working with WordPerfect Annotations.

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Screenshots are of Microsoft Word 2002/XP,
and older or newer versions of this program may differ slightly in appearance.

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