If you ever need to edit a document of any sort including a contract or agreement and want your changes and comments to standout, the Track Changes feature in Word 2010 has no equal… Really. It’s that good. If you’re an attorney or contract specialist, you probably already know this from previous versions of Word but if not, pay close attention and let me introduce you to the Track Changes feature of Word 2010 found on the Review Tab of the Ribbon.
Step 1 – Starting Content
To start out, you need some initial content. This can be something that you’ve written or perhaps you’re a teacher so grab one of your students papers you need to edit. Track changes will look at ALL changes done to a document so you can be as creative as you like with your content.
Step 2 – Enable Track Changes
Select the Review tab and then Click Track Changes.
Step 3 – Edit
Start your engines! Now you can edit the document as much as you like and the edits will be shown with a colored markup. These edits aren’t considered permanent at this point, but they will be saved with the document until they are “Accepted” or “Rejected.”
Step 4 – Comments & Additional Editing Tools
Adding comments is an easy way to communicate points that need clarification or just a general comment. Comments will appear on the side of the document but won’t appear in the final draft. To Add a comment, Select a portion of the document and then Click New Comment.* A box will appear on the right-side that you can type in to convey a particular message to concerning the editing.
*Note that format changes such as adding bold, italic, underline, etc… will result in an automatically created Comment labeled Formatted.
You can also add Balloons, which are system generated comments that will display editing actions taken on each part of the document. Showing revisions in balloons is my is actually my preferred method for editing and reviewing documents. These balloons will change depending upon whether you are viewing the “Final: Show Markup” or the “Original: Show Markup”. To do this Click Show Markup > Balloons > Show Revisions in Balloons.
Step 5 – Edit As A Different Author
The color that markups will appear will depend on which author (editor) number you are of the document. The first editor will have red markup, the second will have blue, and so on. The identity of the editor is determined by the User Name associated with the Office 2010 install. You can change this if you Click Track Changes > Change User Name…
If you edit a document and then change your own user name, Word will consider you an entirely different author and you can then edit the document using multiple colored markups. If you do this you need to remember the exact user name you used for each color because using anything different will just create a new author (and color).
Step 6 – Accept Or Reject Changes
With the document fully edited you are ready to start accepting or rejecting changes. There are two different places to do this; the Review ribbon Accept button, or the Right-Click context menu option.
Additionally, from the ribbon you can skip ahead and Accept All Changes in Document to completely to instantly change the document according to all of the markup.
Step 7 – Compare Or Combine Documents
You can use the Compare tool to view documents side-by-side and see what differences there are between them. This will work with ANY two documents, but it is only really useful for documents that are similar or have been modified. Below I loaded both the original version and the finished revised version for comparison.
The comparison window is huge, but it will display every difference and will automatically open the Reviewing Pane to help you track changes easier.
Conclusion
The Review ribbon in Office 2010 is a useful tool for collaboration, writing and editing. In Word 2010, the Track Changes tool is especially useful and a must have for anyone who needs to edit a document and track changes / revisions. Its change tracking is concise, easy to see, understand and apply.
I’m an attorney and I spend most of my day using revisions tracking on contracts. Does word 2010 give me anything word 2007 doesn’t?
So just did a screen by screen comparison and no… the features have not changed at all between Word 2007 and Word 2010. The ONLY thing I see that’s different is on the ribbon, there is a Balloons button on the ribbon for Word 2007 however on Word 2010 the Balloons button is hidden under the Show Markup drop down button.
So yeah, NOTHING has changed.
I used Microsoft Word 2010. I am not new to this, however, this is the first time I have lost a document. I wouldn’t mind but it is 6 pages. I usually have the problems when I go to Edit it, it tells me read only.
Can you help me with this. I understand that it has something to do with the ribbon, if so please tell me exactly what to do to correct it please.
Thank you.
Judith A. Fleming
How exactly did you lose the document? Did you ever save it?
I am desparately trying to change the time stamp in track changes in the 2010 version. My Microsoft default is set as “2/9/12″, but when I hover over the name in a tracked change, it appears as 09/02/12. I’ve checked with Help and can’t find anything. When I sent this same document to a user who has Word 2007, the date format was correct.
Hi Caudia,
This has to do with the way your PC records the date. US uses the month, day, year sequence while rest uses european order of first having the day, then the month and then the year. Your PC will display it according to your set up. This is why it will appear as 09/02/2012 on someone else’s PC.
Sugget you go to control panel and check out the Date/ region and language settings. Then choose the time sequence you want and from then on you will see all the changes will be automatically made. you cannot change the date stamp in Word or in the Review function. It uses the settings you chose when you first installed your software and set up your profile.
Hope this helped you
H Visser
this is very good document.. can understand every thing clearly
Great document-very helpful. Thank you.
Your very welcome! And welcome to the site!
So, I’m using two sets of track changes in a document I’m currently editing. (A copy editor’s and my own.) All is fine (I see my own, and I see the copy editor’s) until I save. When I save, my track changes turn same the same color and user name of the copy editor’s, even though my name is associated with the Microsoft Office install.
Any clue why this would happen and what I could do to make it stop?
Thanks.
Never mind! I figured it out.
Oh! Sorry about that.
File > Options > Trust Center > Click the button “Trust Center Settings” > Privacy Options > Under “Document-specific settings” uncheck “Remove personal information from file properties on save.”
I guess if a document is saved in an earlier version of Word, this box is sometimes checked, which makes the username for all track changes the default “Author.”
Very helpful, thanks!
Please share the answer with the rest of us Thanks!
This was very helpful. Thank you for posting!
Hallo,
is it possible to change (or better) to remove the text “Comment” from a balloon? so that you just have the text of the comment?
thanks
lo
I prefer the balloon presentation for both comments and changes too, but at the moment I have to turn on “Show revisions in balloons” manually every time.
Can you tell me how to make this the default, in place of the current default, which is “Show only comments and formatting in balloons”?
Thank you.
I have the same problem. Did you find a work-around? Does anyone know how to make this option permanent?
I had the same problem and it is really annoying to see that the ““Show only comments and formatting in balloons” option disappeared. Why change something that works so nicely???
The workaround that I found is to disable balloons completely — that way you see ins/del inline. Comments are then shown with a red highlight and a [1]. If you mouse-over a comment you see its text. Right mouse click gives edit comments, but this opens the ugly Review Pane.
I hope Microsoft will put this option back.
I just finished commenting on a voluminous document and tried to accept changes but nothing happened. I fear I may not have “enabled” track changes before actually making proposed changes. If this is true, is there any way to enable “track changes” so that all comments and proposed changes will not have to be re-typed?
If your changes aren’t showing in highlighted colors, then you didn’t have Track Changes enabled. However, your changes are there – they’re just not highlighted as changes. You only need to use Track Changes where you intend for someone to review (and accept/reject) the changes before they are finalized.
Tks for taking the time to respond. My sense is that the best way to proceed is to have my “revised” doc serve as the base text and ask reviewers to enable “track changes” and record there comments. I can then incorporate their remarks using the Track changes tool and then manually include my initial comments.
Why does my document always open with the Track Changes feature automatically on. It opens certain documents in “Final: Show Markup” setting with a blank review column to the right. I can’t get it to go away no matter what I do. Help!?!?!? Please and Thanks!
I use this everyday now. Thank you!
How do I restore myself as the first editor?
I was editing a document as the first (and only) editor with my comments in red appearing as usual. At the end of the day, I turned off my computer, but when I started it up the next day and opened the document, all my previous changes were in blue as though a second editor had done them. I then checked what would happen if I opened a different document and started editing it. This one too would not note my changes in red as the first editor. I find it so anoying. Please could you explain how I restore myself as the first editor to see my changes in red. Note: I am the only one who edits on any document and no one else has access to my PC. I also didn’t change the profile or any other settings on it.
Thanks
Henriette Visser
I am wondering if there is a way to accept the changes in a color other than black, without having to format each edit in that different color (say red). I understand that the edits appear in red (or another color if there are multiple authors), but once the text is accepted, it is black. I would like to be able to see where I input new text, after I have accepted changes. Hope this makes some sense.
Thanks,
Kathy
Hi Kathy,
The way the system works is once you accept the change, word no longer tracks it. Only other option is to manually change the color or add a color or not accept the change until the final document is ready to be saved and communicated.
I have made a copy of a document that is a template (not a *.dotx template) for creating design documents that has “Track Change” turned on. I want to modify creating my initial version for the project & once completed use that point in time to track changes.
Hi,
Is there any way to change the track options on a comparison document?
So if you have two documents up and you want to change the track settings on the comparison doc, (ie colour, how it appears) is this possible?
Or would you just change it on the original document and it will then replicate over to the comparison doc.
thanks
Great – just the solution I needed (use different colors by slightly changing the editor name). Thanks a lot!
No problem and thanks for the feedback Christine!
Let’s say I am working on a protected document from a user, and I am not allowed to unlock it. I make edits over the course of several days, and on the last day, I discover I want to “undelete” something I had marked two days earlier. How can I accomplish this? I don’t see any way to undo my own deletes.
How do you make track changes a default setting in Word 2010