Track Changes in Word 2007

Track Changes, as the term suggests, is a feature in Microsoft Word that helps keep track of the revisions made to a document. This feature is commonly used when two or more users work on the same document or when a document passes through a review cycle.

Let us assume that you work on a document in Microsoft Word and forward it to your peers for review. The reviewers would turn on the ‘Track Changes’ feature and then make changes to the document, if any. This will help you to know the suggestions made by the reviewers. This article outlines some of the features relating to Word 2007. Click here for Word 2003.

• Click Review in the Word menu. This displays a toolbar with options for Comments, Changes etc.
• Click Track Changes in the toolbar to enable /disable track changes

• Select Track Changes > Change Tracking Options to define options for Markup, track Moves, usage of Balloons. As compared to Word 2003, there are many additional options available in Word 2007 to track the changes

It is important to ensure that before a document is circulated in its Final form, no track changes markup is there. All the suggestions made during the review or editing cycle should have been accepted or rejected. If one is working on a large document, how to ensure this? In Word 2007, this option can be found in the Trust Center settings.  Here are the steps:

• Click the Office Button and then click Word Options
• Click Trust Center in the left pane

• Select Trust Center and then click Trust Center Settings

• Select ‘Warn before printing, saving, or sending a file that contains track changes or comments. Click OK

Use the ‘Reviewing’ toolbar to review, accept, or reject the changes

• The ‘Next’ and the ‘Previous’ arrows in the ‘Reviewing’ toolbar will help you to browse through the changes in a document
• As you review each suggested change, use the ‘Accept’ and ‘Reject’ icons in the ‘Reviewing’ toolbar to either accept or reject a change

You can also print a list of the changes made to a document.  Select File > Print from the menu and select ‘List of markup’ in the ‘Print What’ field. This will print only the changes suggested in a document.