Track Changes Instructions
(These instructions are courtesy of Dori Harrell of Breakout Editing.)
Microsoft Word Track Changes feature is a handy tool that allows authors to view suggestions without missing a single in-text suggestion or comment. While there are different ways to use Track Changes, this method allows authors the chance to preview changes, which prevents mishaps.
There are several versions of Track Changes. Each may have a slightly different setup.
After you receive your edited document from your editor:
Place your cursor at the top of the document.
At the top of the Word file, click on the Review pane. In the center, you will see the Track Changes icon. If it’s not highlighted, click on Track Changes. The feature is on when the icon is highlighted.
In the Review pane, on the right, click the Next icon. This will automatically take you to the first suggested fix.
Review the suggestion and decide if you want to keep the change.
If you want to accept the change, at the top, click the drop-down menu for the Accept icon, and select the second choice (Accept Change).
Preview the change and make sure it went through correctly.
If you want to reject the change, at the top, click the drop-down menu for the Reject icon and select the second choice (Reject Change).
Preview the change and make sure it went through correctly.
Click the Next icon again and Track Changes will take you to the next suggestion.
Highlighting option: You may highlight several suggested changes and accept or reject them all at once. (Please use the drop-down menus for Accept and Reject.) Highlighting as recommended here will save you a lot of time.
NOTE: You may just hit the Accept or Reject icon, and Word will automatically move you to the next fix. But if you do this, you will not be able to preview the change if the next suggestion is too far down, so I do not recommend this option. Please use the drop-down menus for Accept and Reject in order to make sure the revisions insert or delete correctly.
ANOTHER OPTION: You may choose to leave in all the changes you wish to keep, but reject—one by one (using the drop-down menu as described above)—the suggestions that don’t suit you. When you finish looking over the manuscript, click the Accept icon and select Accept All Changes.
—————————————————————————————————
For more in-depth information, here’s a great online tutorial that refers to earlier Word versions too:
http://shaunakelly.com/word/sharing/howtrackchangesworks.html
Recent Comments