How to Use Track Changes Like a Pro
Image Source: (Christin Hume / Unsplash)
In the publishing industry, Microsoft Word is the program most professionals use. It's possible to use others of course, but most other programs lack an effective way to edit. Word's track changes feature allows an editor to show you exactly what they've done—every comma included. Track changes is a great feature, but it has a learning curve. In this post I'll teach you the basics of track changes so you can get the most out of it.
To turn on track changes, go to the review tab and then click tracking. Turn track changes on, and you can also decide how to view the markup. I recommend making sure that it is on "all markup" and then leaving the "markup options" alone.
Once track changes is turned on, every edit or addition will be marked in red. You can click the line on the left side of the page to view the text without the red (or you can select "simple markup" in the tracking options).
The all markup view.
The simple markup view.
Most of the time an editor isn't going to add in whole paragraphs, so any time they delete something it will be noted on the right side. Additions are in red, but any deletions or format changes will create a notation.
When you are going through the changes it can be challenging to spot small edits like an extra comma, so it can be helpful to use the next and previous edit arrows.
When you are going through changes and accepting or rejecting them, they won't show up as red or notations anymore. Rejecting a change will revert the text back to the version before the changes and accepting a change will replace the original version. It can be a good idea to save a version of the file with all of the edits, so that when you are accepting/rejecting edits you can refer back to them if necessary.
The buttons for accepting and rejecting changes.
Word also allows you to compare documents, though it isn't necessary when track changes is on. You can also combine documents, which is useful if you are getting edits back in separate files.
The menu for comparing and combineing documents.
Editors will often leave a comment, and once you have addressed it, you can select "resolve" or "delete." Resolving the comment leaves it in the document but it will be faded and deleting the comment removes it from the document. You can choose to do either, depending on if you want to be able to reference the comment.
The comment menu.