How To Track Changes in Word (Online, Mobile, and Desktop).The ability to track changes to text documents was a game-changing innovation. Microsoft Word was at the forefront of this progress, and since then, Word users have taken advantage of this feature. Change tracking is now standard in any word processing application. We’ll show you how to track changes in online, mobile, and desktop Microsoft Word applications. You can also track changes in other applications such as Google Docs or Microsoft Excel.
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When you track changes in a Word document, you allow someone else (or you in the future!) To easily notice the proposed changes and decide — change after change — to accept the change and make it permanent or reject it.
How To Track Changes in Microsoft Word Online
Anyone can use Microsoft Word Online for free by signing up for a free Microsoft account. After you sign in and create a new Microsoft Word document (or open an existing one), follow these steps to track changes in Word Online.
Turn on change tracking in Word Online
First, you need to enable change tracking.
Select the “Browse” tab.
Click the Track Changes button and select Everyone to track the changes someone makes to this document, or Just Mine to track only the changes you make to the document.
You’ll know you’ve done it right when you see the mode menu switch from editing to reviewing.
In fact, another way to enable change tracking in Microsoft Word Online is to choose View from the Mode menu. If you use this method, note that by default it will only track your own changes and not everyone else. If you want to enable change tracking for everyone who edits the document, follow the steps above and select Everyone.
View, accept, or reject changes in Word Online
If change tracking is enabled, you can review each proposal in order and accept or reject them one by one.
Click or tap the beginning of the document (or where you want to start viewing the proposed changes). Select the Review tab. Click Accept or Decline and Word will jump to the first proposed change in the document.
Click the Accept or Decline button to accept or reject the proposed change. Optionally, you can hover your mouse over the change to bring up a pop-up window where you can see a description of the change and buttons to accept (checkmark) or reject (X) the change. Note, however, that when you use this interface, Word will not automatically jump to the next proposed change.
Continue clicking the Accept or Decline buttons as you progress through any proposed changes to the document. After you make a decision on each proposed change, you will see a pop-up message warning you that there are no more changes tracked in your document.
Click OK and you will be returned to your document.
At some point, you’ll want to turn off change tracking.
Disable change tracking in Word Online
There are two quick ways to turn off change tracking in Word Online.
Switch to editing or viewing from the mode menu. Select Edit if you want to continue editing the document and View if you want to view the document without making any changes.
Alternatively, click the Track Changes button in the Overview tab and select Off. This will turn off change tracking for everyone.
Now you can edit or view the document without tracking changes.
How To Track Changes in the Microsoft Word Android App
Turning on change tracking in Microsoft Word for Android isn’t easy. Open a document and follow these steps.
Click the up arrow in the document editor at the bottom of the document.
Select “Home”.
Select “Browse”.
Scroll down the Browse menu and select Track Changes.
With change tracking enabled, any changes you make will be suggested to you or anyone else.
View, accept, or reject changes in the Word mobile app
Follow these instructions to view, accept, or reject changes in the Word mobile app.
Click at the beginning of the document (or where you want to start viewing the proposed changes. Then click Home in the toolbar and select Browse. Scroll down to the Track Changes section and use the document navigation arrow button to navigate from one sentence to the next (you can also click on each sentence in the body of the document).
When an offer is highlighted, you can accept or reject the change, or move to the previous or next offer.
When you have considered all the suggestions in the document, you will see a message stating that there are no more trackable changes to check.
Disable change tracking in Word Mobile
To turn off track changes in the Word mobile app, simply tap Home in the toolbar, select Overview, scroll down and tap Track Changes to deselect and turn off the feature.
How To Track Changes in the Microsoft Word Desktop App
Tracking changes in Word desktop is similar to tracking changes in Word Online.
Enabling Change Tracking in Word Desktop
Open the document you want to edit and follow these steps.
Select the “Browse” tab.
Click the Track Changes button.
Optionally, select the drop-down arrow on the Track Changes button to disable tracking. You can add a password to prevent other people from turning off change tracking.
Changes will be tracked as long as the Track Changes button on the Overview tab is active.
View, accept, or reject changes in Word for PC
To view the proposed changes, follow these steps.
On the Review tab, select Show Markup. Here you can choose where you want the suggestions to appear (in callouts or inline). You can also choose to only see offers from specific people.
Place your cursor at the beginning of the document (or where you want to start viewing the proposed changes). On the Review tab, click Accept, Reject, or Next to proceed to the next proposed change. When a proposal is highlighted, click the Accept button to accept the change, or the Reject button to reject the change and move on to the next proposal.
Alternatively, right-click the offer and select Accept or Decline.
Microsoft Word for desktop will notify you when you are finished reviewing the proposed changes.
Explore More Features of Microsoft Word
If you’d like to learn even more about the functionality of Microsoft Word, check out our articles on extending Word functionality with add-ins, how to dictate documents in Word, and how to insert a signature into a Word document. Or use the search function to find all of our articles in Microsoft Word.
How To Track Changes in Word (Online, Mobile, and Desktop)
How To Track Changes in Word (Online, Mobile, and Desktop)