Also see the Audio course: Revise documents with Track Changes and comments

To facilitate online review, Microsoft Word allows you to easily make and view tracked changes and comments in a document. To easily select the track changes and comment features, display the Reviewing toolbar by clicking on View | Toolbars | Reviewing.  Clicking on the Show icon allows you to select features and options for reviewing.

Word shows reviewing changes in two basic ways:

• inserted in-line in the text of the document in a different color,
• displayed in pop-up balloons that appear in the margin and point to the text.

Because the two different forms of comments appear so differently in Word documents, you should differentiate between the kinds of comments you make with each form.  One way to do this is to reserve in-line comments only for short editing comments -- spelling, punctuation, word choice, and the like -- since they actually become part of the essay.  On the other hand, the inserted comments, which are not part of the document proper, are better for longer, more substantive comments on the content or any other point of discussion in the essay.  Since most instructors like for reviewers to add a summary comment at the end, an inserted comment added to the end of the text (perhaps next to the reviewer's name) is a good way to allow multiple reviewers to comment all in the same document.

Tracked Changes

With the Track Changes feature turned on, each insertion, deletion, or formatting change that you or a reviewer makes is tracked.  As the writer reviews tracked changes, he/she can accept or reject each change. 

To turn on Track Changes, click on Tools | Track Changes  (or click on the Track Changes icon in the Reviewing toolbar).  When the Track Changes feature is enabled, TRK appears on the status bar at the bottom of your document. When you turn off change tracking, TRK is dimmed.

You can change the color and other formatting that Word uses to mark changed text and graphics. On the Reviewing toolbar, click on Show and select Options.  Choose the desired style and color of changes.

Turn off change tracking

On the Tools menu, click Track Changes again to turn off tracking. When the Track Changes feature is enabled, TRK appears on the status bar at the bottom of your document. When you turn off change tracking, TRK is dimmed.

Insert a comment

1. Select the text or item you want to comment on, or click at the end of the text.
2. On the Insert menu, click Comment (or click on the Insert Comment icon on the Reviewing toolbar).
3. Type the comment text in the comment balloon.

Note:  Inserted comments show up as yellow highlighted text in the document.  To read the comment, simply position the cursor above the highlighting and read the comment.  You must be in Print view to see the yellow, highlighted comments.

Show or hide comments or tracked changes

To quickly display tracked changes or comments, click Markup on the View menu.

Hide tracked changes and comments when printing# On the File menu, click Print.

1. In the Print what box, select Document (rather than Document showing markup).
2. Click OK.
   View by type or reviewer
3. On the Reviewing toolbar, click Show.
4. Do any of the following:

Show a specific type of change

1. Select the check box next to the type of change that you want to display.

Show changes and comments for specific reviewers

1. Point to Reviewers, and clear all check boxes except for the ones next to the names of the reviewers whose changes and comments you want to show.
2. To select or clear all check boxes for all reviewers in the list, click All Reviewers.

Display for review settings

The following options are available on the Reviewing toolbar to view the document.

Original
Shows the original, unchanged document so that you can see how the document would look if you rejected all changes.

Final  
Allows you to see how the document would look if you accepted all changes.

Original Showing Markup  
Shows the inserted text and formatting changes in the balloons, while the deleted text remains inline.  The writer will use this option when deciding upon editing changes.

Final Showing Markup  
Shows deleted text in the balloons, while inserted text and formatting changes are shown inline.  An editor or reviewer might use this option.

Note:   If you want to see comments and tracked changes in balloons, you must be in print layout view or Web layout view.

Review tracked changes and comments

If markup is not already displayed in your document, click Markup on the View menu.  Do one of the following:

Review each item in sequence

1. On the Reviewing toolbar, click Next or Previous.
2. Click Accept Change or Reject Change/Delete Comment.

Accept all changes at once

1. Click the arrow next to Accept Change,
2. Click Accept All Changes in Document.

To reject all changes or delete all comments at once, click the arrow next to Reject Change/Delete Comment. Do one of the following:

1. Click Reject All Changes in Document.
2. Click Delete All Comments in Document.

Review items created by a specific reviewer

On the Reviewing toolbar, click Show. Point to Reviewers, and clear all check boxes except for the ones next to the names of the reviewers whose changes you want to review.  To select or clear the check boxes for all reviewers in the list, click All Reviewers. Do one of the following:

Review each change and comment shown in sequence

• On the Reviewing toolbar, click Next or Previous.
• Click Accept change or Reject Change/Delete Comment.
            Accept all changes for the selected reviewer* Click the arrow next to Accept change.
• Click Accept All Changes Shown.

Reject all changes or delete all comments from the selected reviewer

• Delete a comment.  To quickly delete a single comment, right-click the comment, and then click Delete Comment.
• Delete multiple comments.  If the Reviewing toolbar is hidden, display it (View | Toolbars | Reviewing).  Do one of the following: # Delete all comments
  On the Reviewing toolbar, click the arrow next to Reject Change/Delete Comment, and then click Delete All Comments in Document.

1. Delete comments from a specific reviewer
   On the Reviewing toolbar, click Show. To clear the check boxes for all reviewers, point to Reviewers, and then click All Reviewers. Click Show again, point to Reviewers, and then select the check box next to the name of the reviewer whose comments you want to delete.  On the Reviewing toolbar, click the arrow next to Reject Change/Delete Comment, and then click Delete All Comments Shown.
   Note:   This procedure deletes all comments from the reviewer you've selected, including comments that are not displayed on the screen.

Print a document with tracked changes and comments showing

1. Switch to print layout view.
2. Display the tracked changes and comments as you want them to appear in the printed document.   To quickly display tracked changes or comments, click Markup on the View menu.
3. When you print a document with markup showing, by default, Word chooses the zoom level and page orientation to best display the markup in your printed document. You can also print only a list of all markup in a document.

Hide tracked changes and comments when printing

1. On the File menu, click Print.
2. In the Print what box, select Document (rather than Document showing markup).
3. Click OK.