If you’ve never worked with an editor before, you may not be familiar with Microsoft Word’s Tracking (or Track Changes) feature. And when you get your edited book back, seeing all of those red lines and corrections on the screen can be overwhelming. Once you know how to use it, however, Tracking is a great tool that allows authors to view their editor’s suggestions and accept or reject each one. Here’s a brief overview of how to use Tracking. Note: The placement of the tabs may vary slightly depending on which version of Word you’re using.
How to Use Track Changes:
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- Open your edited document.
- On the toolbar at the top of the screen, click the Review tab. Near the center, you will see the Track Changes icon. If it’s not highlighted, click on it. Tracking is on when the icon is highlighted.
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- In the top drop-down menu (just to the left of the Track Changes icon), make sure that All Markup is selected. To see what the edited document looks like without the tracking marks, change the top drop-down menu from All Markup to Simple Markup. You can toggle back and forth between these views by clicking one of the tracking marks (the red or gray vertical lines at the sides of the document).
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- In the Changes section (to the right of the Track Changes icon), click the Next icon. This will automatically take you to the first suggested change.
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- If you want to accept the change, at the top, click the drop-down menu for the Accept icon, and select the second option (Accept This Change).
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- If you want to reject the change, at the top, click the drop-down menu for the Reject icon and select the second option (Reject Change).
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- Click the Next icon again, and Track Changes will take you to the next suggestion.
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- Highlighting option: You may highlight several suggested changes and accept or reject them all at once. (Use the drop-down menus for Accept and Reject.) Highlighting as recommended here will save you a lot of time.
TO SAVE EVEN MORE TIME: 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 a video tutorial on how to use Tracking, see Track Changes in Word: A Step-by-Step Tutorial.
If you have followed the above instructions and the tracked changes are still not visible on your computer, this article may help: https://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/msoffice/forum/all/tracked-changes-not-showing-up-when-enabled-in/bb4978ba-6b2a-498a-a27b-817b08d06b63.
Learning to use Tracking is a must if you’re planning to work with a professional editor, as it allows authors to have full control over the changes their editor suggests. If you’d like to learn more about how I can help you make your book the best it can be, let’s chat.
