Keep your own thought process organised and stay on track by learning the simple yet effective nature of tracking word changes in your projects! This will enable you to immediately pick up the pace, understand what has been changed and adapt to it in a shorter amount of time without having to struggle to keep up, which is exceptionally useful when you have multiple projects going on at the same time. Here’s what to know about tracking word changes:
- Balloons
Microsoft Word makes use of balloons for displaying relevant changes like deletions, formatting, content, comments and other assorted factors. These tracked changes are displayed by default in order to prevent users from accidentally distributing the documents that contain changes and comments. To distribute a finished copy, users can make use of the Display for Review setting and go for Final Showing Markup or other options available.
- Activating/Deactivating
Take the time to turn off or turn on track changes by locating the Review tab. Under the Tracking group, choose Track Changes. The Track Changes Indicator should be highlighted, use the status bar to turn track changes either on or off.
- Display Options
Microsoft Word allows users to choose 4 different display views when it comes to tracking word changes. Once more, use the Display for Review list in the Tracking Group- this will allow you to choose between Final Showing Markup (default), Final, Original Showing Markup and Original.
Final Showing Markup is the default view option that displays your documents with all the comments and changes showing. Final view on the other hand displays your documents but incorporates all changes into text, leaving tracked changes not showing. But pay attention to what the incorporated details are since any changes/comments that are not accepted will also remain inside your document and you may have to sift them out. Original showing markup will display your documents with the original text, inclusive of tracked changes while original displays your original text without the tracked changes/comments showing.
- Customisation
Microsoft Words allows you to make certain customisations to how your markups appear too. Another convenient factor on tracking word changes is that you are able to use different colours and formatting to mark your tracked changes. Click on the arrow icon next to Track Changes and choose Change Tracking Options. If there are multiple reviewers, each reviewer changes is noted with different colours so making use of this, you can identify who changed what.
- Printing
Make sure to hide your tracked changes and comments when you’re printing. This won’t remove the changes that have been made- you can only remove markups by using Accept/Reject commands in the changes section. To hide them when you are printing, simply click Print and choose the Document option instead of Document showing markup.
