Tracked Changes

Tracked Changes

I edit using Microsoft Word’s track changes feature. Here is an example of what tracked changes look like. Their appearance might vary in different versions of Word, or if your version has different settings. Here, the original text is black, additions are in purple, and deletions are crossed out in red. Comments appear highlighted and pop up when you hover.

sample edit with tracked changes

The user can view the tracked changes in different ways. I prefer to view deletions and comments in bubbles (below), although the bubbles run off the end of the page when there are many edits.

sample edit with tracked changes

Using the options available in Microsoft Word, you can view the final manuscript with or without the editing visible. You can accept or reject the edits one-by-one, or you can accept them all at once.

Here’s a video about tracked changes:

(The relevant information is in the first three minutes. Note that the settings in this video are different than in my examples: additions and deletions are both red, and additions are underlined.)