How to Change Your Name on Track Changes in Microsoft Word

To change the name Word attaches to new tracked edits, update the Office user name: in Word for Windows, go to File > Options > General, edit the name under Personalize your copy of Microsoft Office, and select OK. This changes the author label for changes you make afterward; it does not rename revisions already in the document. Save a copy first if you need to preserve an original or plan to remove identifying details.

What You’ll Need

The Word document you want to edit, plus permission to change its review settings.
Word for Microsoft 365 on Windows for the main instructions below. The Mac menu path is included where it differs.
A clear idea of whether you want to change the name on future edits, display a different name for existing edits, or remove identifying information. These are separate tasks in Word.

Step-by-Step

Save a working copy. Open the document and use File > Save As to make a copy if the document matters or will be shared. Changing your Office user name affects new revisions in documents you edit, while anonymizing a document can remove review details. A separate copy gives you a way to compare the result with the original.
Open Word’s user-name settings. In Word for Microsoft 365 on Windows, select File > Options > General. Find the section named Personalize your copy of Microsoft Office. It contains fields for User name and Initials. On Mac, open Word > Preferences (called Settings in some releases) > User Information. The wording and layout can vary slightly by Word version.
Enter the name you want on future edits. Replace the User name value with the name or label you want Word to show beside new tracked changes. Update Initials as well if you want the initials shown in balloons or review marks to match. For example, changing the user name from a full personal name to a department name can make new edits easier to identify by team, but it does not make earlier edits use that department name.
Confirm the option for using this name. On Windows, if the dialog shows an option such as Always use these values regardless of sign-in to Office, select it if you want your chosen label used instead of the signed-in account name. This option may not appear in every release or managed work installation. If an organization controls Office settings, its administrator may restrict the choice. Select OK to save your settings.
Make a small test edit with Track Changes on. Open the Review tab and select Track Changes so it is turned on. Add a brief word or make a small change in the working copy. Word should identify that new revision with the name you just set. Use Review > Track Changes to turn tracking off again if you do not want to keep recording subsequent edits.
Check the new revision’s author label. On the Review tab, set the display to All Markup if needed, then inspect the change in the document or Reviewing Pane. If the author name is not immediately visible, select Review > Reviewing Pane and check the listed revision. Display settings can hide markup or show it differently, so confirm the author from the revision details rather than assuming a missing label means the setting failed.
Understand what happens to earlier revisions. Changing User name does not rewrite the author attached to revisions already saved in the file. Word treats those as existing review history. If an earlier change belongs to an old account name, the name normally remains as it was when that edit was made. You can accept or reject the old change, but that changes the document’s review history rather than simply renaming its author.
If you need a shareable copy without author identities, use Document Inspector carefully. Save another copy, then in Windows go to File > Info > Check for Issues > Inspect Document. In the inspector, check Document Properties and Personal Information, select Inspect, and review the results. If Word offers Remove All for that category, understand that it can remove personal information associated with document properties and review content. It may replace author names with a generic label such as Author; it does not let you substitute a specific new name for each old revision. Inspect the copy afterward and keep the original intact.

Document Inspector wording and behavior can differ by Word version and file type. Read the result shown in the inspector before choosing Remove All. If the document must retain an accurate review trail, do not strip or alter identifying review data without agreement from the document owner or your organization.

Common Mistakes

Expecting the new name to update old changes. The Office user name is used for edits made after the change. Existing tracked changes keep their original author information unless you remove or alter metadata, which is a different action.
Changing only the initials. Initials affect the abbreviated label, not necessarily the full author name. Update both User name and Initials if you want the new identity to be consistent.
Changing the document’s file properties instead. Editing the author in File > Info or the document properties does not reliably rename the author recorded on each revision. Revision author labels and general file-property metadata are related but distinct.
Assuming the display mode changes the author. Simple Markup, No Markup, and other review display choices control what you see, not the identity stored with a revision. Select All Markup or open the Reviewing Pane to inspect changes.
Using Document Inspector on the only copy. Removing personal information can affect more than the visible name, and you cannot use Undo to restore removed metadata after closing the document. Work on a copy and inspect the outcome.
Forgetting shared computers and accounts. A name set on one installation may not be the same on another computer or under another Office sign-in. Check the user information on the device where you will make the tracked edits.

Tips

Choose a label that makes review practical. Use a recognizable name or agreed team label rather than a vague entry such as User. A reviewer should be able to tell who made new edits.
Set the name before editing. Update User name and Initials before turning on Track Changes for a new document. This avoids a mixture of labels in the revision history.
Use comments and tracked changes thoughtfully. A comment has its own author information. Changing the Office name now applies to new comments as well as new tracked edits, but does not rewrite old comments.
Keep a clean original when preparing an anonymous copy. Make a duplicate, run Document Inspector on that duplicate, and then review the document for names in visible text, headers, footers, comments, and file properties. Removing metadata does not erase a person’s name if it appears in the document’s actual text.
Coordinate if a document is shared. In a collaborative file, each editor may have a different author identity. Your user-name setting does not rename other people’s edits, and removing personal details can affect the review trail that the team relies on.
Save and reopen to verify. After changing the name or creating an anonymized copy, save the file, close it, and reopen it. Confirm that the new revisions display as intended and that the document still contains the information you need.

Troubleshooting

The old name still appears beside edits I make. First confirm that you changed the User name field in Word’s Options or Preferences, not only the file’s Author property. Check Initials too, select OK, and make a new test edit while Track Changes is on. If you use more than one computer or Word account, check the setting on the device where the edit was made. In a managed workplace, an administrator or sign-in policy may override the value you chose.

The name changes in new edits but not in old ones. This is expected. Word preserves the author recorded when an earlier revision was created. There is no ordinary Review command that safely changes one old revision’s author to a chosen person’s name while preserving the revision as-is. If the goal is privacy rather than relabeling, work on a copy and inspect the Document Inspector’s personal-information removal results.

I cannot see any author names. On the Review tab, choose All Markup and make sure the relevant markup is enabled under Show Markup. You can also open Review > Reviewing Pane. If the changes have already been accepted, rejected, or hidden by a different view, they may no longer appear as pending revisions.

Document Inspector does not show the expected option. Check that you opened File > Info > Check for Issues > Inspect Document in the desktop Windows app and that you are inspecting the correct copy. Some options differ by Word version, document format, or organizational policy. Update Word if appropriate, or ask your administrator about managed settings. Do not rely on the inspector as a way to replace old authors with a chosen name.

The document is shared or stored online. Other editors’ identities are separate from yours. For a shared document, ask collaborators to set their own Word user information if consistent labels are needed. If you are preparing a final public copy, create a duplicate and check both revision metadata and visible document content before sharing it.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I change the name on Track Changes without changing my Microsoft account name?
Usually, yes. Word’s User name setting can be different from your account profile if your Word version allows you to set it independently. In some work or school environments, organization policies may control the value.

Will this change the name on comments too?
It affects the author label for new comments created after the setting changes, as well as new tracked edits. Existing comments retain their recorded author information.

Can I rename only one existing tracked change?
Word does not provide a standard menu command to assign a different author to one existing revision while keeping that revision unchanged. Accepting or rejecting it removes that pending revision from the review history; it is not a rename.

Can I replace old author names with my new name?
Not through the normal user-name setting. Document Inspector may remove personal information from a copy, but it generally removes or anonymizes identifying details rather than replacing each old author with a specific name.

Does turning Track Changes off remove the author name?
No. Turning tracking off stops Word from recording new revisions; it does not erase the author information attached to existing revisions. You can still view, accept, or reject those changes.

Can other people see my name in a document I send?
They may see the names attached to tracked changes and comments, as well as author information in document properties. Before sharing, inspect a copy and check both visible review markup and personal metadata. If privacy matters, follow your organization’s document-handling rules.

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