Track Changes in Word: How to Review and Accept Edits

To use Track Changes in Microsoft Word, open the Review tab and select Track Changes; Word will mark edits as you make them. To review someone else’s edits, choose All Markup, then use Accept or Reject on the Review tab to decide what stays.

Turn on Track Changes in Word

In Word for Microsoft 365 on Windows, open the document and select Review > Track Changes. When the control is highlighted or otherwise shown as active, changes are being recorded. Select it again to switch tracking off. The keyboard shortcut is Ctrl+Shift+E. On a Mac, use Review > Track Changes or press Command+Shift+E.

Once tracking is on, make edits normally. Added text, deleted text, and some formatting changes appear with markup so that another person can inspect them. You do not need to select a special editing mode for each change. Before revising a document, it is useful to confirm that Track Changes is active, especially if the file will be circulated for review.

Windows: Review > Track Changes, or Ctrl+Shift+E.
Mac: Review > Track Changes, or Command+Shift+E.
Word for the web: Open the Review tab and select Track Changes. Some advanced review and display controls may differ from the desktop app.

The shortcut toggles tracking; it does not accept or reject edits that are already in the document. If you are uncertain whether a document contains pending changes, switch the display to All Markup and check before you begin revising.

What Track Changes records

Track Changes keeps a visible record of edits made while the feature is active. Inserted text is generally marked as an addition, while removed text remains visible as a deletion until it is accepted or rejected. Formatting changes can also be recorded, depending on the document and tracking settings. Markup commonly identifies the reviewer associated with an edit, which helps a group see who proposed what.

Tracked edits are not the same as comments. A comment is a note attached to a place in the document, often used to ask a question or explain a suggestion. It does not itself revise the document text. Add one from Review > New Comment. For example, a reviewer might track a replacement of “send the report Friday” with “send the report by Thursday” and add a comment explaining the earlier deadline.

Tracking is also not a document history that records every action forever. It shows pending revisions in the file. Once a change is accepted or rejected, that revision is resolved: accepting incorporates the edit, while rejecting removes the proposed edit and restores the previous content where applicable. For longer-term version history, use a file’s version history where available, such as when it is stored in OneDrive or SharePoint.

Choose how markup appears

Markup can make a document look busy, especially after several people have reviewed it. On the Review tab, use the Display for Review menu to choose how much detail to show. The labels can vary slightly by Word version, but the common choices are:

Simple Markup: Shows a cleaner reading view with indicators that changes exist. Select an indicator or switch views to inspect the full detail.
All Markup: Displays tracked insertions, deletions, formatting changes, and comments according to the selected markup options.
No Markup: Shows the document as it would look with proposed changes applied, without displaying the revision marks. It does not accept or remove the changes.
Original: Shows the text as it appeared before pending tracked edits. It does not reject those edits.

To choose which kinds of revisions appear, open Review > Show Markup and select the categories you want to see, such as Comments, Insertions and Deletions, or Formatting. Options for filtering by reviewer may also be available there. These controls change the display, not the underlying decisions. A change hidden from view can still be pending and will still be present when someone opens the file with markup visible.

If edits appear in balloons at the side of the page, that is a display choice rather than a different type of revision. Depending on the Word build, options in the Show Markup or tracking controls let you change how revisions are displayed. The Reviewing Pane can also provide a summary of outstanding changes, which is helpful when a long document makes individual marks hard to locate.

Accept or reject edits

Review each proposed change in context rather than accepting a whole document simply to make the markup disappear. Select a marked edit, then choose Review > Accept or Review > Reject. Word also provides commands to move to the previous or next revision, making it easier to work through a document in order. Menu placement can vary slightly between desktop versions, but these controls are on the Review tab in the Changes area.

For example, suppose a reviewer changes “The survey closes on 15 June” to “The survey closes on 18 June.” Check the source of the date and the surrounding text. If the new date is correct, accept the change; if not, reject it. If the document contains a mixture of accurate and inaccurate proposals, handle them individually. Word also offers commands to accept or reject all changes, but these apply broadly and should be used only after a deliberate review.

Comments have their own resolve or delete controls and are not removed merely by accepting tracked text. Likewise, hiding comments or choosing No Markup does not resolve them. Before sending a clean copy, inspect both revisions and comments, then use the relevant review commands to settle or remove them. Save the document after the review, and if the original proposal history may be needed, keep a separate copy before resolving the edits.

Work with other reviewers

Track Changes is useful when a document passes between an author, an editor, and subject-matter reviewers. Agree on a simple process before editing: who is expected to propose changes, who makes the final decision, and whether reviewers should add comments to explain substantial revisions. A short instruction such as “track wording changes and comment on factual changes” can prevent confusion.

In Word for Microsoft 365, the Track Changes menu may offer choices such as tracking changes for everyone or tracking only your own changes. The exact choices can depend on the app and document. Use the appropriate setting for the review arrangement: tracking everyone’s changes is generally useful for a shared review, while a personal-only setting records your own edits rather than everyone’s. Do not assume that switching tracking off for yourself disables it for every other collaborator.

When a document is shared through OneDrive or SharePoint, more than one person may be able to edit it, depending on the sharing permissions. Coauthoring and Track Changes serve related but distinct purposes: coauthoring supports simultaneous work, while tracking marks revisions for review. If two people edit the same passage at once, review the resulting text carefully. For major editorial rounds, a clear handoff or separate review copy can make decisions easier to follow.

Settings, identity, and safe sharing

Some Word versions let you control which types of changes are tracked or how revisions are displayed. On Windows, inspect the Track Changes menu and the options available from the Review tab’s tracking controls. The precise dialog names and available settings can differ between Word for Windows, Word for Mac, and Word for the web. If formatting edits create too much noise, you may be able to turn off tracking for formatting while continuing to track text edits; verify the options in your version before relying on them.

Reviewer names can be useful in a team, but they may also reveal personal or organizational information. Before sending a document outside its intended audience, review the visible markup and comments and consider whether reviewer identities should remain. In desktop Word for Windows, File > Info > Check for Issues > Inspect Document opens Document Inspector, which can identify certain hidden properties and personal information. Read the inspector’s findings and choose carefully; removing information can affect what recipients can see, and it is not a substitute for reviewing the document itself.

Do not treat No Markup as a privacy or cleanup step. It only changes the view. Pending edits may still be recoverable by a recipient who turns markup back on. If you need to distribute a version without unresolved revisions, accept or reject the changes intentionally, handle comments separately, save a clean copy, and reopen it to confirm the result. Retain a reviewed original if you may need to explain or restore decisions later.

Common problems and fixes

Edits are not showing: Confirm Track Changes is active before making new edits. For older edits, choose All Markup and check that Insertions and Deletions are enabled under Show Markup. Existing edits may belong to another reviewer or may be filtered out of the current view.
The text looks normal, but revisions remain: You may be viewing No Markup or Simple Markup. Switch to All Markup to inspect pending revisions. A clean-looking page does not prove that the changes have been accepted.
You cannot turn tracking off: A document may have tracking locked or restricted by its owner or organization. Check the Track Changes menu for a lock or restriction indication, and ask the document owner for permission if you are not authorized to change it. Do not assume that changing the display unlocks tracking.
Someone else’s edits are missing: Check reviewer filtering in Show Markup, and make sure the document has finished syncing if it is stored online. A reviewer filter can hide another person’s changes without deleting them.
There are too many marks to read: Use Simple Markup while reading, then switch to All Markup when deciding edits. You can also review changes sequentially with the Previous and Next controls or use the Reviewing Pane.

When the ribbon layout differs from these directions, confirm that you are using Word rather than a preview pane in another application, and look for the Review tab. Word for the web and older perpetual-license editions may have fewer options or slightly different labels. The central distinction remains the same: display settings control what you see, while Accept and Reject settle the revisions.

Track Changes compared with other review methods

Use Track Changes when reviewers need to see and decide individual proposed edits inside one document. Comments work better for questions, explanations, or suggestions that should not alter the text until the author acts. For instance, a comment asking “Is this figure from the latest survey?” can guide a decision without silently changing the number.

If you have two separately edited copies and need Word to identify their differences, use Review > Compare > Compare in desktop Word. Choose the original and revised documents in the comparison dialog; Word creates a comparison document that displays the differences as markup. This is useful when someone edited a copy without tracking changes. It is different from turning Track Changes on: tracking records edits as they happen, while Compare analyzes two versions after the fact.

For a short document with only a few suggested wording changes, a comment or a clearly labeled revised copy might be enough. For contracts, policies, reports, or collaborative drafts with many revisions, tracked edits provide a more systematic way to review proposals. Whatever method you choose, keep one clearly identified final version so readers do not mistake an unreviewed draft for an approved document.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I turn on Track Changes in Word?
Open the Review tab and select Track Changes. On Windows, Ctrl+Shift+E toggles it; on Mac, use Command+Shift+E. Check that the control is active before editing.

How do I remove Track Changes from a Word document?
Accept or reject the pending changes to resolve them, then handle comments separately. Turning tracking off only stops recording future edits; it does not remove existing revisions.

Can I hide tracked changes without accepting them?
Yes. Choose No Markup or Simple Markup from Display for Review. This changes the view only, so the revisions remain in the document until accepted or rejected.

Why can’t I accept or reject a change?
Check that you selected the revision itself and that you are in a review-capable view. The document may also have editing restrictions, or you may be using a web or preview version with different controls. Ask the owner if permissions are restricted.

Can I compare two Word documents if Track Changes was off?
Yes. In desktop Word, go to Review > Compare > Compare and select the two versions. Word creates a separate comparison document that marks differences for review.

Try it: the Date Difference Calculator: days, months, years and weekdays between two dates, with the DATEDIF formulas.

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Sources: Function behaviour and menu paths: Microsoft Support documentation for Excel. Method & sources

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