How to view Tracked Changes in Microsoft Word Documents

When collaborating on a Microsoft Word Document the easiest way to keep an eye on all of the edits being made is by tracking your changes.

Tracked Changes is an easy to use built-in tool that allows you to do exactly what it sounds like; track any edits or changes that are made to the original text in a word document.

If you aren’t sure how to turn on your tracked changes in word, we wrote a post about this last week. Click here for a refresher.

Now that you have tracked changes in your word document, how do you view them all?

Sometimes they are hidden, which does make it easier for you to read the document without the red strikethroughs and edits. But when it comes time to reviewing all of the changes or understanding where edits were made, viewing all tracked changes is the way to go.

In this post, we will take you through how to view tracked changes at the click of a button.

Viewing all tracked changes in Microsoft Word

1. Open your word document
2. Click Review in the tool bar

3. Find and click Tracking
4. In the Tracking drop-down click Display for Review

5. Under Display for Review, you will be given four options
   1. Simple Mark-up
   2. All Markup
   3. No Markup
   4. Original
6. Select All Markup

You have no successfully made all tracked changes visable.

Microsoft Word – Simple Mark-up vs All Markup, what is the difference?

With so many of us now using Microsoft word to track changes and collaborate on documents. Microsoft has built in more than one option for us to view these changes, depending on what your desired outcome is.

So what is the difference between Simple Markups and All Markups? And if No Markups does just that, then what is Original?

Here is a quick explanation of each feature’s function:

• Simple Markup displays the markups with a red line in the page margin where a change has been made.
• All Markup shows all edits, using strikethrough formatting.
• No Markup shows you how the changes will look in the document.
• Original shows you the original document, pre any makeups.

Need a better way to collaborate on a Microsoft Word Document?

It’s a frustration we all know too well. When you are working on the 15th version of the same document, accepting and rejecting comments and changes. Knowing in the back of your mind that this won’t even be the last round of edits.

With all of these edits, come multiple versions of the same document. The shared drive now looks like a shemozzle with Version6_JMsEDITS_v8_final1 the most recent final but defiantly not the last.

While two colleagues unknowingly open the latest version at the same time, make their edits and press save. Now you’re left with two separate versions of the same document and no way to merge them together without manually making the changes yourself.

This happens too often.

And to too many of us.

Luckily, enough of us screamed help and the tech gods have listened. There are now some pretty cool purpose-built tools out there to help us solve all of our collaborating problems. Companies such as Simul Docs.

Simul Docs works seamlessly with Microsoft Word and allows you to upload and edit your word document without having to worry about version control or merging two versions together if they had been opened and changed at the same time. Simul will fix all of this for you, at the click of the button.

Most of the time Simul will just fix the problem without you even asking because we all have the same issues, and Simul knows that when you open the document and make changes you will want them tracked – you don’t have to remember to turn them on, Simul Docs will automatically track them for you.

Simul also knows that when you start making changes to the document you are going to want it saved as a new version, allowing you to refer back to old changes at any time and avoid saving over anyone else’s edits. It also does that for you, automatically.

Now without sounding too smug, Simul will also keep a neat list of all versions saved for you. So now even your shared drive is feeling less confused as well.

So if you are tired of managing a messy shared drive and struggle with version control, a tool such as Simul Docs is quite literally, made for you.

Give it a try, your shared drive will thank you.