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Introducing Word 2011

This chapter is from the book 

Tracking Changes

On certain Word documents, you may collaborate with others. For instance, you could create a group report for school, work on a departmental budget with members of your staff, or write a magazine or article that needs to incorporate an editor’s comments. As the author, you can review the comments and changes of others, as well as accept or reject each one. All tracking commands can be found on the Review tab.

To track changes to a document:

  1. Click the Review : Tracking : Track Changes icon circle-a.jpg.

    When Track Changes is enabled, the icon reads ON; changes you make are recorded.

  2. Choose a display option from the drop-down menu in the Tracking group gray-circle-a.jpg:
    • Original. Display the original, unedited document (as it would look if all changes have been rejected).

    • Original Showing Markup. Display insertions and formatting changes in balloons. Deleted text is shown as struck through.

    • Final. Display the document as if all changes have been accepted.

    • Final Showing Markup. Display deletions in balloons. Insertions and formatting changes are shown in the document text.

  3. To insert a comment, select the text on which you want to comment or position the text insertion mark within it. Choose Insert > Comment or click Review : Comments : New circle-b.jpg.

    A new comment balloon appears.

  4. Type your comment circle-c.jpg.
  5. To reject an edit or delete a comment, do one of the following:
  6. To accept an edit, do one of the following:
    • Click the Accept button in the edit balloon gray-circle-d.jpg.
    • Click the Review : Changes : Accept icon gray-circle-e.jpg.
    • Right-click the edit in the body of the document. Choose Accept Change from the contextual menu gray-circle-f.jpg.

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