How to Use the Reviewing Features in Word (Office 2003 version)

Copyright 2007 by Denise L. Schmutte, Ph.D.

When a document has been edited with the Track Changes feature turned on, you can have a complete record of every change that has been made to the document. Additions or alterations to the existing text will appear in color. Deletions will appear as annotations in "bubbles" that appear on the right of the document screen. Comments about the editing, inserted by the editor, will also appear in bubbles on the right of the screen.

Note that the Track Changes feature must be turned on before any editing changes are made, in order to have a complete record of all changes.

Note also that substitutions (e.g. substituting one space after every period rather than two spaces) will be annotated as deletions in the bubbles. Every time one thing is substituted for another, the original will appear as a deletion.

To use the Reviewing features, follow the instructions below.

1. Make sure that the Reviewing toolbar is visible. To do this, go to the View menu at the top of the Word screen and select Toolbars. On the drop-down list of toolbars, make sure that the Reviewing toolbar is checked.
2. The Reviewing toolbar is usually located in the upper left corner of the Word screen, below the standard toolbar.



3. Reading from left to right, the Reviewing Toolbar includes the following tools:
   • A View menu that shows which version you are using. You will usually want to make sure that the "Final Showing Markup" version is visible.
   • A Show menu that gives you options regarding which editing changes are visible on the screen. You can elect whether to see the original version of the document or the final version (this is a toggle feature—only one option is possible at a time). You can also elect whether to show comments, insertions and deletions, and formatting (the "Ink Annotations" option is for use on a Tablet PC with a stylus). There are other options on this menu, but these are the ones you will likely need to use.
   • Two navigation arrows. These can be used to navigate from one editing change to the next or from one comment to the next. Both editing changes and comments will appear in "bubbles" to the right of the document screen. To navigate through editing changes, simply click on the first of the bubbles that shows an editorial change. The border of the bubble will appear highlighted. If you now click on the navigation arrow that points to the right, the next editing change will be highlighted. You can thus work your way through every change in the document. The navigation arrow that points to the left will take you to the next previous change. You can navigate through the comments in the same way. Just click on the first comment in the document to highlight it. Now using the navigation arrows will move the highlight to the next comment.
   • An Accept button. This button allows you to accept the highlighted editing change. If you click on the accept button while you have a particular change highlighted, the change becomes part of the document, and is no longer shown as a change. You can undo acceptance of a change by using the Undo button on the main toolbar. You can also use the drop-down menu (the black triangle to the right of the button) to accept all of the changes at once. If you have used the Show menu to make only some of the changes visible, then you will have the option of accepting all of the changes that are shown. You will also have the option of accepting every change in the document, whether shown or not.
   • The Reject button. This button allows you to reject a highlighted editing change in the same way that you can accept the change with the Accept button. If you reject a change, the document reverts back to the original version. Again, you can undo the rejection using the Undo button on the main toolbar. If you have a comment highlighted while you click on the Reject button, the comment will be deleted. You will also have the option of deleting all comments shown or deleting every comment in the document. These options are available on the drop-down menu to the right of the Reject button.
   • The Comment button. Clicking on this button creates a new comment bubble with an arrow pointing to the point in the text where your cursor was located when you clicked the button. You can then type in your comment. It will appear in the bubble and will not be part of the main document.
   • The Highlighter button. This button allows you to add color highlighting to any text in the document. You can use the highlighter to mark things that you want to call attention to. You can use the drop-down menu to the right of the button to change the color of the highlighting. To get rid of highlighting, just select the highlighted text and then use the drop-down menu to select "None." 
   • The Track Changes button. When this button is highlighted (it appears with an orange background) then every change you make in the document will be tracked. To stop tracking changes, just click the button again.
   • The Reviewing Pane button. This button gives you an alternate view of the changes and comments. When this button is clicked (orange background visible) the changes and comments appear in a separate window "pane" below the document screen. You can still navigate and accept/reject changes using the buttons described above.