How to Turn Off Track Changes in Word

How to Turn Off Track Changes in Word Ever get a document back from an editor that has tons of red or blue lines (maybe even some green ones), and have no idea how to get rid of them all, or view the document the way it’s supposed to look?   This article is for you! Dont submit a document that looks like this! Why I Love Track Changes in Word Microsoft Word has a very useful feature called “Track Changes” that keeps track of changes that an editor makes to a document, and allows subsequent readers to see what changes were made. When the Track Changes feature is turned on, anyone who opens the document can see every change made to the original document, whether to fonts, page formats, margins, and text. Track Changes also has a “Comments” feature that allows explanations and suggestions to be entered in the margins of your document. The value of Track Changes to me as an editor is that my clients can see what I’ve changed, and I can see the changes they make. I do not then have to go through their resume word by word to see what alterations have occurred. It’s also easy to accept or reject changes, without having to change individual fonts or colors. Gone are the days of manually inserting a strikethrough to indicate a deletion! The Dangers of Track Changes Track Changes in Word can be troublesome too. You don’t want to send a document with lots of red lines and bubbles all over it to an employer or a school (many people have embarrassing stories of doing this)! The recipient then sees all the suggestions, changes, and possibly the original language and mistakes that needed changing. As part of proofreading and preparing the final draft of a resume, cover letter, or essay, take the following steps to ensure that you do not inadvertently send a marked up copy to an employer: Directions for MS Word 2008 for Mac 1)   Check to see if there are any comments or tracked changes in the document: Go to the “Review” tab and find the Markup Options  drop-down menu. Make sure there are check marks next to the first four items shown (otherwise you might not see the comments or formatting changes when you look at “Final Showing Markup.”) 2)   If you do not see any changes or comments and you do not make any other changes to the document, you’re good to go. 3)   However, if you do see comments and tracked changes, you can do one of three things: Change “All Markup” to “No Markup” and save the final document as a PDF. This solution works if the place you’re submitting your resume accepts .pdf files. Accept all the tracked changes and delete all edits and comments (unless you only want to accept some of them, in which case see step 4). NOTE:   You need to delete edits SEPARATELY from comments! Go to the Accept  menu with the green checkmark, and select Accept All Changes. Go to the Delete  menu with the red X, and select “Delete  All Comments in Document.” If you want to accept some changes and delete others, you can accept or reject changes and comments one at a time. Either click on the Accept or Reject icons (then Accept and Move to Next or Reject and Move to Next), or right click on the change to reveal a drop-down menu and Accept Change or Reject Change. Repeat Step 1. Directions for Track Changes in Word 2013 and Newer 1)   Check to see if there are any comments or tracked changes in the document: Go to the “Review” tab and check to see that the drop-down is set to show “All Markup.” Click the Show Markup drop-down and check to make sure that Comments, Insertions and Deletions, and Formatting are all selected. NOTE:  If the window says “All Markup” and you do not see any edits, this does not mean they are gone! Make sure you are viewing all the potential markups before determining that your document is clean. 2)   If you complete the above steps and do not see any changes or comments, you’re good to go. 3)   If you do see comments and tracked changes, you can do one of three things: Change “All Markup” to “No Markup” and save the document as a PDF. This solution works for resumes IF the place you’re submitting your resume accepts .pdf files. Accept all the tracked changes and delete all edits and comments (unless you only want to accept some of them, in which case see step 4). NOTE: You need to delete edits SEPARATELY from comments! Under the “Review” tab, click on the “Accept” icon and select “Accept All Changes.” Under the “Review” tab, go to the comment icon that says “Delete” (next to the “New Comment” icon) and choose “Delete All Comments in Document.” In Word 2016 and later, you can also use Document Inspector to check for tracked changes. You can access this tool by clicking on the File tab, then Info. Here you’ll see whether there are any remaining editing marks or comments in your document. If there are no bullets listed here, you’re good to go. If there are, click the “Check for Issues” and select the Inspect Document option. Make sure all of the boxes are checked, then click Inspect. Your results might look something like this: Click Remove All to get rid of any remaining Comments, Revisions, and Versions. If the document was created by a third party, you may also wish to remove authorship from the document. If you want to accept some changes and delete others, you can accept or reject changes and comments one at a time by right clicking on them individually. You will get a drop-down menu with choices of what to do. Repeat Step 1 to make sure you haven’t missed anything. Important notes for all versions of Word: If you accept all changes before reviewing the document and there is a comment in the middle of your document like “(dates?)” then that change will be accepted and become a part of your document! Make sure you respond to all questions and make any revisions needed inside your document before accepting all changes. *ALWAYS* proofread your final document at least 3 times!  As much as The Essay Expert and other editors attempt to ensure that your documents are perfect, final approval is ultimately your responsibility. If you don’t want all of your future edits to show up as marked on your document, turn Track Changes off by clicking on it (it will be grey when on).  It’s a toggled function.  Click it on, click it off. Finally, when you receive an edited document, whenever possible accept or reject the changes before making your own edits!  This practice will make it much easier to look at the NEW edits you have made to the document. Have Track Changes questions? Embarrassing Track Changes stories? Please share in the comments below!