Turn on Track Changes before anyone edits your document

Track Changes is a Word feature that records every insertion, deletion, and formatting change made to your document, along with who made it and when. Once you turn it on, Word marks every edit with a colored line or comment box, and you can see the editor's name and timestamp for each change. This is how you know what was altered and by whom — essential if you share documents with others or need a record of revisions.

To start tracking, open your document in Microsoft Word. Go to the Review tab at the top of the screen. In the Tracking group, click Track Changes. A checkmark appears next to it when it is active. From that moment forward, every edit is recorded.

Before you turn it on, make sure your name is correct in Word's settings. Go to File > Options > Trust Center > Trust Center Settings > Privacy Options. Look for the field labeled User name and enter the name you want to appear on your edits. This is the name others will see when they review changes.

Key Takeaways

  • Track Changes records who made each edit, what they changed, and when they changed it, visible as colored marks and comments in the document.
  • Turn on Track Changes in the Review tab before sharing the document, and verify your user name in File > Options so edits show your correct name.
  • Insertions appear as colored underlined text, deletions as strikethrough, and formatting changes as balloons in the margin showing the old and new versions.
  • Review each change by clicking Accept or Reject in the Review tab, or accept all changes at once when you are ready to finalize the document.
  • Turn off Track Changes when you are done editing so new changes stop being recorded, then save the document to preserve the change history.

What the tracked changes look like on screen

When Track Changes is on, Word displays edits in a way that makes them impossible to miss. Text that someone added appears underlined and in a color assigned to that person — often red, blue, or green depending on how many editors are in the document. Text that was deleted shows as strikethrough in the same color. If someone changes formatting — bold, italics, font size — Word creates a small balloon in the right margin showing what changed from what to what.

Hover your mouse over any tracked change and a tooltip appears with the editor's name, the type of change (insertion, deletion, formatting), and the exact date and time. This tooltip stays visible as long as your cursor is over the change, so you can read it without clicking anything. If you want more detail, click the change itself and the Review pane opens on the right side, showing a full list of all changes in order.

How to review and accept or reject changes

Once edits are tracked, you decide which ones to keep. Go to the Review tab and look at the Changes group. You will see buttons labeled Accept and Reject. Click on any tracked change in the document, then click Accept to keep it or Reject to remove it and restore the original text. The change disappears from the document and the next change is automatically selected.

If you have many changes and want to accept all of them at once, click the small arrow next to Accept and select Accept All Changes. Word will process every change in the document in seconds. The same arrow next to Reject lets you reject all changes at once, though this is less common — most people review changes one by one to avoid accidentally removing something important.

You can also move between changes without accepting or rejecting. Click the up and down arrows in the Changes group to jump to the previous or next change. This is useful if you want to read through the entire document and make decisions about each edit in context, seeing how it fits with the surrounding text.

Turn off Track Changes when you are finished editing

Once all changes are reviewed and accepted or rejected, turn off Track Changes so that future edits are not recorded. Go back to the Review tab and click Track Changes again. The checkmark disappears and the feature is off. Any new edits you make will not be marked or tracked.

Before you save, make sure you have dealt with all remaining changes. If you save a document with unreviewed tracked changes still in it, those changes remain visible to anyone who opens the file later. If that is intentional — for example, you are sending a draft to someone else for their review — that is fine. But if you want a clean final version, accept or reject every change before saving.

Sharing documents with Track Changes on

If you are sending a document to someone else for editing, you can turn on Track Changes before you send it, or ask them to turn it on when they receive it. Either way works. The important thing is that Track Changes is active while they are editing so their changes are recorded.

When they send the document back to you, open it and go to the Review tab. The Review Pane button shows you a list of all changes in order. You can read through them, accept the ones you want to keep, and reject the ones you do not. If multiple people have edited the same document, each person's changes appear in their assigned color, so you can tell who changed what at a glance.

What happens if you forget to turn on Track Changes

If someone edits a document and Track Changes was not on, those edits are straightforward made — there is no record of what was changed or who changed it. The document looks like it was always that way. You cannot recover the change history after the fact.

This is why it is important to turn on Track Changes before you share a document with others. If you realize after the fact that changes were made without tracking, the only option is to compare the old version with the new version manually, which is time-consuming and error-prone. Make it a habit to turn on Track Changes the moment you create a document you plan to share.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I see who made a change if Track Changes was on but I do not recognize the name?

Yes. The name that appears on a change is whatever was entered in that person's Word settings under File > Options > Trust Center > Privacy Options > User name. If the name is unclear, ask the person directly. They can confirm their user name in their own Word settings.

What if I want to accept some changes from one person but reject changes from another?

You can filter the changes by editor. In the Review pane, look for a dropdown or filter option that lets you show only changes from a specific person. This makes it easier to review one person's edits at a time without jumping between different editors' work.

Does Track Changes slow down Word or make the file bigger?

Track Changes does not significantly slow down Word, but it does increase file size because Word stores the change history inside the document. If the file becomes too large, you can reduce it by accepting or rejecting all changes and then saving. Once changes are finalized, the history is removed.

Can I turn off Track Changes for just one person's edits?

No. Track Changes is a document-wide setting — it is either on or off for everyone. However, you can accept or reject individual changes one at a time, so you can keep edits from one person and reject edits from another by reviewing them selectively.

What if I save a document with Track Changes on but no changes made yet?

The document saves normally. Track Changes being on does not change how the file is saved or stored. It only activates when someone actually makes an edit. If no one has edited the document, there is nothing to track.