Using Tracking and Reviewing Features in Microsoft Word 2000 Tutorial

Microsoft Word includes features that allow you to track the changes made by multiple users, as well as a review function that allows reviewers to insert their comments within a document. These features are very useful when you are part of a peer group assigned to work on a project together. They also provide a means for instructors to comment on your work. It allows a peer editor or the instructor to keep track of the comments and changes made by various reviewers.

What Do You Want To Do?

• If you are a student who is creating a document for others to review, you need to know how to begin your document.
  

• If you are an instructor or peer reviewer working with an existing document, you need to know how to track changes while you edit and add review comments.
  

• If you are a student or author who will decide the final outcome of a document, you need to know how to accept or reject changes.
  

• If you are a student or author who must work with multiple versions of the same document, you need to know how to compare documents and merge tracked changes.

Conventions for Tutorial

There are two ways to perform some of the procedures mentioned in this tutorial. You can either use the Tools menu to access the Track Changes submenu or you can use the various icons that appear on the Reviewing toolbar. To add the Reviewing toolbar:

1. Click on the View menu.
2. Choose the Toolbar submenu.
3. Click on Reviewing. The Reviewing toolbar should appear, as shown below.

Beginning Your Document

If you want to set up a document for a peer editor or an instructor to review after you've completed it, you must prepare your document for review. By enabling the Protect Document feature, any changes or comments made by those who will be reviewing your document will be marked within the document. So, after creating a document, you can enable the Protect Document feature. To do that:

1. Open the document to be reviewed. 
2. In the Tools menu, click Protect Document.
3. Select one of the following options as appropriate for your project:

• Select Tracked Changes to allow other team members to change the document by inserting comments and tracked changes.

• Click Comments to allow other team members to only add their comments.
  

• Type an optional password to allow only authorized reviewers to add comments and changes.

If you are a peer editor or an instructor who is going to revise a document that has not been prepared for review, you must first enable the Track Changes feature. This will ensure that any changes or comments that you add are tracked by Word.

1. Open the document you want to revise.
2. Click on the Tools menu.
3. Click on Highlight Changes.
4. Check Track changes while editing. 
5. Check Highlight changes on screen and Highlight changes in printed document to ensure that the tracked changes appear both on screen and in your printed document. 
6. Begin editing the document, adding or deleting text as necessary. 

To track your changes, Word identifies the deletions by coloring and striking through the text that has been deleted in the color that has been assigned for that user. Text that has been added is colored and underscored.

If you are replacing existing text with new text, Word distinguishes that by showing the original text as being deleted and the new text as being added.

When a user rests the mouse on a change, a ScreenTip appears that contains the reviewer's name, the date and time the change was made, and the type of change (for example, Inserted.). Below is an example of what the ScreenTip looks like.

Word automatically assigns unique colors to the first eight reviewers of a document. Word distinguishes among the different users according to the User Information tab. Usually, your name is automatically entered when the Word application is installed on your computer. To confirm that the information provided there is correct, PC users can follow these steps:

1. From the Tools menu, select Options. 
2. Click on the User Information tab. 
3. Ensure that the information is correct and click OK. 

Mac users can follow these steps:

1. From the Edit menu, select Preferences. 
2. Click on the User Information tab. 
3. Ensure that the information is correct and click OK.

Adding Review Comments

If you have received a document from someone else and want to make annotations or review comments within the document that do not change the text, you can add in review comments. When the mouse is positioned over a comment, Word displays in a ScreenTip the name of the commenter and the comment.

To add a review comment:

1. Put your mouse on the text for which you want to insert a comment. 
2. From the Insert menu, click on Comment. Word will highlight in yellow the text that is being commented on.
3. Type in your comment. 

To insert comments using the Reviewing toolbar, simply click on the insert comment icon and begin typing your comment.

As with the revision marks, Word uses a different color for each user to distinguish between their comments. Word numbers comments and records them in a separate comment pane. In addition, the user's initials are included.

You can also insert an audio comment as a sound object within the document. To do this, you must first indicate that you want to insert a comment. In the comment pane, click on the tape icon. A Sound object box will appear. Click on the red dot to begin recording your audio comment.

Multiple comments can be added for the same text. Highlight the yellow area again and repeat the steps for adding a review comment. The appearance of the highlight doesn't change and the content of the ScreenTip also may not change, however. Word simply adds another set of initials at the end of the highlighted area. By resting the mouse on the new set of initials, the additional comments will appear as a ScreenTip.

Accepting or Rejecting Comments and Changes

You can choose to accept or reject comments or changes made by your peer editor or instructor. To do this, you must first ensure that you are able to view the comments and changes as described under Tracking Changes While You Edit. You can choose to use the Accept or Reject Changes dialog box or the Reviewing toolbar. To use the Accept or Reject Changes dialog box:

1. Click on the Tools menu 
2. Select the Track Changes submenu 
3. Click Accept or Reject Changes

A dialog box will appear that displays who made the change, when it was made, and what type of change it was (for example, Inserted). The dialog box also allows you to choose the view for the changes. You can choose to view the changes as they are marked up or you can view them without being highlighted. You can also view it as the original document, without the most recent changes made.

Note: When you view the document as the original, it reverts to the original before the most recent changes were made, not to the original document before any changes were made.

As you click through the changes, you can choose to accept or reject all changes or to accept or reject individual changes. Using the Reviewing toolbar, you can accept or reject the changes individually.

If you prefer, you can also print the review comments within the document. To do this,

1. From the File menu, select Print.
2. Click on the Options button in the lower left-hand corner of the dialog box.
3. Under Include with document, check the Comments box. This will allow the comments that are included within the document to be printed as a separate page at the end of the document.

Note: In some older versions of Word, you don't have the option to print review comments.

Mac users should follow the steps below to print review comments:

1. From the Edit menu, select Preferences.
2. Click on the Print tab.
3. Under Include with document, check Comments.

Comparing Documents

If you have begun to make changes to a document and forgot to prepare it to track your changes, you can still record the changes that you made using the Compare Documents command:

1. Open the document that you have edited without using the Track Changes feature.
2. On the Tools menu, select Track Changes, then click on Compare Documents.
3. Open the original document. 
4. If neither the edited nor the original version of the document has enabled Track changes, Word displays the edited document with revision marks, indicating how the edited document has changed from the original.

If either version of the document has enabled the Track Changes feature, Word displays two messages boxes. Click Yes on both to compare the documents.

Merging Tracked Changes

If others reviewing or editing the document have returned their changes and comments in multiple versions of the original document, you can merge all the changes into the original document and then review each change from that document. Word displays all the reviewers' tracked changes and comments in different colors.

1. Open the original document into which you want to merge changes.
2. Using the Tools menu, click Merge Documents, which opens a window from which you can choose the file containing the changes you want to merge.
3. Repeat the previous two steps until all the document copies are merged.