Word Track Changes and Compare: Review Documents Like a Pro

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⏱ 2 min readUpdated 28 September 2026

Emailing “final_v7_really_final.docx” back and forth loses edits. Word’s review tools keep every change visible and reversible.

In this article
  1. Track Changes
  2. Comments
  3. Accept or reject
  4. Compare two versions
  5. Continue learning

Track Changes

Review → Track Changes (Ctrl+Shift+E). From now on, insertions are underlined and deletions struck through, each with the reviewer’s name and time.

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  • Display for Review: “Simple Markup” shows a clean page with red bars in the margin; “All Markup” shows every change.
  • Lock Tracking (Track Changes dropdown) with a password stops reviewers from switching tracking off.

Comments

Select text → Review → New Comment (Ctrl+Alt+M). Reply inside the comment thread instead of adding new ones.

Accept or reject

Use Next to jump change by change, then Accept or Reject. “Accept All Changes” is quick but read first.

Compare two versions

Someone edited without tracking? Review → Compare → Compare, pick the original and revised files, and Word produces a third document showing every difference as tracked changes.

⚠️ Before sending a document outside your company, run File → Info → Check for Issues → Inspect Document. Hidden tracked changes and comments travel with the file even when “No Markup” view hides them.

Continue learning

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Free to use for learning. Files with macros (.bas) are plain text — import them with Alt+F11 → File → Import File, and always test on a copy.

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