Microsoft Track Change

A Love-Hate Relationship with MS Word? We Get It.

We have heard it all. "Word has glitches." We know. However, Word is THE best tool for an author and editor to use. Not Google Docs. Not Pages. Not Publisher. Word. Trust us on this one.

By using MS Word Track Changes, it saves the integrity of the author's manuscript. All changes are marked—most likely in red (my favorite color)—and easily identified. And it really is easy to use.

If you aren't familiar with Track Changes, you will want to do a little research before we send your file back to you with our additions, deletions, corrections, and comments. And any questions you have should be asked via comments and your changes should be made with Track Changes turned on if you are sending it back to your editor for review.

Editor and author Blake Atwood writes the following over at TheWriteLife.com:

Gone are the days when your edited manuscript returns to you covered in the blood-red slashes of your editor’s unforgiving pen. Today, your edited manuscript most often returns as a Word document covered in the bewildering lines and challenging comments within Word’s Track Changes feature.

Whether Microsoft meant it as an ode to tradition or a reminder to every writer about the seriousness of editing, these edits are still, by default, set to show up in blood-red starkness.

Thanks, Microsoft.

Regardless of your feelings about using Word, it behooves every writer to learn how to use Track Changes.

When the success of your edit relies on knowing this useful aspect of the world’s most-used word processor, you’ll want to know exactly what you’re doing before diving into your edits.

What is Track Changes?Track Changes does exactly what it says: it tracks the changes made to a Word document.

Every deleted space, every added word, every formatting change and more is meticulously tracked so that any parties working on a document can see the document’s evolution over time as well as who made what change.

For better or worse, Track Changes is the de facto digital editing tool of choice for editors.

While Google Docs offers a worthy alternative, especially considering its automatic versioning history, Word’s Track Changes is a stalwart of the editing business for its robust features and relative ease of use.

Check out the rest of this article with images to help guide you here.

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About the Author: Blake Atwood — Editor and author Blake Atwood guides writers through the perils of writing, publishing, and marketing. Read more at BlakeAtwood.com.