How to Enable Tracking in Microsoft Word

Topic

How to Enable Tracking in Microsoft Word

Environment

Instructions

When you are working on a document and sharing editing privileges with other users tracking changes is a best practice. That way you know when a document was amended, what the change was and by who. 

1. Open up the Word document that you want to track changes for or start a new one. 
2. On the top of the page, click on the “Review” tab. 

3. You will now see an option for “Tracking”. if you click on the “Tracking” button (Figure A), you will get a drop-down menu with the “Track Changes” button. Click on the “Tracking” icon on this button to enable tracking. If you would like to prevent others from disabling the “Track Changes” feature, click on the bottom of the button to expand the menu (Figure B). You will see an option to add a lock feature.

           (Figure A)  

           (Figure B)  

4. If you would like to change the options for tracking changes, there are a few options to choose from in the drop-down menu or Tracking Tab, or to customize the options more you can click on the little arrow in the bottom right hand corner of the “Tracking” tab. 

5. A new box will pop-up with various options for tracking changes including which changes you want to show. If you need further customization, click on “Advanced Options”.

6. Advanced Options will allow you to customize the appearance of various markups and the visualizations of the changes to make it easier for you to understand.

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