Track Changes Tool in Word: The 2026 Ultimate Guide

Working on a document with others can get messy fast. Who changed what? What did this paragraph look like yesterday? This is where the track changes tool in Microsoft Word becomes your best friend. It’s a powerful feature that records every edit, letting you and your team collaborate without losing your minds (or your revision history).

This guide will walk you through everything you need to know about using the track changes tool, from the basics of turning it on to advanced tips for a smoother workflow.

What Exactly Is the Track Changes Tool?

Track Changes is a feature in Microsoft Word that logs every insertion, deletion, or formatting tweak made to a document. When it’s active, Word highlights additions with underlines and deletions with strikethroughs, usually in a different color for each person editing the file. This creates a clear, visual record of all suggestions. If you’re comparing it with a document’s revision history, see our guide on revision history vs. track changes.

This functionality is a cornerstone of professional collaboration. In fact, one survey found that 57% of employees believe feedback within a document using a track changes tool is the most effective method. It’s so common in legal fields that about 91% of contract negotiators use Word to redline (another name for tracking changes) contracts. By keeping a running log of edits, this feature ensures every suggestion can be reviewed before making it final.

How to Turn Track Changes On

Ready to start logging edits? Turning on the track changes tool is simple.

In the Word desktop app, just navigate to the Review tab on the main ribbon and click the Track Changes button. You’ll know it’s on because the button will be highlighted. From that moment on, Word will mark up every change. A handy keyboard shortcut for this is Ctrl+Shift+E on Windows or Command+Shift+E on a Mac.

How to Turn Track Changes Off

To stop recording new edits, you just turn the track changes tool off. Go back to the Review tab and click the Track Changes button again to deactivate it. The button will no longer be highlighted.

It’s crucial to remember that turning off tracking does not remove any of the changes already marked in the document. All the colored underlines and strikethroughs will remain until you accept or reject them.

How to View Tracked Changes

When tracking is active, all modifications are visible as markup. Inserted text gets an underline, while deleted text gets a strikethrough. If you’re not seeing any markup, check your display settings—or review these common Track Changes mistakes to avoid. On the Review tab, look for the Display for Review dropdown and make sure you haven’t selected No Markup, which temporarily hides all edits.

To see who made a specific change and when, just hover your mouse over the edited text. A small card will pop up with the author’s name and a timestamp.

Choosing Whose Changes to Track: Just Mine vs. Everyone

By default, when you activate the track changes tool, it records edits from everyone working on the document. However, newer versions of Word give you more control.

In Microsoft 365, you can click the small arrow on the Track Changes button to find two options:

• For Everyone: This is the classic setting that tracks all changes from all users.
• Just Mine: This option tells Word to only log the revisions you make, ignoring edits from others. This is perfect when you want to make suggestions without forcing tracking on your collaborators.

Choosing a Markup View: Simple vs. All

Word offers a few ways to look at your document’s edits, which you can find under the Display for Review menu.

• Simple Markup: This gives you a cleaner look. It shows the final text with a simple red line in the margin to indicate where a change was made. You can click the red line to reveal the details.
• All Markup: This view shows you everything. Every insertion, deletion, and formatting change is displayed inline with different colors and markings for each reviewer.
• No Markup: This view hides the edits and shows what the document would look like if all changes were accepted. The changes are still there, just hidden from view.
• Original: This shows the document as it was before any of the tracked changes were made, as if you rejected every single one.

Showing Revisions in Balloons

If you find inline edits distracting, you can move them to the margin. The Show Revisions in Balloons setting displays deletions and comments in speech bubble style balloons on the side of the page. This can make the main text much easier to read since it isn’t cluttered with strikethroughs.

You can find this option under Review > Show Markup > Balloons. Keep in mind that this view only works in Print Layout or Web Layout mode.

Showing All Revisions Inline

The opposite of the balloon view is Show All Revisions Inline. As the name suggests, this setting displays every tracked change directly within the text. Deletions appear with a strikethrough, and insertions are underlined, all right where they happened.

Many people prefer this mode because it keeps the edits in their original context, which can be helpful for understanding the flow of changes. To enable it, go to Review > Show Markup > Balloons and select Show All Revisions Inline.

Filtering Changes by Edit Type or Person

Dealing with a document full of edits can be overwhelming. The track changes tool in Word lets you filter what you see.

Under Review > Show Markup, you can check or uncheck boxes for different types of edits like:

• Comments
• Insertions and Deletions
• Formatting

For instance, you could uncheck Formatting to hide all the minor style tweaks and focus only on the content changes. You can also filter to see changes from specific people, which is great for multi author documents. Remember, filtering only hides the changes temporarily; they are not deleted.

Using the Reviewing Pane for a Summary

The Reviewing Pane is a lifesaver for making sure you haven’t missed anything. You can open it from the Review tab, and it will appear as a vertical panel on the left or a horizontal one at the bottom.

This pane lists every single tracked change and comment. At the top, it gives you a summary count of all revisions, which is perfect for a final check. When the summary shows “0 revisions, 0 comments,” you know the document is clean.

How to Lock Track Changes with a Password

In situations where you need to guarantee that every single edit is recorded, you can lock the track changes tool with a password. Go to Review > Track Changes > Lock Tracking.

Once locked, nobody can turn off tracking or accept and reject changes without the password. The main Track Changes button will be grayed out. This is a common practice in legal and regulatory fields where a complete audit trail of edits is non-negotiable.

How to Accept or Reject Changes

Once the edits are in, the next step is to go through and decide what to keep.

• Accepting a change makes it permanent. The underline or strikethrough disappears, and the edit becomes part of the document.
• Rejecting a change discards it, restoring the text to its original state.

You can navigate from one change to the next using the Next and Previous buttons in the Review tab and then click Accept or Reject for each one.

Accepting or Rejecting All Changes at Once

If you trust your collaborator’s edits or you’re in a hurry, you can resolve all changes in a single click.

Under the Accept button, you’ll find an Accept All Changes option. Likewise, the Reject button has a Reject All Changes option. Use these with caution, as it’s easy to accidentally approve a change you didn’t want.

Accepting or Rejecting a Single Change

You don’t have to review changes in order. If you want to deal with a specific edit, just right click on the marked up text and choose Accept This Change or Reject This Change from the menu. Word will apply your decision to that one change and won’t automatically move you to the next one.

Using the Track Changes Tool on Mobile

The power of collaboration isn’t limited to your desktop.

Track Changes on iPad

Word for iPad fully supports the track changes tool. In the Review tab, you can toggle tracking on or off. Edits you make will be marked with underlines and strikethroughs, with different colors for each author, just like on a computer. Tapping an edit brings up options to accept, reject, or navigate to the next change.

Track Changes on iPhone

The Word app for iPhone also includes this essential feature. You can turn on Track Changes from the Review section (often found under the “…” menu). All edits will be tracked with the same visual cues. When you tap on a change, a small review pane appears at the bottom with buttons to accept, reject, and move between revisions.

Track Changes Best Practices

Knowing how to use the feature is one thing; using it well is another. Here are some best practices to keep your workflow smooth and professional.

• Always Clear All Changes: Before you send a document out, make sure you have accepted or rejected every single change. Hiding markup is not enough. There are infamous examples of sensitive government and UN documents being released with hidden tracked changes that revealed internal discussions.
• Use the Reviewing Pane for a Final Check: Make it a habit to open the Reviewing Pane and confirm the summary says “0 revisions” before you consider a document finished.
• Use Comments to Explain Edits: For changes that aren’t self explanatory, add a comment. This helps your collaborators understand your reasoning and reduces back and forth communication. If you’re building this into a web editor, consider adding an inline comments plugin.
• Establish a Workflow: Decide with your team who has the final authority to accept and reject changes. This avoids confusion and ensures a consistent final version. For a broader framework, see our document version control best practices.
• Thinking Beyond Word? What if you need a track changes tool inside your own web application? Building one from scratch is complex. That’s where specialized plugins come in. For developers using editors like TinyMCE, Froala, or CKEditor, a dedicated solution like the track changes tool from Loop Index can provide robust, Word style collaboration features directly in your app. This saves development time and ensures a secure, professional implementation. If you’re using TinyMCE, start with our TinyMCE Track Changes plugin. Find out more about our developer solutions. For Froala, check out the Froala Track Changes plugin.

By mastering the track changes tool, you can make collaboration simpler, more transparent, and far more efficient.

Frequently Asked Questions

1. Can I see who made a specific change in Word?
Yes. When you hover your mouse over any tracked change, a pop up will display the author’s name, the date, and the time the edit was made.

2. Why can’t I turn off Track Changes?
If the “Track Changes” button is grayed out, the document is likely protected. The owner may have used the “Lock Tracking” feature, which requires a password to disable.

3. What’s the difference between Simple Markup and All Markup?
Simple Markup shows a clean version of the document with a red line in the margin indicating a change, while All Markup displays every edit (insertions, deletions) inline with colored text and strikethroughs.

4. Does accepting a change remove the comment associated with it?
No. In modern versions of Word, comments are managed separately from tracked changes. You must resolve or delete comments independently of accepting or rejecting edits.

5. How do I remove tracked changes before sending a document?
You must go through and either “Accept” or “Reject” every change. The fastest way is to use “Accept All Changes” or “Reject All Changes” from the Review tab. Simply hiding the markup will not remove the underlying data.

6. Is there a track changes tool for web applications?
Yes. While standard web text editors often lack this feature, plugins are available. For instance, if you’re a developer needing this for a project, you can integrate a powerful track changes tool designed for editors like TinyMCE and Froala to add collaborative editing to your app.

7. Can I recover a change after I’ve accepted it?
If you act immediately, you can usually press Undo (Ctrl+Z or Command+Z) to reverse the acceptance and bring the tracked change back. However, once the document is saved and closed, the acceptance is permanent.

8. What does “redlining” a document mean?
Redlining is just another term for using a track changes tool. The name comes from the traditional practice of editors using a red pen to mark up physical manuscripts.