Microsoft Track Changes — Word for Mac (2011) Step 1: Open your Microsoft Word document, and locate the Review tab. Step 2: Locate the Track Changes icon in the Tracking panel; be sure that the Track Changes is switched off. If Track Changes is switched on, as in the screen shot below, make sure you click on the ON icon to turn this feature off. If you continue with the Track Changes. Have you ever wanted (or needed) to be an incognito editor, a covert reviewer, or a clandestine collaborator? If so, this post is for you—or for your secret identity—because it demonstrates how to change your user name for Track Changes in Microsoft Word. Track Changes Information Keeps Reverting to 'Author' When using the Track Change feature, my changes are listed as being from 'Author' and not my name. It also doesn't have a time stamp.
-->Note
Office 365 ProPlus is being renamed to Microsoft 365 Apps for enterprise. For more information about this change, read this blog post.
Symptoms
You are editing a Microsoft Word document that has Rights Management Services (RMS) applied to it and includes tracked changes. You notice that you cannot use Word's Track Changes feature. The Track Changes control, as well as the Accept and Reject changes controls are disabled.
This applies when the RMS is applied to individual documents or when RMS is applied to a SharePoint site library.
Cause
You will see this behavior when you don't have 'Full control' provided by Rights Management Services (RMS) for the user. A Microsoft Word file that contains tracked changes has the changes stored in a log within the file. In order to preserve the tracked changes log in a less than full control permissions scenario, the Track Changes and Accept Changes features are disabled for users who do not have 'Full control' in the My Permission dialog for the RMS protected document.
Resolution
This behavior is by design. To use Word's track changes feature with RMS, provide access level under RMS as 'Full control' for a user on an individual Word document or provide 'Full Control' for the user in the SharePoint document library permissions.
More Information
The following reviewing features are only available with 'Full control' permissions:
- Turning on or off Track Changes
- Delete Comments
- The Accept dropdown
- The Reject dropdown
Within the Track Changes dropdown, the Track Changes Options will be enabled, but within that dialog, the following two options will be disabled unless the user has Full Control permissions:
Microsoft Word For Mac Track Changes
- Track moves
- Track formatting
Microsoft Word Mac Track Changes Author List
Today’s post about track changes in Word is contributed by Louis Broome, a manager and writer for Office.com.
To turn Track Changes off, on the Review tab, in the Tracking group, click the Track Changes button (the paper & pencil with the healthy orange glow, pictured below). Here’s the relevant piece of Word real estate:
If your document contains tracked changes, like this:
and you want to get rid of them, on the Review tab, in the Changes group, you can Accept or Reject each change or All Changes in Document:
Tracked changes can be hidden, which might or might not be a good thing. Either way, take a moment to become familiar with the Display for Review drop-down list and its four options:
Final: Show Markup shows all tracked changes.
Final hides tracked changes to show the document with all proposed changes included.
Original: Show Markup shows the original text with tracked changes and comments.
Original shows the document before any changes were made.
If your Track Changes needs are more sophisticated than the above, choose from this list of the Top 5 Track Changes-related videos, articles, and training courses on Office.com/support:
- This brief article on how to Turn Track Changes on or off includes a cool tip: You can customize the status bar to add an indicator that tells you when Track Changes is on or off (the Word 2007 version is here).
- If all you want to do is turn off Track Changes, watch this video.
- Demo: Remove tracked changes from Word 2007 documents shows you how to permanently remove revision marks in a Word 2007 document.
- Revise documents with Track Changes and Comments in Word 2007, a training course, will teach you how to review, accept, reject, and hide tracked changes in Word 2007, and along the way you get to practice.
- Track changes while you editcovers the basics of how to track changes in Word 2007 while you edit, and how to change the way that markup is displayed (the Word 2003 article is here).
Bonus track (changes):
Remove tracked changes and comments from a documentshows how to ensure that track changes and comments are not left in your Word 2007 documents when you distribute them.
—Louis Broome