Reviewing and Editing Documents

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• Reviewing and Editing Documents

Word contains several different ways to edit and review written documents. If you are sharing a document with someone else or if you are grading a student or peer's work, these tools are invaluable.

The Reviewing Toolbar
Using Comments and Highlighting
Tracking and Integrating Changes

The Reviewing Toolbar

Word contains a toolbar with shortcuts to all reviewing and editing functions.

1. Click the View menu, drag down to Toolbars, and choose Reviewing.

2. The Reviewing toolbar will appear on your screen. From left to right, the first section contains viewing tools, the second contains tracking tools, the third area has buttons for adding new comments and turning on and off the Track Changes features, and the fourth allows the user to save a version of the current document or send it to someone via email.

3. In order to start using Track Changes, you must first click the Track Changes button. Once Track Changes is on, Word will show changes made in the document in colored, underlined text, and keep track of deletions along the right-hand side or within the document, depending on your view. See below under "Tracking and Integrating Changes" for more information.

Note: Windows users may only see the Track Changes icon instead of both the icon and the text "Track Changes." Look for the picture you see on the button above if you are using Microsoft Office 2000 or higher.

Using Comments and Highlighting

Comments and Highlighting provide a method of giving feedback on a document without infringing on or correcting the actual text.

The commenting tools available on the Reviewing toolbar contain the ability to Insert and Edit comments. Comments appear along the right-hand side of your document in colorful "balloons" only while you are in Normal View (View menu -> Normal). In other views, you may turn on the Reviewing Pane under the "Show" button in your Reviewing Toolbar to see the comments made in the document.

Using Comments:

1. Select (drag over and highlight) the portion of the document you wish to comment on, then click the Insert menu and choose Comment (or, click the Insert Comment button on the Reviewing Toolbar).

OR

2. A new balloon or item in the Reviewing Pane will appear where you may begin typing your comment.

Highlighting in a Document:

1. Click and drag over the text you wish to highlight to select it.

2. Click the Highlighter tool in the Reviewing toolbar. You may select a different color if you click the small triangle to the right of the tool button.

3. Your text will become surrounded by the highlighting color you chose, just as if you were using a real highlighter pen.

Tracking and Integrating Changes

The Track Changes tools allow the user to show and accept or reject changes made to a document, as well as compare similar documents to see where differences lie. These features are extremely useful for teachers in editing student work, and for anyone who is collaborating on a written document with other authors.

To start tracking and highlighting changes:

1. Click the Tools menu, drag down to Track Changes, and select Highlight Changes.

2. A new window will appear with a few options. Most users will choose to have all of the checkboxes selected. Selecting the Options button will allow you to change the color of the highlighted changes. When you are ready, click OK.

3. Now, each change you make to the document will be shown as underlined, red (by default) text. Deleted characters will be shown as strikethrough text, so that those reading your changes can compare the original document to the edited version.

To Accept or Reject changes made to a document:

After edits are made using Track Changes as above, you may choose to integrate these changes into the document or refuse them and return it to its original state. To do this:

1. Click the Tools menu, drag down to Track Changes, and choose Accept or Reject Changes.

2. The Accept or Reject Changes window appears. You may scroll through the document by clicking the Find forward or Find backward buttons to review changes made before accepting them, or you can choose to simply Accept or Reject all the changes.

Comparing Documents

1. To compare your currently open Word document to another version, click the Tools menu, drag down to Track Changes, and select Compare Documents.

2. Word will ask you to find your comparison file on your computer. When you find the file you want to compare, the documents will reveal their differences in colorful (usually red), underlined text.