# MS-Word: Track only other people's changes **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [April 22, 2012, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ms-word-track-only-other-peoples-changes/619628 "2012-04-22T20:52:24Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 12\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2012, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ms-word-track-only-other-peoples-changes/619628/1 "2012-04-22T20:52:24Z")
I’m working on a document in Word. Someone else has inserted a comment. The comment has a vertical bar to the left (like one side of a border), the text is blue instead of black, and it is underlined. On the right side of the document is a box containing the name of the person who commented, and the date it was done. When I added to the document, my additions were formatted the same way, only the text was a shade of red. Now here’s the thing: This is a work-in-progress. I want to retain (and display) the changes (i.e., the comments) other people have made. But I don’t want the changes I make to show up as changes. That is, I want my document to ‘grow’ and retain the format I’m using (black, no underlines or ‘left borders’) and to appear to be an uninterrupted part of the original. If I uncheck ‘Markup’ in the View menu, my document looks as it should – but the comments appear to be part of the document instead of someone else’s comments. Is there a way I can ‘have it both ways’? ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2012, 9:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ms-word-track-only-other-peoples-changes/619628/2 "2012-04-22T21:07:05Z")
If I understand you correctly, then you should be able to fix your problem simply by turning off the Track Changes function. That way, the changes that were made previously by the other person will still be visible, but any new change that you make will simply be incorporated into the document. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2012, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ms-word-track-only-other-peoples-changes/619628/3 "2012-04-22T21:22:28Z")
The only place I see to do that is in the View menu, as mentioned. the problem is that I want to track changes other people make, and not the ones I make. If I turn Markup off, then others’ comments look like the rest of the document. I don’t want that. I want those comments to look like comments, with the different colour, the underlining, and the author box. AND I want my changes to look like the rest of the document. ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2012, 9:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ms-word-track-only-other-peoples-changes/619628/4 "2012-04-22T21:31:30Z")
What version of Word are you using? ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2012, 9:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ms-word-track-only-other-peoples-changes/619628/5 "2012-04-22T21:34:29Z")
MS Word for Mac, 11.6.3. ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2012, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ms-word-track-only-other-peoples-changes/619628/6 "2012-04-22T21:40:32Z")
OK, i’m using Windows, and sometimes the menus are laid out differently. What you need to look for is the Review area. In Word for Mac, i think it’s one of the tabs that is below the menu area. Click on that, and you should see two different controls: Track Changes and Show Markup. I think what you need to do is leave Show Markup on, but turn Track Changes off so that any changes that you make to the document now will not be marked up, but will simply change the document. The Show Markup area also has a dropdown menu that allows you to select which aspects of markup you want to show, and also which particular users’ markup you want to show. Does that help? ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2012, 9:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ms-word-track-only-other-peoples-changes/619628/7 "2012-04-22T21:46:01Z")
There is no option for turning Track Changes off. Changes can be highlighted, accepted, or rejected. Rejecting the new text deletes it. Markup can be checked or unchecked. There is no dropdown menu. ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2012, 9:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ms-word-track-only-other-peoples-changes/619628/8 "2012-04-22T21:53:05Z")
OK, you’ve got an earlier version of Word than the one on my wife’s Mac. She has 14.x, and her Review menu looks like [this](http://www.proof-reading.com/remove-microsoft-track-changes-from-word-2011-for-mac.html). I assume yours looks different? There must be, somewhere, an option for turning off Track Changes. Every version of Word i’ve used, going back more than 10 years, has had this function. In some earlier versions, you had to go to the Toolbars section, and select the Reviewing toolbar, which would then allow you to turn Track Changes on and off. Can you find a Reviewing toolbar? ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2012, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ms-word-track-only-other-peoples-changes/619628/9 "2012-04-22T22:07:12Z")
I found a Track Changes button on a toolbar (not in the tabs). It looks like if it is turned on when I copy text into the document, the text is tracked as a change. If I turn it off before pasting, then it isn’t. If I don’t turn it off before pasting, then the text can’t be ‘untracked’ unless the whole document is. ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2012, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ms-word-track-only-other-peoples-changes/619628/10 "2012-04-22T22:14:20Z")
What you can do, though, is accept or reject changes individually. If you accept a change, the markup goes away, and the change is incorporated into the document as if it were part of the original. In Windows, i can right-click the relevant text, and then select “Accept Insertion” or “Reject Insertion” from the context menu. There is also an Accept and a Reject button in the Review area. ---
**Author:** ![Johnny\_L.A](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/johnny_l.a/32/1084_2.png) [@Johnny\_L.A](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Johnny_L.A)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2012, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ms-word-track-only-other-peoples-changes/619628/11 "2012-04-22T22:39:14Z")
When I tried to Reject before, it deleted everything I’d just pasted in. ---
**Author:** ![mhendo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mhendo/32/3159_2.png) [@mhendo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mhendo)\ **Post date:** [April 22, 2012, 10:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ms-word-track-only-other-peoples-changes/619628/12 "2012-04-22T22:40:54Z")
> [@Johnny\_L.A](#): > > When I tried to Reject before, it deleted everything I’d just pasted in. Right, because Reject mans that you’re rejecting the material that you added during the Track Changes phase. What you needed to do was Accept. Then, the text you paste would, as i suggested in my previous post, be incorporated into the document without any special marks or formatting.