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Review tracked changes with new cards in Word

Linda_C's avatar
Linda_C
Icon for Microsoft rankMicrosoft
Aug 25, 2024

(Originally published on July 11, 2022 by Kimberley Chua)

 

Hi, Insiders! My name is Kimberley Chua, and I’m a Product Manager on the Word team. Previously, we shared with you some improvements to Track Changes in Word for the web. I’m excited to let you know that we’re now bringing similar improvements to Word for Windows and Word for Mac: new Track Changes cards!

 

New Track Changes cards

 

Collecting and acting on feedback about your document is a critical factor in creating great content, and the Track Changes feature in Word is an essential part of that process. Now we've added new Track Changes cards, which make it easier to review a change before you accept or reject it.

 

How it works

  1. When working in any Word document that contains tracked changes and shows all revisions inline, click on a tracked change in the text.
  2. Review the suggested change in the card that pops up.

    Track Changes pop-up card in Word for desktop

  3. Hover over the Accept (checkmark) or Reject (X) icon to see a preview of what that action would look like in your document text.

    Preview of "Accept suggestion":

    Hover over checkmark icon to see text as it would appear with change accepted

    Preview of "Reject suggestion":

    Hover over X icon to see text as it would appear with change rejected

    NOTE: The hover feature only functions in Word for Windows.

  4. Accept or reject the suggested change, as desired.

 

Availability

We are rolling out the new Track Changes cards to Beta Channel users running the following builds:

  • Windows: Version 2205 (Build 15204.20000) or later
  • Mac: Version 16.61 (Build 22040700) or later

 

Features are released over some time to ensure things are working smoothly. We highlight features that you may not have because they’re slowly releasing to larger numbers of Insiders. Sometimes we remove elements to further improve them based on your feedback. Though this is rare, we also reserve the option to pull a feature entirely out of the product, even if you, as an Insider, have had the opportunity to try it.

 

Feedback

We are actively working on this feature, and your feedback is key to guiding future improvements. You can submit comments by clicking Help > Feedback in Word; please tag your feedback with #trackchanges to make sure we see it!

 


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Updated Aug 25, 2024
Version 4.0
  • SMartin223's avatar
    SMartin223
    Copper Contributor

    Can you all please let us know how we can turn this feature off? While some may find this desirable, as an attorney, I find it distracting and annoying as it blocks language I need to be able to see in totality when reviewing contracts. This is particularly true where there is heavy redlining of contracts. I would like an option to turn this off, and preferably not on a document-by-document basis. I would like to to disable this feature in my version of word. Browsing the web for a solution to turn off, I can see some others who are similarly situated (e.g., attorneys) have requested the same.  #trackchanges

  • Apad's avatar
    Apad
    Copper Contributor

    I second SMartin223, please provide a feature to turn this off.

  • turrecremata's avatar
    turrecremata
    Copper Contributor

    This is a horrible "refinement" suddenly imposed on Word -- please let us get rid of it at once. 

    turrecremata

  • MsTrial711's avatar
    MsTrial711
    Copper Contributor

    If I want to track changes, I will ask for it.  How do I undo this crap? #trackchanges

  • ARMX86's avatar
    ARMX86
    Copper Contributor

    We could use a smaller UI or a simple keyboard shortcut like '1' when prompted or while this frame suggest modification, it does not need to be huge, but with the quick accept or refuse and smaller UI it solve most feedback I'm reviewing in the comments!

     

    Have a great Sunday!