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Word hidden Track changes and comments in

Let us say for example that you receive a document in an e‐mail message from your colleague.

It would make a good starting point for a document that you want to work on, so you save it under a new name and tailor it to your needs.

It never occurs to you that your colleague left comments in the original document, because you donʹt see them in your copy.

Youʹre now ready to pass the document along to your customers, but you want to send them your document, not an accumulation of the original document, your colleagueʹs comments, and your updates.

Or, you used the Track Changes feature in Word to keep track of the revisions you made to your resume.

Now you want to send the resume to your prospective employer, who should see the result of your editing, not the thought process you went through to get there.

In either case, you are stunned when those who receive your document report that itʹs difficult to read, with all the strikethrough, underlining, and balloons off to the side.

Thereʹs the objective statement in your resume, with three different objectives displayed in strikeout formatting—and the objective you want to use this time around is displayed in underlined text.

Chances are you wonʹt get that job.

This text wasnʹt in the document when you sent it. How did Word find and display this content? What can you do to make Word behave?

You first have to understand Track Changes features

You may not realize it, but you are working with the Track Changes or Comments feature in Word.

Typically, when Word tracks changes, it displays deletions with strikethrough formatting and insertions as underlined text.

Both deletions and insertions—as well as comments (or ʺannotationsʺ)—can be displayed in balloons in the page margin.

There are various ways to hide the revisions or comments—but all the revisions that were made while the Track Changes feature was turned on and all the comments that were inserted remain part of the document until they are accepted or rejected (or, in the case of comments, deleted).

__**Note :‐**__

Turning off Track Changes does not remove the revision marks or comments from the document.

Instead, turning off Track Changes enables you to modify the document without storing insertions and deletions and displaying them as strikethrough, underlining, or balloons.

How to get rid of revisions

To get rid of tracked changes and comments, you need to accept or reject the changes and delete the comments. Hereʹs how:-:

1. On the View menu, point to Toolbars, and then click Reviewing.

2. On the Reviewing toolbar, click Show, and then make sure that a check mark appears next to each of the following items: Comments

Ink Annotations (Word 2003 only)

Insertions and Deletions

Formatting

Reviewers (Point to Reviewers and make sure that All Review selected.) If a check mark does not appear next to an item, click the item to select it.

On the Reviewing toolbar, click Next to advance from one revision or comment to the next.

3. On the Reviewing toolbar, click Accept Change or Reject Change/Delete Comment for each revision or comment.

4. Repeat steps 3 and 4 until all the revisions in the document have been accepted or rejected and all the comments have been deleted.


 * Note:‐**

If you know that you want to accept all the changes, click the arrow next to

Accept Change, and then click Accept All Changes in Document.

If you know that you want to reject all the changes, click the arrow next to

Reject Change/Delete Comment,

and then click Reject All Changes in Document.

To remove all comments, you must delete them.

Click the arrow next to Reject Change/Delete Comment, and then click Delete All Comments in Document.

__**Note:‐**__

If you use Word 2003, you are less likely to inadvertently distribute documents that contain revision marks and comments, because Word 2003 displays the revisions and comments by default.

Where revisions and comments may be hiding

There are several ways to hide revision marks and comments, which may lead you to think that they are not in the document.

__**Note :‐**__

To display the Reviewing toolbar, point to Toolbars on the View menu, and then click Reviewing.

Display for Review box On the Reviewing toolbar, the Display for Review box provides four options for viewing your document.

This is the first box on the Left‐hand side

If you select Final or Original, revision marks and comments are hidden.

To display the revision marks, select Final Showing Markup or Original Showing Markup.

Show menu You can hide comments and revisions by turning them off on the Show menu on the Reviewing toolbar.

Items that are marked with a check mark on the Show menu are displayed; items without a check mark are hidden.

To display an item, such as Insertions and Deletions, select it on the Show menu.

Option for hiding markup

In Word 2003, the Make hidden markup visible when opening or saving option may be turned off.

To turn on the option, click Options (Tools menu), and then, on the Security tab, select the Make hidden markup visible when opening or saving check box.

Why Word 2003 displays revisions and comments by default

To prevent you from inadvertently distributing documents that contain revision marks and comments that you donʹt realize are in the document, Word 2003 displays revision marks and comments by default.

Word 2003 implements a new option:‐

Make hidden markup visible when opening or saving, which is turned on by default.

When I first discovered this facility I worried as to what I had previously sent out not knowing that someone with this knowledge could look at my document in detail. A Horrid thought Yes?.