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if you were to print a copy of your
document and ask a friend to proofread
it they'd probably mark the errors in
red pen and write any suggestions they
had in the margins wouldn't it be easier
if you could do that electronically in
Word you can using two features called
track changes and comments I'm going to
turn on track changes right away so I
can show you what I need to do this go
to the review tab then click the track
changes command now any changes I make
to the document will appear as mark up
which is words answer to the traditional
red pen for example when I delete text
it doesn't go away it just gets crossed
out when I add more text it gets
underlined this lets the owner of the
document see what changes I've made
before making them part of the final
draft you can also add comments in the
margins by selecting the text you want
to comment on then clicking the new
comment command in this example it would
be best to address the letter directly
to the hiring Authority so that's what
I'm going to suggest when you're done
press the Escape key or click anywhere
outside the comment box to close it
so how does it work if you're on the
other end of the document
well as the original author it's up to
you to accept the changes to make them
permanent or reject them if you disagree
take this change here just select it
with your cursor then go to accept to
keep it or reject to go back to your
original text you can even open the
menus underneath the commands and accept
or reject all the changes in the
document at once I'm going to accept
just this one change to remove any
comments start by selecting the comment
box then go to the delete command if you
have multiple comments you can delete
just the current one or you can delete
them all at once at this point you might
find it helpful to view some of the
mark-up off to the side instead of in
the text itself this should make the
document a little easier to read first
go to the show markup command then
balloons now click show revisions and
balloons and many of the changes will
move to the right margin though any
added text will still appear in line if
you want to hide all of the changes
temporarily take a look at the options
in the menu here right now what we're
seeing is the final version of the
document but with all the changes and
revisions still visible choose no markup
and the mark-up will disappear so we can
see what the final draft might look like
with all the changes in place there's
one thing to keep in mind though and
this is very important
hiding the markup isn't the same as
accepting all changes you still need to
accept or reject the changes in your
document before you send out the final
version let's say someone reviewed and
edited your document but forgot to turn
on track changes it's still possible to
accept or reject the changes they made
using a neat feature called compare to
get started click compare on the review
tab then click compare again you'll need
a
of your original document and also a
copy of the revised version when you're
ready click ok at this point word will
compare the two documents and come up
with a list of changes that were made
between them over here is my original
document the version that someone else
revised and in the middle is the
combined version with full markup as if
the track changes feature was turned on
all along word was able to put this
together based on the comparison of the
two documents now you can accept or
reject the changes just like I showed
you before all of these features can be
a huge help when it comes to
collaborating on projects they make it
easy to keep track of revisions and
communicate ideas back and forth so you
can work on the same document with
friends family or coworkers