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June 30, 2008 05:55:58
Posted By The Write Editor
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A funny little term, yes? Only two words, yet they strike fear in the heart of every writer. (Actually, if you use the word “change” to a writer, you’ll get a variety of reactions: “Why? I thought it was perfect!” “Never!” “Again?” but that’s another article!)
Track Changes is a handy tool in Word. It contains some bugs, but it is what it is and editors demand it be used. I’ll give you a cursory lesson on how to rewrite and self-edit with Track Changes.
Either open a document in Word you no longer need or take a moment and type a few paragraphs in a new document. Now look at the bottom of the screen. You’ll see a toolbar that states what page you’re on and other information about where you are on the page. You’ll also see four boxes, typically shaded. Locate the one that says “TRK.” That’s the Track Changes on/off button. Put your cursor over it and right click, then select Track Changes.
Now, place your cursor somewhere in the document and begin typing. The words you’re inputing are probably red (we’ll go into Options later) and a vertical line will appear in the left margin. Go somewhere else in your document and hit the Delete key several times. You’ll see that where you used Delete, your words are crossed out and have changed to another color (probably blue).
This is the basic feature of Track Changes. Whenever I edit my work or someone else’s, I keep Track Changes on. This way the author can see not only what she originally wrote, but also my edits. The author can compare these with the original and note the improvements. Then she will highlight the section, go to the toolbar along the top of the screen, and locate the icon of a page with a blue checkmark (Accept Change) on it. All she has to do to remove the deleted words and accept my edits is click on this icon. In a blink, the deletes are gone and the inserted text is now black.
If, however, she decides not to accept my change and wants to keep the original, all she has to do is highlight the section, find the icon of the page with a red X (Reject Change) on it, and click that.
But what if she made a mistake and did want my change after all but clicked the Reject Change? Before doing anything else, she should go to Edit and click Undo Change Reject. The inserted and crossed-out section will reappear.
In our next time together, we’ll discuss Options and Comments in Track Changes.
*These Track Changes instructions are based on Word 2003. Most Word versions follow this basic format; however, Word 2007 is different from the previous versions and these instructions may not work.
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Categories:
self-editing,
proofreading,
writing,
manuscript,
copyediting,
editing,
word,
track changes
