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Sharing with Others
When you have finished working on the document you can save it and share it with other users. Comments and changes that they make to the document will be marked up in a manner similar to the markup used for your changes but theirs will be done using different colors so that each set can be easily identified. To customize the colors and highlighting used for a reviewer, choose Track Changes > Change Tracking Options.
When you're reading a document containing tracked changes, you can limit your view to seeing only certain changes. From the Show Markup dropdown list select the options that you want to view.
For example, it's possible to turn off Ink, Comments, Formatting, MarkUp Area Highlights, and Insertions and Deletions. You can select those you want to view and hide the others by disabling the checkmark to their left. From the Reviewers list you can select one or more Reviewers and view just their comments and insertions.
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Reviewing Changes
Ultimately you will want to work through the document and decide which changes should be accepted and which should be ignored and removed. Again, from the Review tab on the Ribbon, select the Previous and Next buttons in the Changes area (not the one in the Comments area) to move from one change to the next through the document.
You can accept a change by clicking the Accept button or reject it by clicking the Reject button. It is also possible to Accept all the changes or accept a change and move to the next change using options under the Accept button. Similar options exist for the Reject button.
The track changes set of tools in Microsoft Word makes it an easy process to work with others on a document. The changes you make sit inline in the document so they are easy to identify, and being able to see deleted text lets you efficiently check what is to be removed.
If all changes are to be accepted, this can be done with a single click. If you work on documents with others, tracked changes has the potential to save time in your workday and to help you keep others well informed.
Helen Bradley is a respected international journalist writing regularly for small business and computer publications in the USA, Canada, South Africa, UK and Australia. She blogs at http://www.projectwoman.com/blogger.html.
Be sure to check out all of Helen's articles in the Exploring Office 2007 series:
