How to turn off track changes in Microsoft Word under Windows XP

Have you ever received a Microsoft Word document from someone else in which there were all kinds of crazy blue lines through many words with strange comment boxes to the side with lots of additional dotted lines?  This is called track changes and is a way that people who are co-editing a paper can suggest and approve of various changes.

In my 37 years of life, I've discovered many things - and one of those things is that there are two kinds of people in the world.  The first kind is the average kind of person who hates additional complexities built into software.  These people are the norm.  Then there are the rare birds who really seem to enjoy track changing.

Not me!  I hate track changes and would love to permanently turn it off on my computer.  Of course, even if this were possible, it wouldn't be practical since I do still occasionally receive Word documents in email that have the annoying track changes feature.

How to Turn Off Track Changes in Microsoft Word
(aka: Getting Rid of All Those Track Changes Lines)

To get ride of all the blue lines and dotted lines and other annoyances in your document related to track changes:

1. Make sure you can see your Reviewing toolbar.  If you're not sure, go to View > Toolbars and make sure that Reviewing is checked.  If it isn't checked, check it.
2. As the illustration to the right shows, click on the checkmark dropdown and choose 'Accept All Changes in Document'.  (Click to enlarge picture for better viewing if necessary.)

That should clear off all the cobwebs left by Microsoft Word's track changes feature.  However, these tips were meant to turn off track changes in Windows XP.  If the tip didn't work for you, try visiting this how to turn off track changes in Microsoft Word tutorial or visit a similar description page at Princeton University's Helpdesk.

By the way, now that you've passed the tutorial on how to turn off track changes in Microsoft Word, let me share a few gripes with you.  You see, I really hate track changes.  First, to turn off all the crazy lines permanently, you have to go through the steps I mentioned above.  Second, for some reason Microsoft Word calls their track changes toolbar as the "Reviewing Toolbar" rather than being the "Track Changes Toolbar".  Third, the most obvious thing to do in the toolbar (the dropdown on the far left which shows "Final Showing Markup" in the illustration above) doesn't turn off all the crazy track changes line.  Instead, it just changes the perspective of the view that Microsoft Word is showing you.  Trying to get rid of the track changes lines here will only superficially get rid of them.  Word is still tracking changes and you may see yet even more lines the next time you open the document.  Finally, while this article is about how to turn off track changes in Microsoft Word, the truth is that what we really did was to "accept all of the changes".  In technical jargon, turning off track changes really means just stopping the tracking mechanism - which wouldn't get rid of all the crazy track changes lines.  In short, there are so many ambiguities and inconsistencies that it makes it very frustrating and almost impossible to learn.  Microsoft needs to make track changes easier to use!

I'll stop there.  Just wanted to gripe for a minute to let you know that I share your pain.  Thanks for listening!  By the way, one other way to reduce the number of times you have to turn off all those crazy track changes lines is to let your coworkers and teammates know how much you hate track changes.  Perhaps the indirect approach would be to refer them to this article.  :)

Comments

[Erin Brown]

Thank you. Even in the Word Help menu the directions are wrong this is the only place I could find the REAL way to completely turn the feature off. Thanks!

[Elizabeth]

Thank you! I was tearing my hair out. Why must microsoft be so complicated? Their help menu stinks.

[Elizabeth]

Thank you! I was tearing my hair out. Why must microsoft be so complicated? Their help menu stinks.

[Elizabeth]

Thank you! I was tearing my hair out. Why must microsoft be so complicated? Their help menu stinks.

[Patrick]

THANK YOU!!! Sanity is slightly restored!

[Ray]

thanks d00der, you just saved me a lot of trouble

five stars

[amed]

hey thanks for tip, was stuck on this one, google pointed me to your site and it worked like a charm

[Larry]

I want to know when a document was created I have a word doc with a footer of 6/1999 could it have been created later?

[lauren]

thank you so much - such a quick and easy fix for the nervous breakdown I was about to have when I received a document full of useless change info.

[Morgan]

LIFE SAVER!

[colleen]

oh thank god. i need to turn in a paper it is has to be anonymous. i have all kinds of identifying things in the changes. now they are off and it is good to go (and i locked it)

[Jeff]

The guy who put track changes into Word should be shot

[Heather]

Thanks! Yours was the first result in google, and your fix worked!

[twitter.com/jupin]

thank you. you are an absolute lifesaver!

[nilla]

thank you so much,
i am still trying to this in my ms.word 2007.
hopefully it works,
wish me luck !

[dan]

you the man

[Jewel Jones]

Yep, I *love* Microsoft Word... I even at times have great value in using Track Changes ... But why on EARTH you can't ever turn it off is a mystery of the universe.

But guess what I just did!! I copy-pasted everything I'd typed to an entirely new Word doc and renamed it... and POOF! No More Track Changes! ;-)

[Josie]

Okay - so what am I doing wrong - I can do the "accept all part" - even tho I don't want the changes - and all the lines go away. But the second I start my own changes - everything has the miserable rotten colored lines and text again. Somewhere there was a mention to let friends know not to send track changes documents. I've told mine if they said one, I'll delete it. I hate it I hate it.

[George]

nice and simple...
I've been using this for long time now an this is really helpful.

thanks

[John]

But... how do you turn off the feature ALTOGETHER for ANY document that's created in the future? I just don't want to use the feature at all... EVER!

[bethany-rose]

you just saved me a loooot of frustration. Thank you!!!

[Philip Lewis]

Track changes is the most useful feature in Word. You guys are hopeless.

[Thankful]

Thank you so much and God Bless!

[Lisa]

Thank you so much! I couldn't open a Word document in my translation memory software because the track changes option was switched on. Thanks to you, I can continue working now.

[Robert McDougall]

Track changes is a tool for management to be able to blame their staff and therefore have no responsibility themselves.