How to review a Microsoft Word document?

Microsoft Word allows the users to review the documents and provide their review comments inside the document. You can also enable tracking the changes in the document. So it will be useful later at the time of reviewing or finalizing the document.

Below are the steps to track changes in the Word document, Create/Delete the comments and Accept/Reject the changes made in the document.

This article applies to:

• Microsoft Word 2010

Step (1). Open your Word document into the Microsoft Word application.

Step (2). Click on the Review tab on Ribbon control. It will display review-related icons on Ribbon control.

Step (3). Check whether the Track Changes feature is already enabled or not. If it is not enabled, click on the Track Changes icon to enable Track Changes. Remember that before reviewing the document you must enable track changes. So this enables you to track all the changes you make to the document including insertions, deletions, and even formatting changes. This will be useful at the time of finalizing the changes in the document to accept or reject the changes you make to the document.

Step (4). Review the document and make any corrections to the document. The changes will be tracked and Word will create tracking entries in the document. So these tracking entries are useful to accept or reject while re-reviewing or finalizing the document.

Step (5). Insert the review comments by selecting the text or paragraph for which you want to provide your review comments and click on the New Comment icon. It will insert a comment and allow you to provide the text for your comment.

Step (6). Select the comment and update the text you want to provide into it or you can also delete the comment by clicking on the Delete comment icon. 

• You can also delete multiple comments at a time. Click on the arrow mark below the Delete icon. It will display a pull-down menu. Select Delete All Comments Shown to delete all displayed comments or click on Delete All Comments in Document to delete all the comments in the document.

Step (7). Usually, documents are on multiple pages and while reviewing the documents it is a bit difficult to navigate between the items which you want to review. You may not be required to review all the documents but may be required to review portions of the document or may be required to review particular reviewers’ changes in the document.

Step (8). Click on the Show Markup button which is under the Tracking group. It will display a pull-down menu. From Show Markup pull-down menu: 

• Select the items you want to review. Once you selected, those markups only showed in the document. For eg: You need to review only the comments made by reviewers, just select Comments and un-select the rest of the items. So in the document, it displays only the markups related to the comments.
• Select Reviewers menu item. It will display a sub-menu with a list of reviewers. Select the reviewers whose changes you want to track and un-select the rest of the reviewers. So in the document, it will show the markups related to the selected reviewers only.

Step (9). While reviewing the document, you may need to Accept or Reject the changes made in the document.

• Click on Accept button which is under the Changes group to accept the selected change.

  

• You can also accept multiple changes at a time:
  • Click on the arrow symbol under Accept button. It will display a pull-down menu.
  • From the pull-down menu, click on Accept All Changes in Document to accept all the changes in the document or click on Accept All Changes Shown to accept only the changes currently shown in the document.
• By clicking on the Reject button you can reject the selected change.

  

• You can also reject multiple changes at a time:
  • Click on the arrow symbol under the Reject button. It will display a pull-down menu.
  • From the pull-down menu, click on Reject All Changes in Document to reject all the changes in the document or click on Reject All Changes Shown to reject only the changes currently shown in the document.
• Navigate between the changes by clicking on the Previous or Next buttons.

Step (10). You can also see the summary of review changes by clicking on Reviewing Pane button which is under the Tracking group in Review ribbon control. This window is useful while reviewing the changes because it will display all the changes in one place in the respective section.

• Once you click on Reviewing Pane button it displays a Reviewing Pane either horizontal or vertical depending on your selection in Reviewing Pane pull-down menu. This menu will display when you click on the arrow button next to Reviewing Pane button from the Tracking group.

  

• Even you can Accept/Reject the changes from Reviewing Pane. Select the review item and right-click on it. It will display a pop-up menu. You can select Accept Deletion or Reject Deletion to accept or reject the selected change.

  

• On top of the Reviewing Pane, it displays a summary of revisions, types of changes along the count.

Once you are going to finalize the review of the document, you must review all the changes and you should not leave any of the changes left it either accepted or rejected before going to release the document.