Clever Clogs tip # 738
1 February 2024


Force all changes to be tracked (Microsoft Word) *

During a recent Word training session one of my delegates shared horror stories of people seriously messing up her Word documents. I'm sure some of us can relate to this. I've definitely had my fair share of documents with weird formatting!

Another bugbear is when someone sends back your document saying "I've made some changes" but they didn't track the changes, so you don't have a clue where they are. OK, you can use the Compare functionality, but let's take it a step further and restrict what people can do and force all changes to be tracked.

Here's how:

  1. Click on the Restrict Editing button in the Protect group on the Review tab. (On a laptop this button might be hidden under Protect.)
  2. In the Restrict Editing pane, under Editing restrictions, select the Allow only this type of editing in the document check box.
  3. In the list of editing restrictions, select Tracked changes.
  4. Click the Yes, Start Enforcing Protection button.
  5. In the Start Enforcing Protection dialog box, enter and confirm a password, so that only reviewers who know the password can remove the protection. Even though this step is optional I strongly recommend to assign a password; if you don't, anyone can change your editing restrictions, so what's the point?!
  6. Click OK or press ENTER.

The document is now protected and tracking is switched on automatically as soon as someone opens it.

To unprotect the document open the Restrict Editing pane as described in step 1 above and click the Stop Protection button at the bottom of the pane. It is important that you remember your password; Microsoft cannot retrieve it!

By the way, following popular demand EA How to has asked me to deliver two more "How to fix weird formatting power hours"; one on 5th March at 4PM UK time and the next one on 1st May at 9AM UK time. For more information and to book see
https://www.eahowto.com/how-to-fix-weird-formatting-in-word-and-other-tips-2024

Related tips

  1. Spot the difference between two documents: tip_623.php
  2. How to fix weird formatting and blank spaces: tip_732.php
  3. Protect your file from accidental changes: tip_712.php

Last month's CleverClogsTipTime on LinkedIn (newest post first)

  1. A synonym is a word you use when you can't spell the word you first thought of
  2. Add an empty line above a table in Word
  3. Any Surface laptop users out there?
  4. Shortcut to navigate to my Outlook folders
  5. King Charles made ruler of France in historical blunder
  6. Learn something new and share it with others
  7. When you add a date in Excel do you also type the year?
  8. 23 years ago today ...

That's it. Until next month!

K.

PS Thanks for reading my tips - even as far as the PS. (That said, "they" often say that the PS is guaranteed to be read.) If you are overwhelmed by all these tips in writing and would like to see them in action, why not book one of the Hints and Tips webinars? I also run them for groups as lunch and learn sessions. So get in touch!


* Unless stated otherwise this tip is written for Microsoft 365 desktop apps and Windows 10 users, but might also be useful in Office 2010, 2013, 2016 and 2019.