As you may know, you can keep track of the revisions you make to a document by turning on Word's Highlight Changes feature before you begin modifying it. To do so, choose Tools | Track Changes |

Highlight Changes from the menu bar, and then select the Track Changes While Editing check box. As an alternative, you can click the Track Changes button on the Reviewing toolbar, which you can display by choosing View | Toolbars | Reviewing from the menu bar.

Yet another alternative is to simply double-click on the TRK icon in the status bar located at the bottom of the application window.

When the Track Changes feature is active, any changes you make to the active document are marked in color. However, what do you do if you forget to turn on the Track Changes While Editing feature, and modifications you make to a document aren't marked? Subscriber John M. Keefe, Jr. <John.Keefe@lhsl.com> mentions that if you have a copy of the original, unmodified document, you can use the Compare Documents feature to compare the revised copy to the original.

To do so, open the revised document, and then choose Tools | Track Changes | Compare Documents from the menu bar. In the Select File To Compare With Current Document dialog box, locate and open the original version of the revised document. When you do, Word compares the original to the revised copy and marks any discrepancies between the two in the revised copy, just as it would if you had used the Track Changes While Editing feature. Thanks John!

(Note: If you don't have a backup copy of the original, and you've made changes that you haven't yet saved, you can choose File | Save As to save a copy of the revised document under a different name. Then compare the copy to the original using the Compare Documents feature.)

Created Date: 12/07/2001  Last Reviewed: 12/07/2001  Rev. Date: