Problem: Another person has provided you with a document that she has asked you to review. You want to make changes to the document, but you want those changes to be apparent, and you do not want to handwrite the changes.
Solution: Before making changes to the document, enable Word’s Track Changes feature on the Review tab to show your changes to the document.
Explanation: Track Changes will show the text that you inserted, as well as the text that you deleted or moved. Attorneys often refer to a document that includes Track Changes as a Redline Document.
Tutorial: Track Changes in Word (includes a video)
Problem: You have received a document with tracked changes. However, you want to keep some of those changes, but not all of them.
Solution: On the Review tab, you have the option to accept or reject changes within your document.
Explanation: You can choose to accept all of the changes in a document, or you can accept each change one by one, also rejecting changes that you do not want to integrate into your document. By the end, you should have a clean document without tracked changes.
Tutorial: Accept or Reject Tracked Changes in Word
Problem: You are working on an important document, and you want to leave yourself a note within the document to remind yourself to revisit whether you’ve effectively discussed a key case.
Solution: Add a margin comment to the document; you can find the Comment button under the Review Tab. You can later delete this comment—and any other comments you add—when you no longer need the comment.
Explanation: The Comment feature is a useful tool when you want to leave yourself notes about your document, or you want to provide notes about the document for others to read.
Tutorial:
Problem: Your colleague has suggested changes to your document, but you don’t know what changes the colleague made (your colleague needs to learn how to use Track Changes!). You need to understand what those changes are before you incorporate them into your final document.
Solution: Create your own redline document by using Word’s Compare feature on the Review tab.
Tutorial:
Problem: You have been given a word count limit for your document, but you don’t know how to check your document’s word count.
Solution: Just look at the status bar at the bottom of your screen.
Tutorial: Show Word Count
Problem: You have misspelled a party’s name throughout your document. You have typed “Siedel” rather than “Seidel.” This name appears in your document over fifty times, and finding and correcting each error will be tedious and time consuming.
Solution: Use the “Find and Replace” feature in the Editing section of the Home tab.
Explanation: You can use Find and Replace for not only text words and phrases, but also for character formatting, such as font color, bold, or highlight.
Tutorial: Find and Replace Text
Problem: You have a hard time spotting clarity and proofreading issues while reading your own writing.
Solution: Use Read Aloud within the Immersive Reader box on the Review tab to hear Word read your writing to you.
Explanation: Newer versions of Word include a number of learning tools, including Read Aloud.
in the Home tab, towards the right side of your screen. Click here for a tutorial.