Colors for Tracking Changes not Acting Properly

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated January 30, 2021)

Cheri has a document that is behaving oddly. The document was revised using Track Changes. Upon receiving the document it showed the markups for the first reviewer, who used Word 2000. The second reviewer, using Word 2003, revised the same document, again with Track Changes turned on. During this second revision, each reviewer's changes showed up in a separate color, as they should. The document was saved and closed, but when it was opened up again, all the reviewer changes appeared in a single color; the changes from both reviewers were there, but they looked as if they had been done by a single reviewer.

The first thing to check out is if this problem occurs on a number of different machines. Odds are good that it won't, and that it will only be limited to one or two machines. (On the other machines, the colors should display differently for each editor.) On the machine (or machines) where the colors all appear the same, display the Track Changes tab of the Options dialog box by choosing Tools | Options | Track Changes. (See Figure 1.)

Figure 1. The Track Changes tab of the Options dialog box.

Make sure that all the Color settings (with the exception of the color setting for the change bars) are set to "By Author." If these settings are for a specific color, then it can affect how changes are displayed in the document. Some people misunderstand and think that these color settings affect only those changes done by the current author. That is not correct; the setting affects the display of all edits and makes them indistinguishable according to author.

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (300) applies to Microsoft Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003.

Author Bio

Allen Wyatt

With more than 50 non-fiction books and numerous magazine articles to his credit, Allen Wyatt is an internationally recognized author. He is president of Sharon Parq Associates, a computer and publishing services company. ...

MORE FROM ALLEN

Turning Off Spell Checking

For some documents, you may not want spell checking turned on. There are two ways that you can turn it off, depending on ...

Discover More

Labeling X-Y Scatter Plots

Figuring out how to get the data points in an X-Y scatter plot labeled can be confusing; Excel certainly doesn't make it ...

Discover More

Increasing Font Size in the Editor Task Pane

Let's face it, there are times that the text in a task pane or dialog box is just too small to read. If you want to ...

Discover More

The First and Last Word on Word! Bestselling For Dummies author Dan Gookin puts his usual fun and friendly candor back to work to show you how to navigate Word 2019. Spend more time working and less time trying to figure it all out! Check out Word 2019 For Dummies today!

More WordTips (menu)

Counting Changed Words

Track Changes is a handy tool for those who need to see how a document changes over time. If you have a long document ...

Discover More

Changing Revision Bar Thickness

Ever wonder how to customize the way the Track Changes feature displays revision bars at the side of changed material? ...

Discover More

Rejecting Changes in a Document

When a group of people edits a document with Track Changes turned on, it can be tempting for one of the editors to use ...

Discover More
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WordTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

View most recent newsletter.

Comments

If you would like to add an image to your comment (not an avatar, but an image to help in making the point of your comment), include the characters [{fig}] (all 7 characters, in the sequence shown) in your comment text. You’ll be prompted to upload your image when you submit the comment. Maximum image size is 6Mpixels. Images larger than 600px wide or 1000px tall will be reduced. Up to three images may be included in a comment. All images are subject to review. Commenting privileges may be curtailed if inappropriate images are posted.

What is four more than 7?

There are currently no comments for this tip. (Be the first to leave your comment—just use the simple form above!)


This Site

Got a version of Word that uses the menu interface (Word 97, Word 2000, Word 2002, or Word 2003)? This site is for you! If you use a later version of Word, visit our WordTips site focusing on the ribbon interface.

Videos
Subscribe

FREE SERVICE: Get tips like this every week in WordTips, a free productivity newsletter. Enter your address and click "Subscribe."

(Your e-mail address is not shared with anyone, ever.)

View the most recent newsletter.