Turning Off Change Bars

Summary: If Track Changes is turned on, any edits to a document are accompanied by vertical bars that appear to the left or right side of the changed text. If these change bars distract you, make a quick change to the configuration of Word and you can turn them off completely. (This tip works with Microsoft Word 97, Word 2000, Word 2002, and Word 2003.)

Word includes a feature that allows you to track changes made to a document. This is controlled by using the Track Changes option from the Tools menu. (In Word 6 and Word 95, you would use the Revisions option from the Tools menu.) One of the ways in which Word marks your changes on a document is to include a change bar at the side of a line in which a change was made. This is fairly common in editing, but it may not be to your liking. You can turn off the change bars by following these steps:

Choose Options from the Tools menu. Word displays the Options dialog box.
Make sure the Track Changes tab is selected. (Click here to see a related figure.)
If you are using Word 97 or Word 2000, in the Changed Lines section (bottom of the dialog box), change the Mark drop-down list to (none). If you are using a later version of Word, change the Changed Lines drop-down list to (none).
Click on OK.

Note that making this setting change hides the appearance of the change bars. Rest assured they are still there and can be redisplayed by choosing to display them again.

Tip #484 applies to Microsoft Word versions: 97 | 2000 | 2002 | 2003

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Turning Off Change Bars