Please Note: This article is written for users of the following Microsoft Word versions: 2002 and 2003. If you are using a later version (Word 2007 or later), this tip may not work for you. For a version of this tip written specifically for later versions of Word, click here: Accepting All Formatting Changes.

Accepting All Formatting Changes

Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated June 22, 2022)
This tip applies to Word 2002 and 2003

Graciela has a huge document with many changes that were made with Track Changes turned on. Some of these changes are formatting changes and some of them are of other types, such as textual edits. Graciela would like to accept all the formatting changes but not the other types of changes. She is curious of there is an "accept all" command that will accept only the formatting changes.

The answer depends on the version of Word you are using. If you are using Word 2002 and Word 2003, follow these steps:

Make sure the Reviewing toolbar is displayed.
Click the Show drop-down arrow. Word displays some choices on what can be shown. Pay attention to the center group of choices.
Clear all the checkmarks in the center group, except the Formatting checkmark. (You will need to repeat step 2 for each checkmark you need to remove.)
Click the drop-down arrow beside Accept Changes. Word displays some different ways you can accept changes.
Choose Accept All Changes Shown. All the formatting changes (which is all that are shown) are accepted. (Don't select Accept All Changes in Document; that would accept all the changes whether they are shown or not.)
Use the Show drop-down arrow to select which changes you want Word to show.

(Thanks to Hilary Cadman, Suzanne Barnhill, Janet DeCloet, Hilary Powers, Rhonda Bracey, Laura Conway, and Thiers Halliwell for contributing to this tip.)

WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (8832) applies to Microsoft Word 2002 and 2003. You can find a version of this tip for the ribbon interface of Word (Word 2007 and later) here: Accepting All Formatting Changes.

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. Learn more about Allen...

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What is 8 - 5?

2018-10-13 08:08:43

Metamorph

The tip says that this advice applies to Word 2002 and Word 2003. What's different about handling this issue in later versions of Word?

2016-10-18 15:35:26

Art Osgatharp

You can turn off format tracking before you begin editing using the following steps in Word 2016 (not sure about other versions):
1. Click the arrow on bottom right corner of Review...Tracking on the ribbon.
2. Click Advanced Options.
3. Uncheck the "Track formatting" option. Click OK.

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