Colors for Tracking Changes not Acting Properly

I have them set to show by author, but Word has chosen an identical purple color for two of the authors. Is there any way to change the colors of individual authors?

Dawn, one last thing. I tested this and think this may be your problem. Under the review tab, please check and see that you have "All Markup" selected as in the picture below. Let me know if this worked!!!
(see Figure 1 below)

Yes, Kellie - thanks. I discovered something - if I print the document, or save it as an adobe file, all of the comments do finally show up in red, but they simply won't do it in any type of view in Word as far as I can tell. Apparently, Microsoft thinks that only other people need to see what you changed, not you yourself! LOL

Dawn, have you clicked on the arrow shown in the picture below and then make sure it looks like the review box that comes up.
(see Figure 1 below)
Then make sure you have everything done correctly in the Advanced Option box that comes up.
(see Figure 2 below)

I can't find any help for my issue! Office 2016 upgrade has resulted in my tracked changes not showing up in color (only a mark to the left is showing; if you want to see what I changed, you have to open the "revisions" window. This is extremely frustrating! I've verified in "advanced options" under "track changes options" that it is set to show color by author, but it simply won't work.

Yes!! Unchecking the "Remove personal information..." in the Privacy settings worked.

Thank you sooo much everyone.

However I noticed that when a third author made track changes the first set of track changes changed from blue to purple, the second set of track changes changed from red to blue, and the third set started out red ad remained red.

Is there a way to make the computer use a predetermined color as more authors add track changes?

I'm having problems with track changes. I have made sure each author is using "By Author" for insertions and deletions. Upon saving the document, the text turns into a single oolor. We are using the same document.

Is this happening because we are using different versions of Word. I use 2013 and another author is using 2016 and the documents are compatible with Word 2010.

Is manually changing colors or creating a separate style for each author's tracked changes my only option?

A quick response would be most and I mean most appreciated.

I've had the same problem myself: even with the "By author" option selected and the "Remove all personal information" unchecked, some times reviewers are displayed with the same color, but Word can still identify who is who.

I believe this is a mistake Word makes after many tracked documents are opened, as it tries to give to the same author the same color.

I also noticed it happens when In Doc 1, author 1 was green and In Doc 2, author 2 was blue and author 3 was green. If you open a Doc with both author 1 and 3, it might show all of them as green thus creating the problem.

I learned that if you Quit Word and reopen it by opening Doc 3, it reassigns all colors and the problem is solved.

Jason B., I appreciate your response. But it is the same response. The "Remove all personal information" is already unchecked and has been all along. I need another solution to this problem. The "authors" colors are different while typing, but as soon as I save the document, all authors become one color. I need each author to stay a different color. Can anyone help??

Another reason all authors may be in the same color is if the "Remove all personal information" option is selected. Go to File/Options/Trust Center/Trust Center Settings.../Privacy Options. Uncheck the box next to "Remove all personal information from the file properties on save." This should set the doc to where each author's changes are shown in their own colors. But, it may not revert changes to their separate colors made prior to unchecking this box.

Thanks for the helpful hint. Much appreciated:)

Thanks, uncheck "remove privacy" did the trick!

Thank you also to "Another Legal Assistant" - solved my problem perfectly too!

Has anyone answered Kellie's question above? I'm having the same issue. Great tips provided in this chain but none of them work. It reverts any author's edits immediately to "author" and not personalized. Tried all the "remove personal information" boxes, etc. listed here. Document is already a .docx but tried converting to .doc etc. None of it is working.

Regarding ms word 2013 changing color of track change each time I reopen the same document -

I am not sure about this solution, but I have tried it sometimes and it worked.

I have seen the problem coming when a .doc document is edited in 2013.

So, if the received file is .doc, go to File-Info, convert it (next to compatibility mode) and save it as a new file in .docx

then close word and reopen this .docx file, and do changes in track change mode.

It retains same color for all track change for me, any number of times I open it.

If you have to send the file to the original sender in doc format only, you can convert it back to .doc after doing all changes, and then save as .doc and send. But once it is back to .doc format, the problem will reappear so don't edit in that file anymore.

As I am not sure whether this works for all, please give feedback whether it worked for you or not.

Thanks.

--
Rawat

My privacy setting has been UNCHECKED all along and still cannot get the track changes to work. As soon as I (or anyone in my office) saves the document the entire document reverts to ONE COLOR!!! I have called Microsoft and talked to them about this and they didn't even act like they knew what I was talking about. Does anyone know how to fix this?

Vincent, try the 12/20/2012 solution posted by "response".
I have a related problem to solve: In Word 2010, each reviewer's name shows in its own color under the list of reviewers in the Review/Show Markup/Specific People list. In Word 2013, all the reviewers are the same color, even though each reviewer's changes in the document are in their own color. Why is the Specific People list no longer showing their names in their color?

Any idea why my track changes color would be changing mid-document without saving? I'll be editing, and suddenly my track changes are in a different color. When I look at the track changes users, my name now shows up multiple times. This happened multiple times within the document. I saved, closed, and reopened, and all but two versions of me had gone, but both were the same color track changes (unfortunately the same as all the other reviewers, even though the remove PIM options aren't enabled in the privacy settings).

Thank you for the privacy tip! I was going crazy-- railing once again about upgrades and why can't I just keep my old Word that works??-- but that took care of it. A note for future readers, though: if you are using a Mac, you won't find any "Trust Center", etc. The privacy box you need to uncheck is in Word: Preferences: Security. Uncheck the box "Remove personal information from this file on save".

Thank you "Another Legal Assistant" for that tip. It worked! Your tip finally fixed what my firm's IT Dept and Document Specialist have been calling a "glitch". You know how that goes... if you can't figure it out after a while, just call it a glitch :)

Thanks so much guys for the tip about the privacy setting! That did the trick!

It was so frustrating since some documents had this problem and some didn't. It was due to that privacy setting, which apparently can be set on a case-by-case basis from one document to another.

Note that on a Mac, the setting is found in Preferences > Security

When I clicked save, it would revert to one color also. The problem was a privacy setting was removing personal information from the file properties on save. This setting can be found under File - Options - Trust Center - Trust Center Settings - Privacy Options. On the Privacy Options screen REMOVE the checkmark from the box "Remove personal information from file properties on save"

Thanks for the 20 December 2012 tip!! That was my problem.

Try changing your privacy settings.

Click on the button in the top left corner.

Go to word options (bottom middle of screen)

Click Trust Center

Click Trust Center Settings

Click Privacy Options

The last box should be unchecked.

What you show on the screen is Exactly the setting I chose -- & guess what, as soon as you save the document, all the changes revert to one color.