Written by Allen Wyatt (last updated November 7, 2020)
This tip applies to Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003
Deborah uses Track Changes to note edits made in a document. She made corrections in a document with Track Changes turned on, so my changes were in one color. Her boss reviewed the document and gave it back to her, asking that the next round of changes be in a different color than the first round was. Deborah wonders if there is a way to specify that her next set of changes be in a different color.
Word's Track Changes feature chooses markup colors based on the user name. To make future changes you need to alter the user name slightly. Here are the steps:
Figure 1. The User Information tab of the Options dialog box.
Edits with Track Changes will now be in a new color. When the mouse hovers over change, the new user name will be displayed. If you change the user name back to the original value, future edits will revert to color that was first assigned to that name.
When you are done, be sure to change your user name back to the original value so that other documents will be labeled with that name instead of a convoluted name for editing purposes.
WordTips is your source for cost-effective Microsoft Word training. (Microsoft Word is the most popular word processing software in the world.) This tip (3787) applies to Microsoft Word 97, 2000, 2002, and 2003. You can find a version of this tip for the ribbon interface of Word (Word 2007 and later) here: Using Different Colors with Tracked Changes.
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