How do I

Get Rid of Track Changes
in a Document

Super important!

After following the steps below, but before sending out a document: Go to the Microsoft button at the top of the document screen, click on Prepare, and then Inspect Document. Then click Inspect. It will run an inspection and let you know if there are any hidden revisions that you need to clear. Click Remove All if there are in fact revisions needing clearing. Then close and save the document. Now it's ready to be sent out.

Before sending out a document for outside consumption, it's a good idea to remove the editing evidence, known as tracked changes. As Microsoft will tell you, hiding tracked changes does not delete existing tracked changes or comments from the document. Instead, hiding tracked changes enables you to view the document without having to wade through strikethroughs, underlining, and balloons. To delete tracked changes, the sequence suggested by Microsoft is:

1. On the Review tab, in the Tracking group, click the arrow next to Show Markup.
2. Make sure a check mark appears next to each of the following items:
   • Comments, Ink Annotations, Insertions and Deletions, Formatting, Reviewers
     • If a check mark does not appear next to an item, click the item to select it.
3. On the Review tab, in the Changes group, click Next or Previous.
4. Do one of the following:
   • In the Changes group, click Accept.
   • In the Changes group, click Reject.
   • In the Comments group, click Delete.
5. Repeat steps 3 and 4 until all the tracked changes in the document have been accepted or rejected and all the comments have been deleted.
6. Then you're safe to save the document and send it on out.
7. For a more complete explanation, see here.