Editing with Track Changes & Comments in MS Office for Adaptive Tech Users, Study notes of Technology

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Karlen Communications

Track Changes and Comments in Word

Karen McCall, M.Ed.

Table of Contents

• Introduction
• Track Changes
  • Track Changes Options
  • The Revisions Pane
  • Accepting and Rejecting Changes
  • Editing Documents using Track Changes.............................................................................................
  • Track Changes with the JAWS Screen Reader
• Comments
  • Collaborating with Comments..................................................................................................................
  • Modifying the Font Size in Comment Balloons
• Comparing Documents
• Side by Side Document Comparison
• Contact Information

Figure 3 Track Changes Group in Review Ribbon showing Track Changes turned on.

As soon as you turn Track Changes on, any keyboard command you perform related to editing a document will result in markup. For example if you press the Spacebar or Enter key, a new space or paragraph will be inserted and there will be a mark in the margin to show the change.

If you press commands to access the Ribbons or to save the document, those commands are not reflected in any part of the document because they are not edits. However, if you insert an image or use the Ribbons to add or edit anything in the document, those will be reflected in the document as a change or edit.

You can have two documents or more open at a time with only one of them having Track changes turned on. The other documents are not affected in any way. Track Changes will only be present in the document in which you have Track Changes turned on.

Track Changes Options

By default Track changes are marked in red in the document. I have trouble seeing the red and since Comments are also marked in red, I usually go in and change the colour used to show Track Changes. This affects my version of Word only and when the document is opened on another person’s computer, the colour options chosen by that person are used unless they leave the defaults for “By Author” in the Advanced Track Changes Settings.

To access the Track Changes options, press Alt + R, letter O for the Review Ribbon, track changes Options. The keyboard is faster to use as the button for the Track changes Options dialog is small and may be difficult to target with a mouse.

You don’t have to have Track Changes turned on in order to modify the Track Changes settings.

Figure 4 Track Changes Options button in the Tracking Group on the Review Ribbon.

The Track Changes Options dialog opens. This is the first set of options you can modify to suit your way of working with Track Changes.

The dialog starts with a series of check boxes:

 Alt + C to show Comments which is checked by default.

 Alt + letter I to show Ink which is checked by default.

 Alt + D to show Insertions and Deletions which is checked by default.

 Alt + F to show Formatting which is checked by default.

 Alt + H to show Highlighted Updates which is checked by default and not available for changes.

 Alt + letter O for Other Authors which is checked by default and not available for changes.

 Alt + T to show Pictures with Comments which is checked by default and will display the editor’s Microsoft Account picture in the Comments balloon.

These behave as typical check boxes which means that using the keyboard commands listed above will move to the check box and either check or uncheck it depending on what state it was in when you started. You can Tab through the check boxes if you want to explore their default state and then use the Spacebar to either check or uncheck them.

I generally uncheck Ink if I’m not expecting anything from a digital pen and uncheck Formatting because I find it confusing. Sometimes I get a notification that formatting has changed even if I press the Enter key. This takes time from the real edits. Whether you choose to keep the formatting changes turned on or not will depend on how helpful you find them.

Pressing Alt + B will take you to the next setting which is “Balloons in All Markup view shows” which is a list box. The options are Revisions, Nothing or Comments and Formatting. My setting is to show Comments and Formatting but since I have formatting turned off, formatting will not appear in the balloons.

The next setting is to show or hide the Reviewing Pane. The default is off. The Reviewing Pane opens as the Revisions Pane.

I don’t find the Revisions Pane particularly helpful as someone who uses a screen reader which is why I have it turned off. While you can use the keyboard to navigate through items in the Revisions Pane, the Revisions Pane is not accessible at this time (Word 2016).

I prefer to look at the revisions in the document. However, if you are not using a screen reader or Text-to-Speech tool you might find the Revisions Pane more helpful in isolating revisions.

Figure 6 General settings in the Word Options dialog.

The Advanced Settings is where you can choose the colours for the various revisions to your documents. If you leave the default settings of “By Author,” then the colour settings defined by the authors of edits will be the colours used. For example, I use Blue for my edits. If someone has changed the Insertions colour to Pink, then my edits will appear in Pink on their computer. If they leave the colour setting as “By Author” then my Blue revisions will be the colour seen on their computer.

Press Alt + A while in the Track Changes Options dialog to open the Advanced Track changes dialog.

To change the Marking settings in the Advanced Settings:

 Press Alt + letter I for Insertions. This is where focus is when you launch the Advanced Track Changes Options dialog. The default is Underline.

 Press Tab or Alt + C to move to the colour palette for the Insertions. The default is By Author.

 Press Tab or Alt + D for Deletions which is a list and the default is Strikethrough.

 Press Tab or Alt + C to move to the colour palette for Deletions. The default is By Author.

 Press Tab or Alt + A to move to the setting for Changed Lines which is a list. The default is to show changed lines in the outside border/margin.

 Press Tab or Alt + S for Comments which takes you to the Comments colour palette.

The next section is called Moves and are settings for when content is moved in a document.

 Press Tab or Alt + K to move to the checkbox to Track Moves. This is checked by default so using this keyboard command will uncheck it. You can also Tab to it.

 Press Alt + letter O to move to the settings for Moved From. The default is a Double Underline.

 Press Tab or Alt + C to move to the colour palette for Moved From. The default colour is Green.

 Press Tab or Alt + V to move to the list for Moved To. The default is a Double Underline.

 Press Tab or Alt + C to move to the colour palette for the Moved To setting. The default colour is Green.

The next series of settings is for Table Cells Highlighting.

The keyboard command is the same for all four settings so if you are using a screen reader or Text-to-Speech tool, listen carefully to the options.

 Pressing Alt + L will first take you to Inserted cells and the default colour is Light Blue.

 Press Tab or Alt + L again for Deleted cells and the default colour is Pink.

 Press Tab or Alt + L again to move to Merged Cells and the default colour is Light Yellow.

 Press Tab or Alt + L again to move to Split Cells and the default colour is Light Orange.

 The next series of settings are related to Formatting.

 Press Alt + T to move to the check box to Track Formatting. This is separate from the setting in the Track Changes Options dialog. The default is that the check box is

The last series of settings are for Balloons!

These are the balloons that comments and/or revisions can appear in, not hot air balloons.

 Press Alt + W to move to the list for the Margin Width for balloons. There is a default number and that is usually sufficient.

 Press Alt + E to move to the Measure in list. This can be Inches or Centimetres, for example. The measurement will be in whatever the default is for Word.

 Press Alt + W to move to the setting for which Margin the balloons will appear in. Typically this is the Right margin which is the default.

 Press Tab or Alt + S to move to the check box to Show lines connecting from the text to the balloons. This is checked by default and is usually left that way so that you can easily see which comments are for which piece of content.

 Press Tab or Alt + P to move to the settings for Paper orientation when printing. The default is Preserve which preserves whichever orientation the document or page is using, for example, landscape or portrait.

When you are finished, Tab to the OK button and press Enter.

You are returned to the Track Changes Options dialog.

Tab to the OK button and press Enter. You are returned to your document and the changes have been made to the look and feel of Track Changes.

The Revisions Pane

If you are using adaptive technology such as a screen reader or Text-to-Speech tool, the Revisions Pane is completely inaccessible to you. The adaptive technology will let you know that you are in the Reviewing Pane but nothing in the Pane is going to be read to you.

Note: The Review Ribbon lists this tool as the Reviewing Pane but when it opens, it is called the Revisions Pane.

Figure 8 Options for turning on the Reviewing (Revisions) Pane in Word.

If you want to explore the Revisions Pane, once you press Alt + R, T, P, press either V to place the Revisions Pane vertically to the left of the document or H to place the Revisions Pane horizontally at the bottom of the document.

You need to press F6 to move to the Revisions Pane as it doesn’t take focus automatically. Even if you place the Revisions Pane vertically, you press F6 to put focus on it.

Figure 9 Revisions Pane placed horizontally at bottom of document.

As with other aspects of the user interface of Office, it is difficult to visually distinguish the Revisions Pane from the rest of the user interface. Placing it vertically seems to provide the best way of visually finding it and using it.

Figure 10 Revisions Pane placed vertically to the left of the document.

Figure 12 Revisions Pane showing modified Comment text and document revisions.

The following image shows the context menu opened while in the Revisions Pane so that changes to a document can be accepted or rejected. For those of us with visual, learning or cognitive disabilities, and who are NOT using a screen reader or Text-to-Speech tool, the Revisions Pane might be an alternative to viewing the changes in the document. It can also be used in conjunction with viewing the changes in the document for any items that you need clarity for.

While in the context menu, pressing E will Accept Changes.

Figure 13 Context menu open in Revisions Pane to accept changes.

While in the context menu for a revision in the Revisions Pane, pressing R will Reject Changes.

Figure 14 Context menu in Revision pane showing Reject Changes option.

The Changes Group on the Review Ribbon also has buttons to Accept or Reject revisions.

The options for accepting changes are Alt + R, A, then:

 M for Accept all changes and move to next. This moves to the Next change and selects it…so be careful of accidental keyboarding.

 C for Accept this change. This option is only available when a revision is selected.

 A for Accept all changes shown. If you have Simple Markup turned on the revisions will not be accepted. You can use this option when in All Markup view of the document only.

 L for Accept all changes. This will rapidly accept all revisions but not turn off Track Changes.

 S for Accept all changes and stop tracking. This will accept all revisions and turn off Track Changes.

Figure 17 Reject revisions/changes options on Review Ribbon.

The keyboard command to reject revisions or changes in a document are to press Alt + R, J, then:

 M for Reject all changes and move to next. This moves to the Next change and selects it…so be careful of accidental keyboarding.

 R for Reject this change. This option is only available when a revision is selected.

 A for Reject all changes shown. If you have Simple Markup turned on the revisions will not be accepted. You can use this option when in All Markup view of the document only.

 L for Reject all changes. This will rapidly accept all revisions but not turn off Track Changes.

 S for Reject all changes and stop tracking. This will accept all revisions and turn off Track Changes.

Most of the keyboard commands in the sub-menu are the same as for accepting revisions or changes. The two keyboard commands that are different are in using J to access the Reject options and R to Reject this change only.

Editing Documents using Track Changes

The strategy I use for editing documents using Track Changes is to have a clean copy of my document with Track Changes turned off. Yes, turned off.

I then send out either one document or several with my editors names in the filename so I can keep them straight.

Once I get edits back with Comments, I choose which ones to accept or reject in the documents with Track Changes turned on.

I can then copy and paste the good versions of content into my clean copy of the document, the one with Track Changes turned off, and when printing or sending the document to someone, the revisions don’t accidentally get revealed to those I don’t want to see them.

This is one strategy for using Track Changes if you are confused about accepting and rejecting revisions.

If Track Changes is turned off in one document and you copy content from a document where Track Changes is turned on, your clean copy of the document will simply accept the changes and paste the revised content into the document that has Track changes turned off.

Comments are different…they do get copied over so if a piece of content has both Track Changes and Comments, I address the Comments and delete them, then copy and paste.

To keep the original revisions, I simply close the document with Track Changes and Comments without saving. This preserves the original revisions should I want to go back and review them.

Track Changes with the JAWS Screen Reader

The JAWS screen reader has user verbosity settings for working with Track Changes and Comments.

To review the verbosity settings, press JawsKey + V while in a Word document.

When the Quick Settings – Word dialog opens, focus is in the Search box. Press Tab to move into the list of settings. Press T for Track Changes. This will be the fourth item you find by pressing the letter T repeatedly.

When the Quick Settings dialog opens, you can start typing Track which will give you all of the settings with that word in it. Press Tab to move into the list of found settings and then

Once you’ve finished modifying the JAWS settings for Word, Tab to and press the OK button to confirm your choices.

Figure 19 Comments, Footnotes and Endnote detection in JAWS Quick Settings for Word.

The JAWS screen reader has specific keyboard commands for finding and reading Track Changes and Comments.

Pressing JawsKey + Shift + R will list Revisions. The JawsKey is the Insert key on the NumPad when the NumLock is turned off.

When the list of revisions opens, use the Up and Down Arrows to move through them.

Press Enter on the one you want to go to.

Your cursor is placed just before the revision. The revision is NOT selected.

Figure 20 List of all revisions in Virtual Viewer.

The list of revisions opens in the JAWS Virtual Viewer. You can press the Escape key to dismiss the viewer once you’ve finished. It will dismiss itself when you press Enter on a revision.

When working with Comments and JAWS, there are two ways to display Comments. The first is to press Ctrl + Shift + Apostrophe which shows the Comments in Virtual Viewer.

When you find a Comment you want to explore a bit more, press Enter. The Virtual Viewer closes and your cursor is placed just before the Comment text (the text highlighted to indicate that it is associated with the Comment).